My husband and I viewed all 18 hours of Scomparsa (Tangled Lies) on AcornTV because we've traveled extensively throughout Italy and Sicily and we both have studied the language; however, we found this Italian crime melodrama (with English subtitles) long and silly although the enormous cast, interiors and seaside settings were bella. The show fails to deliver a plot based on fictional crimes in a well-structured timeline that would (a) keep police and viewers guessing and (b) make sense in the end. There were just too many characters and teeny boppers and amateur singalongs and subplots and far-distant locales that, ultimately, did not, for me, add up to a satisfying whole. Even though it's Italy, we don't ever see a large happy family or the inside of a church or a home-cooked meal - the closest we get is smatterings of mother-love and a harangue by a priest in the school gym as the crimes become public (his small audience hardly seem to listen or to care) - is it any wonder the modern Italian family has fallen to shreds, particularly with this plethora of workaholics, mouthy kids, inadequate parents, unfaithful spouses, friends sleeping with their best friends' spouses, adulterous witnesses lurking in out-of-the-way hotel rooms, et cetera?
Scomparsa (Tangled Lies) could be classified as a police procedural but the police constantly behave badly by believing alibis, informing the media (newspaper and radio) of mistaken assumptions, allowing family members to tag along on criminal investigations, phoning the relative of a crime victim to tell her to meet him outside a suspect's current location before entering the property together (in the middle of the night, yet), collecting crucial evidence and having it analyzed at a forensics lab without proper authorization, breaking and entering, failing to protect a helpless assault victim who has barely survived, et cetera. The leading lady (a youth counselor new to the city who, it slowly becomes clear, has done a poor job of counseling her own offspring) appears everywhere, in almost every scene, calling on suspects, visiting distant crime scenes and even (a la Princess Diana) donning hospital scrubs and a face mask to participate in surgical procedures. I was dumbounded. This tireless, serene, plump middle-aged woman appears on the beach, in her car, off to Roma, lounging at home, wandering the woods - all forever and everywhere dressed in dark tights and dark boots. Why boots? In May.
As far as the mystery element goes, I am no Sherlock Holmes but I easily spotted the Scomparsa/Tangled Lies offender in the first reel.
