Il commissario De Luca

From time to time, I like to move beyond British series and Scandi Noir that I like best, and widen my horizon with crime dramas coming from other regions/countries. As I was unable to remember when was my last familiarisation with Italian production, I decided to watch Il commissario De Luca referred by a film website - as 1 season with 4 episodes only.

From the beginning, I liked the scenery and era - life in pre- and post-WWII Italy is rather unknown to me. Given the circumstances of corruption and nepotism perceptible in Italian society (somehow even nowadays), it created several interesting angles and additions to murder-solving activities. The cases themselves, however, were not too catchy - regardless of the fact that I did not guess who the wrongdoer was and why - and the duration of the episodes (around 1 hour 45 minutes) was too much, hence several unnecessary scenes and characters. At times, war and politics were too cautiously in the background, although the police work was strongly influenced by them.

The performances were pleasant, not so profound and distinct, but the "frizzle" of Italian men and passion/beauty of Italian women were nicely presented. Alessandro Preziosi and Raffaella Rea are definitely worth remembering for future reference.

Thus, not bad, but I would give 7 points here - 8 for environment and performances, 6 for screenplay.