Writing this freshly after the first night of the mini-series (two episodes, that is) on RAI yesternight:
Well, after having handled similar ambiances involving Italo-American stories, RAI is now pretty good at handling the period piece aspect of such dramas. Being a fan of Italian television, of course I knew well how important Mike Bongiorno was in establishing it. However, I had suspicions as to what effect a biography of his could have, given it was already a life well-documented thanks to the profession he was in.
So, I began to watch the show knowing there was possibility of getting bored and not finishing even the first episode. Sadly, the first 20 minutes were about to show me I was spot on with the suspicions. Much as I admire Claudio Gioe, his portrayal of the character looked stiff and uninteresting, coupled with an extremely predictable way of opening such a series: We see the protagonist from the back as he walks through the studio, interacting with staff whatnot. Jeez... Was this simply "playing safe" or were they really out of creative ideas?
Anyways... Expectedly, things began to get interesting when the talk show he was being a guest to opened the path to his childhood and teen years. His involvement in the resistance to German occupation in 1943 was already established as the strong suit of his life story; the kind of defiance one might not expect from someone who was going to establish a name over game shows.
Before going further with the critique of the series, I'd like to open a paranthesis and focus a bit on what I find notable:
The young actor playing Mike Bongiorno the teen had way more screen time than Claudio Gioe. At least for the first two episodes, the series relied more on Elia Nuzzolo's acting than Gioe's. And to my surprise, he was really good. To the point that, I began to feel Gioe could have been miscast as the aged Bongiorno. Not even mentioning the slight (and maybe inevitable) physical inconsistency of teen Mike being taller than older Mike here: The young actor was given more crucial moments in the script, things that changed Bongiorno's life radically. Given he had more to work with as an actor, it's only natural that he began to shine. The scenes from 1970s Italy were totally uninteresting, even more so than could normally expect, while the spirit of the narrative was there in the 40s, 50s era Turin and New York.
Still... I think more could have been done to keep the two actors in sync, to make Gioe feel like the "matured version of Mike's teen self". However, the two look too detached to be the same man. The level of hubris we find in Gioe doesn't even exit in Nuzzolo. I mean, we don't see the "seeds" of such a self-centered approach. Nuzzolo's Mike is 90% down to earth while Gioe's mike is 90% self-esteem. Can time and experience change one so sharply? Maybe. But even if so, I think some opportunities to tie the two together were missed. Like, a certain gesture or a catchphrase could be used for both. And we could at leaast subliminally be convinced that it was the same guy after all.
Anyways... Getting back to how Turin 1943 opened up the potential of this biography: We got to saw emotionally strong scenes where death lurked around young people, taking some away very early. I'm not sure how much of an exaggeration there was when depicting Bongiorno's involvement with the Partizans but I don't think it was zero, so, while they were at it, they could have added one action scene (something he witnessed, maybe) to make things more interesting.
On another note, I'm kinda sick of this "Hollywood depiction" of how things worked backed then in Europe. Okay, Germans were the bad guys and every evil act had to be portrayed through them, but come on, from a European point of view RAI could find different tones and not get trapped in Spielberg-esque portrayals. I believe there was more nuance to the Nazi occupation of Northern Italy back then, and there was a fine detail in a later scene which supports this take: After being sent to the USA via prisoner exchange, Mike has a haircut in an Italian barber shop in New York, and among other Italian celebrities, a picture of Mussolini is there in the shop. He questions that of course, but obviously the perception of "Duce" for those Italo-Americans is much different than what almost everyone has of him in today's world. In order words, the way the historical aspect of the series is framed does not allow us to fully understand the mood. It functions more as an emotional shortcut.
Swinging between the boring 70s and the higher-octane 50s, we get to witness how Mike Bongiorno establishes himself as a notable journalist first in the USA, then in Italy, making him the ideal candidate to carry the magic of television to his fatherland.
I could have rated the show with a mere 4 if I had skipped after the first 20 minutes but haing seen in full the first two episodes leads me to a solid 7 or a potential 8 as of now.
I think what will remain crucial will be to see how well they can manage to tie the two actors' interpretations story-wise.
And I'm intrigued by something that looks quite like a plot hole: On that first night when they are captured, the Germans are about to execute all the Partizans who have been acting like Alpinists. They halt only because Mike's American passport, the document he decided not to destroy in a final moment, was found by them. And ALL are taken to prison just because of that. Now, the German officer says that the value of having an American prisonor for exchange was what made them decide to keep him alive. Okay, that makes sense. But why did they keep ALL OTHERS alive at that point in time? Weeks later, when ten of these young men are executed, Mike is notified that it is again his luck that saves him, but it just doesn't make sense that Germans would bundle up with Mike's "Americanness" all the other Partizans when deciding their fate. Either the narration of that first night of being captured was true to facts, meaning the group was not considered for execution at all, OR, Germans were acting on momentary impulse rather than strict Nazi directives, the latter of which does not make sense, leading me to think they made a goof while trying to create some catarthic moments.
