User reviews

This series unfolds how Montalbano starts as an inspector.

The settings are sumptuous, the acting is great and the plot lines do not leave you scratching your head at the end. But each story builds real tension. What is most appealing is the humanity of the show. Placing the action in Sicily creates many dramatic possibilities and provides a wonderful backdrop to the stories, full of craggy fishermen, giant butchers, mafiosi, corrupt politicians and amusing colleagues.

I am amazed this only gets a 6 point something score on IMDb - which shows the limitations of that sort of scoring. In terms of pure entertainment value it is, for me, one of the best TV shows currently available. One of the sub plots is the relationship Montalbano has with Livia, his beautiful architect girlfriend. How the relationship starts is presented in an entirely believable way.

Great TV series not to be missed if you do not mind subtitles and meditations on excellent Italian cooking!

Was v worried that it just would not work, Luca is so perfectly into Camilleri's characterisation, did not see how the prequel could possibly pull it off.

Needn't have worried, it all works perfectly.

A good introduction to the Camilleri books, and could be watched either before or after the original series. It works either way.

Don't understand mouthbox moans, perhaps he just can't multitask. He hasn't seen previous series and presumably hasn't read the books which have wonderful footnotes of the food. Perfect makes you want to rush to the kitchen,I definitely agree with that part of the review.

So, read the books, watch all episodes, enjoy the food wine and scenery.

The main thing I liked very much about this new series,-and I hope it is continued because it really is very well imagined-.is that Montalbano's character development is very subtly installed into the Montelbano palette. These nuances and shading, whether it be his egocentricity, his considered insights and his ability to gain respect, are there to be shared without shouting the fact. The development of his relationship with his father ,for example,is particularly touching. The other characterizations,do leave one wondering about changes in physical attributes to come in the M. senior series, but on the whole ,it's extremely well done. Cannot wait for more! let's say another five series would be fine

Excellent from start to finish. Hungover on the sofa one night and no remote in easy reach I found myself watching a subtitled Italian programme. Not usually a fan of such things but I was hooked straight away. I loved every second of it, the characters are compelling and the scenery is magical. The stories unfold like satin sheets and being a foodie I adore the culinary thread that is woven into the plot. (I have now made 'Aubergine Parmigiano' for the first time as a result.) I'd never heard of 'The young Montalbano' before or the original series 'Inspector Montalbano'. I've now bought the original series too and an Italian language course to help me understand and enjoy it to the fullest.

I've avidly soaked up every single episode of both incarnations, it says something about the quality of the productions that little glitches are quickly overlooked or forgotten. I had great reservations when "The Young Montalbano" first aired because none of the actors fitted in looks to the previous series, this was quickly dispelled as I drifted once more into the hypnotic storytelling. I liken it to reading a series of books, we all know how that goes, we build up pictures in our heads of how all the characters would look and are then bitterly disappointed when we see them in the flesh as it were. None of that for me. I just love them all. Cannot wait for the next installments.

I'm a big fan of the original Montalbano series. They did a prequel of it showing how Montalbano started his police job in Vigata, met his colleagues for the first time, and how his long love story with Livia begun. The way this is constructed is solid; the relation with the original "older" Montalbano works very well, and fans will appreciate the background they get. Also, I find the character development credible and at times intriguing. So when it comes to the development of the main roles and the interaction between them, and how this develops between the Young and original series, this is flawless. So ultimately the concept of these prequels works out well.

Of course it was difficult to cast this. Good actors were needed, but also the connection to the original Montalbano needed to be taken into account. The focus wasn't so much on physical similarity, but rather on a similar character and style. By and large they did well. They made me buy and connect to these actors as being earlier versions of the same persons despite obvious discrepancies in their looks.

Other than that it's again Italian whodunnits that show some interesting characters, a lot of Sicilian scenery and food, witty dialogues and some humour, and some social and humanistic commentary. It has basically all the same ingredients as the original Montalbano, and also the stories work in quite similar ways. Realism and credibility of the murder cases and the stories behind them are hit and miss, but always entertaining enough (I've seen much worse than the worst here, but the best aren't the pinnacles of crime cases either).

The problem here is that it is too clear that they wanted to appeal to fans of the original series; this is mostly more of the same. And then, well, the actors are well chosen for their character connection with the original Montalbano, but still the original ones are the originals and what we have here is some kind of copies, even if high quality copies. Still every role loses a bit of the original spark here, just being "reproduced" in one way or another. And the Young Montalbano himself is certainly credible and well played, but less fun than his forerunner (actually successor in fictional time) Luca Zingaetti. Similar things can be said about the others, all good, all not quite at the level of the original series.

So watch at least some of the original Montalbano first. If you love that, you'll appreciate this series as well, they are really well integrated with each other. Still, this one is (quality-wise) the original Montalbano minus ten percent.

This series is much more about the relationships between the various characters than about the crimes and criminals. The lead actors are absolutely pitch perfect for their parts. The cinematography is wonderful. You feel like you live in Vigata. The extra frisson of tension added by the mafia builds tension. But the tension is also about each character and how they manage to work together and support each other.

This series is SO MUCH BETTER than the old Montalbano series in every way. We watched all 12 in the two seasons and wanted to watch 12 more. We watch about 5 of the other series, which has many more episodes, and got bored.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Having bought all the DVDs of the 'original' commissario, I had to get the two sets of the prequel. They are well worth it. Riondino doesn't look like Zingaretti, of course, but in terms of the character he blends in well.

It is uncanny how they found people to play the main police characters. Catarella's voice is just like the ''main' actor, for example. The young actor who plays Fazio is very cute.

Unfortunately, some irritating aspects of the 'main' series are overdone here (as they are there): why does Catarella always have to bang the door and get all the names wrong? And in the prequel, Mimi's smarmy lothario schtick is so overdone as to be annoying.

Zingaretti gets irritable at times, naturally, but here Riondino can be unpleasantly angry with his men for no obvious reason and never apologises, specially to poor Fazio who is so loyal and hard-working.

We get Camilleri's favourite things a lot: seductive food and leggy women in revealing clothes.

I can speak 'mainstream' Italian and have bought a few of the books, to have a go at the Sicilian words. If that matches you, I would say have a go. You'll soon gets used to words like 'picciliddro' and 'fimmina' and then be pleased when you spot them during an episode.

My verdict then: well worth watching. The music is terrific. If you haven't been to Sicily yet, go! There are even tours of the places they filmed.

The spin-off of the Montalbano series is even better than the original! Absolutely recommended.

I missed the first episode of The Young Montalbano on BBC4, but luckily, next day, I was sent a DVD copy to review.

A prequel to the late-Nineties Italian pot-boiler Inspector Montalbano – a show I also somehow managed to miss, this Sicilian cop series is set in the very pretty fictional seaside town of Vigata.

Clad in a polo neck and a heavy sheepskin coat, beardy male lead Michele Riondino plays Montalbano – a man with a firm belief in justice, a deep disdain for corruption and an all-embracing love of seafood and pasta.

The two hour long, feature length opening episode contained more dialogue than any television series I have ever watched in my life, the characters barely pausing for breath as they crammed wordy speech after wordy speech into every scene. At one point I yelled at the screen, "For the love of God stop talking for a moment!" But to no avail.

This much dialogue would have difficult to process at the best of times, but add to that the fact that the whole thing was sub-titled, and the experience fast became quite exhausting. There was hardly enough space on my TV screen to fit all the words, and I occasionally had to press PAUSE in order to catch up with my reading. Thankfully, most of this dialogue was related to plot and backstory, but quite a large percentage of it, in true Italian style, was concerned purely with detailed descriptions of food.

Ragu and braised lamb, linguine alla vongole – ten minutes into the show and I've switched to the TV in the kitchen so I can watch while cooking pasta and popping open a bottle of Valpolichella – and this at 1.00 am in the morning.

Montalbano's boring, plain girlfriend Mery (played by Katia Greco) brings me back down to Earth with a bump. What's he doing with this woman? She only seems to show up when she wants a quick shag or someone to nag. Or maybe a nice prawn tagliatelle or salmon carbonara in a creamy sauce.

Food plays a huge part in this show. At one point our hero appears with what appears to be a plate of spaghetti vongole and offers it to one of his prisoners in a cell. He seems to think this will make the interrogation more civilised. Can you imagine the desk sergeant in The Bill whipping up a quick squid vermicelli for one of his prisoners? I don't think so.

There was some action. At one point, two cars collided with each other at 6 miles an hour in the town square, causing slight damage to the driver side front bumper on a Fiat. Insurance details were not exchanged and one of the drivers got slapped in the face. The James Bond franchise has nothing to worry about.

Comedic relief comes in the form of the copper who runs the switchboard at Montalbano's nick. The joke seems to be that this man speaks faster than everyone else (which is tricky), plus he's a bit deaf and he gets everyone's name slightly wrong. I can't decide if this character is inspired by Manuel from Fawlty Towers or Officer Crabtree in 'Allo, 'Allo.

The Young Montalbano is nice to look at. The scenery is beautiful, and the whole thing feels a bit like a Sicilian Bergerac, in a white wine sauce, with a green side salad. But for non Italian speakers, I fear that life may be too short for 2 whole hours of Montalbano every week.

Love 'Inspector Montalbano' and feel that it does a great job bringing freshness to a well-worn genre (not intended as a bad thing, love crime/mystery drama but there's a lot out there with familiar tropes to each other).

Was not sure how its prequel series 'The Young Montalbano' would fare when hearing of it. It sounded interesting to see the great 'Inspector Montalbano' characters in their youth, but also questioned the necessity. With that being said, had mixed expectations before watching 'Endeavour', the prequel series to one of my favourites 'Inspector Morse' and it ended up nearly as great. The same goes for 'The Young Montalbano', it must have been no easy feat to live up to such a good show and have a younger actor for the title character filling in very big shoes but 'The Young Montalbano' manages it splendidly.

Some may question the physical resemblances of the younger cast to 'Inspector Montalbano's' cast for continuity's sake, Mimi is a notable example. To me though, my only complaint is the bland and annoying character of Mery which is a minor thing actually because she's only in a couple of episodes so not enough to bring down the show as an overall whole.

Very like 'Inspector Montalbano', 'The Young Montalbano' is beautifully shot and the scenery is stunning, making those who've never been to Italy want to book a holiday there as soon as possible and is a treat for anybody who loves all things Italian. The scenery as always is atmospheric and the use of it very clever, the locale as always is suitably colourful. The music is never over-bearing or low-key with a nice atmosphere and flavour, a lot of it is very cleverly used. The sound effects are remarkably authentic.

Oh, and something that was neglected to be mentioned by me in my reviews for the show and its individual episodes is how the food is enough to make one salivate over, it looks so delicious and almost too good to eat.

'The Young Montalbano' manages to stay true to what was so good about 'Inspector Montalbano' and is every bit as successful at creating a history that is both incredibly interesting and plausible. The humour is fun, the conflict is tense in a nail-biting way and the drama charms and affects. The characters as their younger selves, for what they lack in physical resemblance, more than make up for that in maintaining the same personalities we know and love the characters for and being just as interesting in development. Even the supporting characters are given a lot of attention.

A great job is done with the storytelling. They are just as well-paced, absorbing, intelligently written and brain-teasing as those of 'Inspector Montalbano', while keeping logic intact and not confusing or alienating the viewer. Generally the denouements feel cooked all the way through and very little is improbable. Also love the humanity that 'The Young Montalbano' has, how things that could easily been mundane actually came over as somewhat poetic and liked how the relationship between Montalbano and Livia was written, very charming and sweet.

The acting is very good, Michele Riondino had a Herculean task filling the shoes of the incomparable Luca Zingaretti but is more than up to the task and does it more than admirably, balancing comedy, drama and intensity with ease. The characters of Mimi and Catatella (the latter having some hilarious moments) are also very well filled.

In conclusion, wonderful, affectionate prequel series that does 'Inspector Montalbano' justice and does more than enough to stand on its own. Should have lasted longer and would have no complaints whatsoever if it was renewed. 10/10 Bethany Cox

The basic plot line of this version naturally follows the original. If you liked the original you will like this as well if not better. Riondino does a great job in that you can appreciate him both as a detective but also as a person. One can feel is ups and downs yet appreciate his ability to do his job well. He's really believable. Like the original the comic relief grows on you as the characters become more familiar and it seems there are more humorous situations/discussions with those being interviewed. Yet, for me, it did not interfere with the policing aspect of the show. The criminal plot of this show seems a bit more sophisticated in that the crimes have a bit more depth and are cleverly done. This Livia is also very good. She's attractive, lovable, very patient, but you can watch her character evolve in a way that makes the other Livia from the original more understandable. If you like detective series in general, this has a good mix of serious/light. If you're Italian, even better. You almost feel as though you have known these people at some point. It is really regrettable that Mhz doesn't bring ALL the seasons of their shows on board and it's not just the Italian stuff. They really need to do better.

I was prepared to be disappointed. Was completely floored by how great the series was. Casting, acting, character development etc. when I saw Young Montalbano I felt the same. But I was even more surprised at how good it is. I broke out laughing when Young Catarella showed up. Excellent!

Being a fan of UK and Scandinavian police/crime series in the main, I try to widen my horizons and see what other countries tend to offer in the similar area. So I was somewhat referred to this series - and it captivated me from the beginning. Another so-called locality-based series, where the crime or its solution itself are not of the main importance, but the charisma of the characters-performers and local touch influence the viewers most. I did not have a joy of recognition as I have never visited Sicily, but the pleasant environment and landscape were a nice supporting cast. Later, when watching Il commissario Montalbano, the events and past depicted here provided a solid background understanding.

As this Series and particularly the leading character and performance were so pleasant, it took me some time later to get accustomed to Luca Zingaretti´s Montalbano. And I still find several characters more interesting here (e.g. Mimi or Catarella).

And now, well, I would really like to visit Sicily...

Almost as good as the original. Great characters, humour and scenery. Hope they make some more.

Having watched the original Montalbano series (with subtitles) several times before I found this 'prequel', I wasn't sure what to expect. However, by not comparing or expecting a younger version of Luca's adult Montalbano, you will not be disappointed. Eye candy to be sure, as are many of Italian women (and men), but not lacking in substance. A few little surprises now and then and not always predictable, make this an enjoyable and watchable series. Who can resist the beautiful scenery, luscious seafood and quirky characters, all woven together with some gentle and occasionally witty dialogue? One major factor that makes me love both series is the fact that no one is shown smoking. Even though Italians were (and still are to a lesser degree) heavy indulgers, I don't need reminding of this, and it's not missed. Today's movies and series are once again including it and it really doesn't add to anything. Thanks to the producers and RAI for this big plus. The acting is very natural and the storylines, even if not very challenging, are strong enough to hold your attention. A great little series, together with the original one can both be recommended. The mafia may still be a strong and negative presence on Sicily, but these two shows show another side to this beautiful island that makes it very inviting. Thumbs up!

Weird to see actors who don't bear any resemblance to their origin characters inhabit the world of the original. Catarella is 6'2 in this version. That's just wrong.

This may be a good show, maybe even a great show, but to just take all the same characters and make them young and pander to the expectations of the audience in this rather sickly way just doesn't seems like the Italian thing to do..

I enjoyed Inspector Montalbano a lot and hoped the best for 'the young Montalbano' but found it somewhat disappointing - on a number of things. The score compared to the original series is a let down, kind of typical standard fare, nothing to think twice about. Acting...quite a tendency to overact in general. Catarella...: a really bad copy of the original one.

And the writing? The young Montalbano actually comes over as an arrogant prick - as I said, somewhat disappointing.