It is Italy in 1938 and the body of a woman has been discovered on the beach near Mussolini's holiday home. The local police are very keen to wrap it up as quickly as possible. The woman was a prostitute and her pimp is quickly charged and everybody is satisfied
well not quite everybody; Deputy Inspector De Luca does not think he did it. He is ordered to stop the investigation but continues anyway. The trail leads to Count Utimperger and his beautiful wife Laura and De Luca gets involved with the latter. He is clearly playing with fire as they are close to Il Duce; a right move could lead to promotion but a mistake could be fatal.
When I saw this advertised I was intrigued; the idea of a detective show set in a fascist country before the war is something I hadn't seen before. The story is very much based when it is set; Mussolini's presence in the town affects everybody's behaviour and what the police consider acceptable wouldn't be tolerated in a free country. However these details merely add to the story; the investigation is interesting while being similar to most whodunits in many ways; there are a variety of suspects, the investigation buts the protagonist in harm's way and we even have him getting involved with a suspect details that may seem cliché but they didn't bother me. The acting was solid; Alessandro Preziosi was particularly good as the eponymous Inspector De Luca and Kasia Smutniak was suitably seductive as Laura. Overall this was a fine introduction to the series and I look forward to seeing the rest.
These comments are based on watching the episode in Italian with English subtitles.
When I saw this advertised I was intrigued; the idea of a detective show set in a fascist country before the war is something I hadn't seen before. The story is very much based when it is set; Mussolini's presence in the town affects everybody's behaviour and what the police consider acceptable wouldn't be tolerated in a free country. However these details merely add to the story; the investigation is interesting while being similar to most whodunits in many ways; there are a variety of suspects, the investigation buts the protagonist in harm's way and we even have him getting involved with a suspect details that may seem cliché but they didn't bother me. The acting was solid; Alessandro Preziosi was particularly good as the eponymous Inspector De Luca and Kasia Smutniak was suitably seductive as Laura. Overall this was a fine introduction to the series and I look forward to seeing the rest.
These comments are based on watching the episode in Italian with English subtitles.
