The Young Montalbano (TV Series) La transazione (2015) User Reviews

The Settlement

[Tweekums · 7/10 · 23 January 2016]

After the events of the previous episode Salvo and Livia are having a trial separation and haven't spoken for a month; Mimi offers to set him up with the sister of the woman he is seeing but he doesn't seem ready for a new relationship… perhaps a new case will help. The first case he gets is a bank robbery where somebody has cleared out all the safety deposit boxes in a new bank… Montalbano is immediately suspicious; the bank had twice the number of boxes that older banks have and all of them were being used. To confirm that this is unusual he talks to the manager of another bank… who just happens to be an attractive woman. It isn't long before they are going on a date to see a visiting circus; the evening doesn't go according to plan; first they bump into Mimi and his date then the fortune-teller accuses a man in the audience of murder! Shortly afterwards the man sitting next to him is found murdered… it soon becomes apparent that he was actually the one being accused of murder. It turns out that he had murdered somebody during the war.

This was a decent enough story although the big question had nothing to do with the crime… it was would Salvo get back with Livia or would he end up with bank manager Stella when the episode finished. Of course anybody who has seen 'Inspector Montalbano' will know the answer to that. This romance played out nicely; Michele Riondino and Serena Iansiti had a good chemistry as Salvo and Stella. The mysteries were interesting enough although the involvement of local Mafia families in the bank robbery was a bit cliché. The murder was more interesting as we also have the question of why the fortune-teller had accused the man of committing 'the murder'; surely can't really be psychic… Montalbano certainly doesn't believe so. Overall this was a decent enough episode but not one of the best of the series.

It's not all about the story !!

[Vindelander · 8/10 · 29 April 2021]

Another fantastic episode. Great cast, beautiful women, reasonable plot ( they're all a bit thin !) fabulous scenery. And it's Sicily, one of the most beautiful places in the world.

Interesting to see that Montelbano didn't progress much in 20 odd years. Same house, same office, same colleagues - and even same car !!

Love it.

Doesn't feel entirely settled

[TheLittleSongbird · 7/10 · 24 October 2017]

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. That was not an issue at all to me. By 'The Young Montalbano' standards (in fact anything to do with Montalbano in general, every single one of the lesser episodes of 'Inspector Montalbano were better than this one in my opinion), "The Settlement" like "Room Number Two" was something of a disappointment. Not bad, but not great like 'The Young Montalbano' consistently showed in its first season.

Getting the issues out of the way, like "Room Number Two", there are far more surprising and exciting denouements elsewhere in 'The Young Montalbano'. This one was disappointing in its predictability and didn't feel cooked all the way through, even more under-cooked than the one for 'Inspector Montalbano's' "The Mud Pyramid". "The Settlement" doesn't feel as tight as most of the show's episodes and can drag. It also has very familiar ideas and some of them do lack freshness or add little to the story, including the Mafia is starting to get a little old.

However, there is enough to make "The Settlement" decent. As to be expected, it 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 and the way it's used is enough to make one salivate over, it looks so delicious and almost too good to eat.

Part of 'The Young Montalbano's' appeal how it 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 and remarkably true in spirit to 'Inspector Montalbano' if not as eccentric as that in the later episodes, the conflict is tense in a nail-biting way and the drama charms and affects. The romance is charming and Livia fares very nicely in her younger version. 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. Catarella when younger is just as hilarious, if more subtle. Even the supporting characters are given a lot of attention.

While the story execution is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, the two cases especially the first one are entertaining and intriguing mostly.

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. All the other roles range from solid to great, with Fabrizio Pizzutto and Alessio Vassallo really coming into their own, but through the whole show it's Riondino's show all the way when it comes to the acting honours.

Overall, disappointing but has a lot of good merits. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Will He? Won't He? That is the Question

[l_rawjalaurence · 6/10 · 24 January 2016]

Ostensibly this episode focused on another murder, this time involving a corrupt local bank which had rather too many safe deposit boxes for its own good. Montalbano becomes involved, and finds (perhaps inevitably) that the solution involves the two Mafia families that seem to be behind all the crimes in Vigata. The script writers are becoming guilty of repetition; maybe they should look for more ingenious resolutions.

The real question of this episode centered on Montalbano's rather complicated love life: how would he react to breaking up with Silvia, as depicted in the previous episode? The answer is -- not very well. He encounters a pretty young bank manager, and after the customary whirlwind romance and candlelit dinner the two of them end up at her house. Later on they go to Montalbano's house and consume aranchini - the Sicilian specialty meatball - before rolling into bed. Montalbano has a sudden pang of conscience that prompts him into making a decision.

The episode jogs along at a mundane pace, allowing for some humorous exchanges between the Inspector and his staff and (for once) giving Catarella the chance to show that he is not so much of a buffoon as his boss believes. Yet we still get the feeling that the murder is just an incidental peg hung on to the love-affair - a way of prolonging the episode into an excessively long 115 minutes.