Boris (2007–2022) User Reviews

One of the best Italian satire

[gothfeanor · 8/10 · 3 September 2008]

I don't know if this could be a product interesting to export, but the idea is simple and original, the life inside a set of a TV serial. In Italy is common to make these awful productions, perhaps because anybody (or anybody without a proper culture) can appreciate these kind of soap operas. Those are not serials, like E.R, X-Files, or Doctor House, and they lack of imagination. "Boris" mocks every TV serial, especially one called "Incantesimo": bad recitation, bad scenes, the worst photography ever. It is so funny! Watch it. It's the best Italian comedy of these years. A good product, indeed. Nonetheless "Boris" has some of the bests Italian actors, some of them scarcely known by the public; for example the director, René (with his goldfish, Boris, which gives the title to the show), is interpreted by Francesco Pannofino, a singer, poet and actor, who gives the voice to many foreigner actors (George Clooney, to make an outstanding example). Another actress that requires a special mention is Caterina Guzzanti. The Guzzanti brothers (Corrado and Sabina are the other two), actors and comedians are good, but Caterina is simply astonishing sometimes. In this show it plays the part of Arianna, the director assistant, the most motivated and less hypocrite person of the all crew. Because, you know, it doesn't matter the level, could be a Z movie (or serial in this case), but phoniness is something so rooted in this world of entertainment, that sometimes it seems required to survive. I don't know if they'll make other seasons (we are waiting for a third), but hope so. Finally a TV show entirely Italian and, more important, of good quality!

A unique Italian fiction

[ale_manni · 9/10 · 1 June 2017]

Since its first broadcast in 2007, Boris sent shock waves through the old and auto-referential world of Italian fiction, becoming a cult among the young generations. Boris mocks the grotesque world of Italian fiction, its phoniness, its unrealistic representation of traditional values, its bad actors sponsored by powerful politicians and TV bureaucrats , the never ending compromises of the technical staff that have to deal with such a chaotic and unpredictable reality. And it does so being a fiction itself. This meta-fictional approach is the truly original and intriguing idea at the base of this series, that is, in fact, a fiction about Fiction. But since the vices and virtues of the Italian fiction industry are just a reflection of the vices and virtues of the whole country, Boris is able to appeal to a wider audience than just the TV professionals. This is also due to the endless gallery of unique characters, from the flamboyant director, Rene' Ferretti, who brings his gold-fish on the set for advice and inspiration, to Duccio, the coke addict cinematographer who rarely leaves his sofa, to Stanis, a prima donna actor, to Alessandro, an intern on the set, whose story is the fil rouge that keeps it all together. A series of other irresistible characters and cameos enriches the fresco and makes every episode a little gem. The dialogues are sparkling, irreverent and politically incorrect, the story line is insanely funny and full of humorous references to the Italian pop culture. One warning though: this fiction has a truly Italian DNA, the slang spoken by some characters, the references, the nuances of the language cannot be easily appreciated by an international audience.

Brilliant and unique, but hard to get its value if you don't deeply know Italy

[sonounexcapellone · 10/10 · 15 June 2021]

This is a little masterpiece, a real work of art but it sure has a big limitation: you will hardly understand it if you are not Italian, or if you haven't at least lived and worked in Italy for quite some time.

Boris mocks a particular kind of shows (something in between a serial and soap-operas) that you can find on the italian television.

In these shows everything is unquestionably bad: acting, directing, screenplay, characters, dialogues, photography.

So it is a comedy about something that's so corny, trivial and low budget to result funny, but it is actually much more that that.

It depicts the whole world of italian tv entertainment for what it actually is (or, at least, was when it was shot), and that's what makes it interesting.

It highlights patronage, laziness, lack of passion and competence, abuse and a whole number of behaviours we as italians laugh about, but intimately we are fully aware they are the reasons scuttling our country and preventing us to unfold when it comes to entertainment and in general most creativity environments.

I myself work in entertainment, and it's no accident if near all tv/cinema/music/theater workers I know are huge Boris fans: everything in this show is both hilariously and sadly true to anyone who has experienced one of these work areas.

If you are not part of this world but you appreciate irony you'll still like it.

If you are not from Italy and you happen to watch it... well don't be too frightened! Let's just say everything is not this bad here, and luckily products like Boris can prove it.

Disguised as a comedy it gives a rather cynical and unforgiving look to the attitude Italy and italians have with work and, at times, with life, leaving you with a bittersweet taste after every episode.

What makes it even more brilliant, in my opinion, is that the creators did this "from the inside", as Boris was aired on the public national TV.

So, not for everyone but definitely worth a try.

Wonderful

[gianmarcoronconi · 10/10 · 22 November 2021]

This is an innovative and wonderful series even today many years later and remains one of the most fun and successful Italian series. Throughout its duration the series gives pearls on cinema in Italy and entertains for its entire duration. So funny that the episodes go by very fast and the series devours itself in very little.

The title is misspelled: it should be "BORING"

[noone-avastav · 3 June 2012]

I heard about this show many times, but I never wanted to watch it. Eventually I went to meet a friend who was watching it and watched a couple of episodes...

Boring is for sure the first word to describe it! It's a mess up of grotesque scenes that should be hilarious but result to be only annoyingly stupid, with characters that like to humiliate themselves with the useless hope that the watcher should consider this funny...

I don't know how can someone have decided to film a second episode if this is the average quality of the show: a show that (as 99.99999% of that kind of TV) has the only purpose to brainwash the viewer up to the lobotomy!

Don't waste your time watching this horrible mess-up of nonsenses, it's not healthy for your brain!

Innovating (almost) always hurts

[gabriarcuri · 9/10 · 26 March 2023]

Giacomo Ciarrapico, Mattia Torre and Luca Vendruscolo's groundbreaking slice of life on the set of a shoddy Italian TV drama leads Francesco Pannofino (René Ferretti) and the entire cast of Boris to create something memorable. In this regard, the quotes remain milestones of Italian comedy over the years.

This series was indeed a panacea for the questionable palates of the mediocre Italian audience, which in this case nevertheless fully understood the harsh but hilarious criticism that was being made of the whole rotten TV industry.

The characters are simply spot on; there is no star more of a star than Stanis, no slave more of a slave than Lorenzo, no "cursed b*tch" more of a "cursed b*tch" than Corinna. Some of the gimmicks are then ingenious: stupid and absurd but, alas, feasible ideas.

The direction of the series (the real one, not of "Eyes of the Heart") is, perhaps deliberately, quite crude and "Italian"; but all in all it's okay. The dedication in the season four finale, on the other hand, is touching, and brings to fruition the path that leads us to empathize with those slackers of the screenwriters (the directors themselves).

To them I say: thank you for this gem, albeit too "Italian".