Gomorra

Gomorra (2014) 

The Wire² in Naples. Roberto Saviano stirs up stagnant waters with Gomorra. What the book was lacking in literary quality was made up for by the urgency of trying to change something, supported by the informational value of this insight behind the scenes of the Camorra. And he was rewarded for this by a public death threat. I don’t even want to imagine what threats the Camorra makes to the crew making this series (in terms of story the series and the book have nothing at all in common, but in spirit this is still the most faithful of adaptations). This trip to the dark side of Naples where we see everybody from the pawns up to the top dogs on the social ladder is, in its unembellished, bleak reality, much more powerful than the very best documentary. In fact, this series frequently has aspects of a documentary. But heavily enhanced by a distinctly (but truly distinctly) movie-type look. Gomorra cuts to the quick and, despite the fact that it gets by without any frills, it is unprecedentedly rough, dirty, uncompromising, with a remarkable sense of detail, often hypnotic but still in many aspects true to the rules of the genre. Nobody glorifies nothing, but nor does it pass judgement; it carefully avoids any evaluation, opinion or moralizing. It just shows things as they are. And maybe that’s why this is the purest (if not the best) mafia saga (although... in the others, the important thing is family, rules and honor; here the central theme is “business") of all. Season two becomes less documentary-like and concentrates much more on fate storylines and intrigues inside the mafia. Unfortunately it starts repeating what has already been said, but the final episodes more than make up for this shortcoming. Season three continues in the footsteps of season two. But although this series contains by far the most powerful moments and even episodes of the whole series, overall it shows that this didn’t necessarily have to be twelve episodes long. In places, again mainly at the beginning, there was too much talk for talk’s sake. | S1: 5/5 | S2: 4/5 | S3: 4/5 | (01/08/2014)