1992

In Italy there is no business without politics or in other words the story of corruption in all its forms through the live journey of the six inhabitants of Milan. The beginning of the nineties seemed that even thanks to the "Clean Hands" campaign, Italy would get rid of the legacy of the corrupt 80's and trifling political disputes. However, the exact opposite happened, and business, the media, politics and the mafia began to illegally distribute money only among themselves. Yes, especially in the form of the charismatic Milan super businessman Berlusconi, mogul of the media industry. However, the series is not about him (however we can shortly see him for a few times), but about the breeding ground of the "social atmosphere" that allowed him (and others like him, hello to Agent Bureš) to come to power. The creators follow the "we make things up but tell the truth" approach. Thus, the show is based on real events, but the intentions are fabricated. In any case, it seems that it could have happened this way. The big advantage is the already mentioned six story lines. Each is so good that it would even carry a separate series. Moreover, each is slightly different in terms of the style. There is a "Madman" story line from an advertising agency that looks for a possible future political stars in order to avoid any conflict with a procedural investigation from the "Clean Hands" campaign, the story of a simple and quick-tempered soldier returning from Iraq and his political career who is played by Nationalist party for the sake of gaining cheap political points. There is also a beautiful woman who wants to make a difference by having relationships with the famous and powerful men hoping to become a celebrity and a movie star of the silver screen, etc., but it seems to be based on thesis and is one-dimensional. And yet the characters are everything, but not one-dimensional and thesis-like. What's more, it's all very cinematic, well-played (by everyone, but who stands out is the performance of talented former Miss Italy Miriam Leone, who had never played before, I don't understand that being so talented, this is her first movie), it progresses and... And of course it has some essential "flaws". Specifically two. Those story lines do (not) directly affect each other significantly, which is not to the detriment, but quite the opposite. In addition, the fact that in later episodes, basically everyone gets involved with everyone from each of those lines in a very strange combinations does not seem unusual. Especially in the fifth episode, it seems that only a few characters live in Milan and Rome. And then that the two lines are enriched with a "thriller" superstructure, which is not bad (on advertising level there is a blackmail element "I know what you have done in the past" and on procedural level again there is a path of personal revenge against one of the powerful persons), but in this way, in series that looks realistic, it seems unnecessarily forced, as if the authors were afraid that quality TV based purely on the characters and the growth of corporate corruption would not entertain viewers enough. So, they might have thought it was necessary to give the viewers some kind of genre excuse.| S1: 4/5 | (01/22/2016) (less) (more)