Netflix's newest crime series, Suburra: Blood on Rome, is compelling, but entirely in Italian
Suburra: Blood on Rome, a new Netflix crime series, follows the path of extremely successful Italian crime dramas like 2014's Gomorrah, or older dramas like La Piovra (The Octopus) over a decade ago.
When Italian moviemaker Sergio Leone snatched the western away in the 1960s with his 'dollar westerns', Hollywood hit back by wresting the Mafia movie away from Italy with Francis Ford Copolla's Godfather movies in the 1970s. But now, streaming video has brought Italian crime sagas back to centre stage.
In the newest entrant, the 10-part Suburra: Blood on Rome, a mafia boss shrugs his shoulders as he tells an honest city councilman, "This place hasn't changed in 2,000 years. Patricians, plebians, politicians and criminals, whores and priests? Rome."
Indeed, everyone in Netflix's newest crime series seems to be corrupt, conflicted and morally decadent. "But now, only the rich live here," the honest politician replies. He too is staring into a moral abyss from which there is no return.
Netflix's acclaimed three-season Narcos traversed similar territory, but that was with Colombia's cocaine crime empires. Now, the video-on-demand network has again hit pay dirt in Italy. The series (the title means slum and also alludes to a seedier part of ancient Rome) follows the path of extremely successful Italian crime dramas like 2014's Gomorrah, set in the Naples crime world or older dramas like La Piovra (The Octopus) over a decade ago.
At the centre are three youngsters from diverse backgrounds who strike an alliance of sorts. Gabriele Marchilli (Eduardo Valdarnini) is a drug dealer who is also a policeman's son. Aureliano Adami (Alessandro Borghi) is a Mafia family scion. And Alberto Anacleti (Giacomo Ferrara) is a Gypsy gangster. The deadly contest between the Vatican, Italian mobsters and assorted criminals over a piece of land in a seaside town near Rome with enormous potential for redevelopment drives the plot.
A prequel to the 2015 Netflix film, Suburra, the series is a slow burner for someone unfamiliar with the original film. And unlike Narcos, which had as much English as Spanish, this series is entirely in Italian-so you have to rely on the subtitles or lose the plot. But it remains a compelling watch-and the climax hits you with all the subtlety of a sawn-off shotgun. A worthy new entrant to the crime noir sagas and also a testament to their enduring march on streaming video.