Inspector Montalbano

Hello? Inspector Montalbano? It’s Catarella. Just to let you know that the female that was pronounced dead is actually alive!

Name: Il commissario Montalbano | Inspector Montalbano

Country: Italy

Year: 1999 - On going

Status: On going

Episodes: 36 (14 Seasons)

Duration: 100 minutes

Genre: Action, Drama e Crime.

Synopses:

Based on the detective novels of Andrea Camilleri, we follow inspector Montalbano and his investigations in the city of Vigata, in Sicily.

Review

I don’t usually watch series that are not spoken in english or in korean. However, I love crime series and, after a lot of persuasion from a person dear to me, who recommended it, I ended up giving it a shot.

The first episode was hard to follow, simply because I wasn’t used to the italian language. The feeling I had was that the actors spoke too fast and, consequently, it made it difficult for me to follow the subtitles. However, after another episode, I was immersed in Montalbano’s investigations and excited to find out who the culprit was.

The narrative is set in the fictional city of Vigata, in Sicily. The actor Luca Zingaretti portrays the protagonist from Andrea Camilleri’s books, inspector Montalbano. Throughout the several seasons we follow not only his private life, but also the various cases that “end up at his desk”. That was something that I quite enjoyed in this series, for the cases that Montalbano investigates are very different from each other, from murders, thefts, to mob-related ones, and, alongside this, we get the chance to get to know the character better and his long distance relationship with Livia Burlando.

Although it’s a crime series, there is still a place for a bit of comedy. This one is on the shoulders of Montalbano’s team, that helps him with his cases. They are: the vice-inspector ‘Mimi’ Augello, an incorrigible womanizer; the chief-inspector Giuseppe Fazio, serious and loyal to Montalbano; the reckless agent Galluzzo, that always makes a mess in the raids; the “handyman” agent Catarella; and the Dr. Pasquano, the coroner that gets irritated by the investigator’s questions. I must admit that, in the first episode I found the character Catarella to be useless, but as the episodes went by, I ended up having a special fondness for him. He is without a doubt the funniest character, with his name exchanges, the incompetence in delivering messages and with his big heart.

As for the art direction, the plan choice and the photography are very good. The contrast between light and shadow, especially in indoor scenes is very well achieved.

Regarding the soundtrack, it helps a lot in setting the episode’s atmosphere and brings a certain humanity to what is being shown.

At the end of each episode we have a moment of reflexion from Montalbano regarding what happened, which ends up also being a moment for us, that either makes us want to watch another episode or, on the other hand, just makes us want to be silent for a bit.

Whisper of the Heart

The thing that touched me the most in Inspector Montalbano was the ability of making each episode in a way that got me to think about something related to my life, or simply reflect on how strange the human being can be.

The cases that Montalbano investigates at the beginning appear to be normal or even cliché, but with the progression of the episodes, they become more intrinsic and complex. I confess that some of them left me speechless at the end of the episode, and others with the will to watch more. Although there are the usual frivolous murder cases, there are also cases that reveal cruelty and that really touched me, some that I will not reveal for that would be spoiler.

It was also a series that made me go through a mix of emotions with the several characters. For example, besides the difficulty with the italian language and the following up of the subtitles, as I have previously mentioned, in the first episode I didn’t really like the protagonist. To me Salvo Montalbano seemed to be a grumpy and arrogant character, with selfish attitudes towards his co-workers and especially his girlfriend Livia. However, Montalbano ends up being honest, loyal and conscious with others. Although he always solves the mysteries that fall on his hands, there were episodes in which, at the end of the case, he had attitudes that, in my opinion, weren’t the most correct, but that demonstrated how big his heart was.

I can’t leave out his relationship with Livia Burlando, which made me think about my love life immensely. Livia is perhaps the portrait of the italian women and, possibly even, women in general. Her participation is not that big in the first seasons but she gains more protagonism in later seasons. It’s a charming and very emotional character, that can see right through Salvo and understand when something is bothering him.

Throughout the series, their long-distance relationship goes through interesting changes, that made me reflect on whether there was sense in them remaining together or if it was just a stubborn decision made by the author Andrea Camilleri. Can love overcome everything? There are several unreasonable attitudes from Salvo towards Livia, that made me think if they would be accepted by women in general. Nevertheless, Livia overcomes them by either using humor or plainly and loudly cursing.

The truth is that only in the last couple of seasons did I understand the reason why they remain together, consequently revealing something about myself. Isn’t that what makes us want to watch tv shows, movies and read adventures?

Being an italian series, it made every sense for it to enter the topic “Series that is not American or British” for the Eclectic Heart 30 Post Challenge.

Rating - 🟉🟉🟉🟉🟉🟉🟉🟉🟉🟉 (10)