Everything must end. Suburra too, the criminal parable most loved by Netflix fans. The series, initially presented as a prequel to the film of the same name by Stefano Sollima, will return with the third season from next October 30, but we have been able to see it in its entirety in preview, and according to however we are finally ready to express. our final judgment.
A season 3, it’s appropriate to say, quite disturbing, because it reaffirms (even from the first episode) his desire to definitively break any link with the film of which it should represent a precious background. The perplexity is twofold because, without many great elements, the show’s new round of episodes co-produced by Netflix me Cattleya It is (of the three) perhaps the one we liked the least.
Where were we
Let’s do a brief summary of the story so far, although perhaps the plot told by the Samurai from Suburra the Series could be much more effective than our words. The series comes to life a few years before the events of the Sollima feature film: we are in 2008, in a Rome divided between organized crime (in turn divided between the “old bosses”, heirs of the Magliana of the late seventies, and new impetuous gangsters) and deep corruption, between the ranks of politics and even between the ranks of the Church, in the solid Vatican Walls. The plot, as we know, revolves around political plots on the one hand, with prominent exponents of both the legal panorama of the Church and the Capitol involved in a dangerous power game, and in criminal disputes, as well as in impossible loves and others. If on the first front we could enjoy with pleasure the intrigues of Sara monaschi (Claudia gerini), an influential woman with the right knowledge who nails her claws in the Vatican, and of the ambitious Amedeo Cinaglia (Filippo Nigro), an unscrupulous candidate for mayor of Rome and willing to get his hands dirty to achieve his goals, in the second we have a history of forbidden brotherhood in the most classic scenario consisting of a bitter rivalry between criminal families.
the Adami, lords of the lands of Ostia whose guidance is found the Aurelian by Alessandro Borghi (the future “Number 8“In Sollima’s film), and the Anaclet, Sinti family strongly anchored to traditions and archaism, which after the events of the second season sees the very young Spadino, since his brother Manfredi (Adamo Dionisi)He ended up in a coma after a shootout with Aureliano.
In the middle there is Catfish (Eduardo Valdamini), the son of a policeman who from a “banal” drug tour is more than involved in the criminal machinations of the two clans, but his parable ends in tragedy when (at the end of season 2) he decides to commit suicide in front of his two friends, the Adami and the Anacleti.
Finally, mediate between the two worlds, the underworld and the political-ecclesiastical Samurai, who in the Netflix series is played by Francesco Acquaroli (and not from Claudio Amendola, as in the film): the most powerful man in Rome, the most influential and respected criminal, who has an interest in keeping the criminal balance of the Eternal City intact due to a major building agreement with the clans . gangsters who from Sicilian lands try to sink their claws into the capital.
Where we have arrived and where we will arrive
The excellent Suburra 2 (read our Suburra Season 2 review here) ended, in fact, with lele sacrifice, which shocked Aureliano and Spadino, with Cinaglia’s choice as mayor of Rome and the consequent alliance with Samurai and Sara, but above all with awakening of manfredi from coma: that “What am I missing?”, which smells of threat and expectations for a plot that, now in its final chapter, has two fundamental tasks: to finish off a product that has always been well packaged and above all to establish a status quo that fits completely with the opening events of the Suburra movie.
But Suburra 3 immediately disables and destroys the second, and perhaps more important, need. The story, which from the end of the first episode of Season 3 offers an incredible twist in contrast to the script of the feature film, only reserves surprises until its moving epilogue, which officially “scanned” the show’s “prequel” status. If until the previous iteration there was indeed the possibility of connecting with the film, although with some reservations – such as the increasingly fraternal relationship between Aureliano and Spadino, which we expected sooner or later to reach a deep break – different narrative elements of Netflix. series, no matter how central to the development of the plot and the conclusion of certain stories, take a completely different path, defining at the end “Suburra – La Serie” asand a real alternate story, a new adaptation of the novel by Giancarlo De Cataldo. Basically, between the Suburra movie and the series there is now the same relationship that we found between the show and the Gomorrah movie, but the differences here become even more sensational given that Sollima’s film work includes in part the same cast from the Netflix project.
The price of power
But beyond that, what is Suburra 3 like then? Are you able to effectively close the cycle that began in 2017? The answer is that, sadly, it only does so partially. This latest edition, in fact, quite effectively ends the macrohistory horizontally, but not with some resignations and some critical issues: first of all the rhythm, high, frantic, perhaps too much. Netflix and Cattleya have in fact chosen to end the series with a block of only 6 episodes, a decision that, while making the script gain freshness and speed, is also necessarily the victim of a really hasty story, which resolves some ideas (or even definitively closes certain plots) in a few hasty lines.
This is the case of characters like Sara, who despite having exhausted much of her narrative arc in previous seasons transforms here (from a key element of the intrigues between the clergy and Roman politics) into a mere hastily acclaimed appearance. .
The less presence of some key characters, and at the same time the absence of new faces to give greater freshness and dynamism to the quality and rhythm of the plot, thus, they make the narrative trend a bit fluctuatingIt is less convincing than usual, despite the fewer number of episodes in favor of the cadence of the turns.
Perhaps this Suburra 3 pays: a lower narrative quality, and a too hasty pace, in favor of the good qualities of the product, which remain such. Above all, we said, the plot twists, which evolve in an interesting way some characters and dynamics, especially the relationship between Nadia and Angelica (the excellent Federica Sabatini me Carlotta antonelli), and in general an exceptional performance sector, which in the two main axes of production (the incredible Borghi and Giacomo Ferrara, interpreter of Spadino) is definitely consecrated, surrounded and supported by a cast that -although reduced to the bone- confirms his exceptional talent.
All of this echoes a technical and effects sector, in line with production standards: good special effects, as always, between shootings and explosions, embellished with an anchor excellent scenery, that enhances the darkest glimpses of a violent and suburban Rome. A fresh and enveloping direction, although not superlative, is finally accompanied by a frantic and efficient editing, although not very brave compared to that of the first editions, which nevertheless plays its role without being wrong, but without shining too much.
