BasicLogic
I have to admit that every time I watched this series on TV, my feelings were a mix bag full of disgust, ridiculousness and helplessness. Allow me to tell you why: This series is supposed to be a quite serious drama, because it involved murders, homicides, heavy crimes, thefts, forgeries, assaults, drugs and so on that needed Montalbano and his detective on that island to solve those crimes. But the amateurish screenplay writer didn't know the exact procedures of police works, he just dreamed up everything that he thought to be easily and conveniently added into the storyline, the scenarios and the plot. His poor logic also could not distinguish what a police drama should be, all he could come up was just "would be(s)". Nor he could distinguish the genres between drama and comedy or, comedy and farce.In order to dramatize the series for those who got the same problems of logic, I mean, the viewers, this screenplay writer had made Luca Zingaretti who played the role as Commissario Salvo Montalbano, a quite old, bald, short built, bow-legged actor, to become a sex symbol from Italy, making lot of female characters fell for him, allowing him to get involved in a lot of romantic entanglements, and then finally, got him a fiancée from Genoa, a much taller woman who always threatened to leave him and dissolve the long and tiresome engagement.Since the screenplay writer could not clearly distinguish what a drama from a comedy or a farce, what qualifications needed to be a policeman, he put a guy, a very controversial character, an actor named Angelo Russo, to play the role of Agente Catarella, a extremely stupid yet extremely capable character in the police force, as the receptionist, phone answering shtick, a clumsy, awkward almost to a moron-level stupid guy to be a policeman, and at the same time, since the screenplay writer did not have the basic education in logic, he also made the stupid guy a quite competitive and smart computer researcher. What a baloney! A moron/clown-like guy could be a policeman? It only happened in a Italian TV series.Then again, there were countless problematic flaws in the directing and the editing. For instance, let's just take from those scenes from the latest Season3, the poor sequences of the different times of the day were just astounding: You have to pay closer attention to how they poorly edited and patched the sequences of the time; they left from the place to investigate a crime scene at night, yet when the next scene appeared, it suddenly became a day time with sunshine. Are you telling me, from A place to the B location needed at least 12 hours on that island? When Montalbano met his fiancée in the broad daylight, then suddenly in the next scene coming up, it was after dark late at night; again, meeting in the early afternoon outside of the police station, then got in the car, drove away, then reached the restaurant around 8:00PM? How far they went? they drove from the east of the island to a restaurant on the west side? There were so many scenes and settings that couldn't link logically. I just wish that I could be an Italian, then all the stupid arrangements and the logic problems would be solved and disappeared. Then again, there is a very encouraging message to those who are bald, short built with bow legs and over 50s, don't be in despair, guys, you could be as sexy as the main character, Commissario Salvo Montalbano.
LuckyDumpster
I really like this series of DVDs. I have read all of the novels by Andrea Camilerri and I think they have done a good job of capturing the "spirit" of Montalbano: he appreciates good food, beautiful women and chasing bad guys...not necessarily in that order as his long suffering girlfriend Livia finds out when he investigates a case while telling her they are on holiday.Not speaking Italian, I have to read the subtitles, and they have done a very good job since I don't read particularly fast and I still don't have to resort to the pause button on the DVD player all that much.The thing that I appreciate the most is the scenery of Sicily. Camilerri's books can't give you a true sense of how beautiful it "seems". I say "seems" because I find the portrayal of daily Sicilian life a little strange: there are hardly ANY people milling about in the background of most of the exterior shots. There isn't any real car traffic either. I don't know anything about Italian cinema so I can't say how common this might be. Perhaps there are union rules which make actor "extras" too expensive. I suspect it might be an artistic choice though. It certainly makes you want to visit this imaginary Sicily though: beautiful beaches and historic ruins completely devoid of tourists in T shirts and flip flops. Also, while Camilerri's books do indicate that Montalbano's house overlooks the beach...you don't really get a sense of how unrealistic that might be until you see it on the DVD: they must pay police detectives 20 times what they pay them in real life for him to afford his "house". After you see the house, you expect his car to be a Ferrari, but, strangely, it seems pretty ordinary.To sum up, even if you aren't a huge fan of mystery or police procedurals, you can enjoy these DVDs simply for the stunning scenery: it might be better than actually going there and coming up against the realities of modern life.
paul2001sw-1
For those of us raised on 'Inspector Morse', 'Inspector Montalbano' comes as a welcome breath of Sicilain air. Not that I didn't like 'Inspector Morse' per se; just that Morse, and his Swedish clone Wallander, fit a certain stereotype of a detective, namely the brooding, grumpy old man. Montalbano, on the other hand, is also a stereotype, but a very Italian one. He wants an easy life, good food, a relaxing environment, if he loses his temper occasionally, it's only out of frustration of things getting in his way, on the other hand, if he's faithful to his girlfriend, that's only because being involved with two women would be just too complicated. He, and the rest of the cast, play their roles as comic Sicilians to perfection: and while this might not be altogether serious drama, the combination of Mediterranian beauty, comedic moments and ropey murder plots makes for a very agreeable evening's viewing. On seeing my first episode I was underwhelmed; but once you know the characters, it's great fun.
