Set in 1970s Sicily, and inspired by its documented history with the Mafia, the drama follows the honourable detective Dario Maltese (Kim Rossi Stuart) as he investigates the reach and power of organised crime in his childhood town, regardless of the professional and personal risk to himself. Combatting corruptness at every turn, Maltese has to also fight inner-battles as memories of a traumatic youth rise up to swamp him, and it’s the one mystery he’s avoided solving.
“When you left here, you were a boy. Now you’re a man. You can’t keep running away”
Even before anything happens the series starts with police cars shooting down historic streets and past drug users; the arm already strapped for the injection, but the police don’t stop and probably don’t even notice the drugs, which are highly prominent in these times with it being the Mafia’s main source of money, and thereby power. But two seconds in and we already know Maltese will risk everything to do his job, as will the stunt-doubles clearly, throwing himself into danger and into a pursuit not unlike Daniel Craig’s opening as James Bond.
But though he’s charming and clever, Maltese misses that debonair touch – although his moustache has plenty in attracting the ladies. For aside from the bad guys, and a general unsurety of who to trust, Maltese does have allies in a pair of reporters who seek to find the truth, and in this there could be the stirrings of romance. But will Maltese’s job, his past, and his mission to fix his town, stop him from seeing it?
Having returned to his home town, Maltese witnesses first-hand the violent strength of the Sicilian Mafia as his best friend is shot in front of him – and from this he’s launched into bringing down those behind it. The only clue being in his friend’s dying words; to find a box of hidden files at his home, but within them Maltese finds a picture of them fishing together as children – a hint to something only he would understand?
There’s a bait-shop of teasers dropped throughout the show, to the point that I’m holding a placard saying ‘okay I’m interested already’. There’s an abandoned house (Maltese’s family home), a study he won’t go into, many a tortured night replaying painful memories, to the ghost of a young girl appearing in the streets of his home town, her shadow constantly felt. While accusations once placed on his father threaten to re-emerge and hover on him, a case left in the presumption of guilt. This really is a tangled web to un-weave.
The show gives you a lot to sink your teeth into, while realising the overarching power of the Mafia in a time where corruption permeated everything. The extent of their strength being carefully built up, from quick comments that a thief would need permission to steal, to interconnections, corruptions, violent acts in broad daylight, and an innocent suspect who would rather be committed of murder than go free. The risk heightened as Maltese gets closer in his objectives, the danger made real and much closer to home
Even in the beginning introductions of Maltese’s police staff, there’s an ill atmosphere, leaving you to wonder just who can you trust? While a prosecutor dismisses Mafia involvement as over-zealous conspiracy theories and nothing more, wanting the case on Maltese’s friend to be closed – I think if an old nun walked in and said she did it, he’d shoot her dead before she could retract it. There are papers bought out, doctors and nurses breaking their oath of doing no harm. Everyone seems to be frightened or/and involved in the Mafia in some way, the show keeping you guessing as to some. But the corruption is clear in Maltese’s discussion with a good prosecutor;
“…the State that kills in complicity with the Mafia.”
“It’s the Mafia that kills in complicity with the State.”
“Mere subtleties.”
There are times however that the show over-emphasises a point; the blood-smear on Maltese’s shirt for example, or the convenience of his lodgings in staying near a private airstrip, where what should happen at night? But midnight plane landings that scream of criminal activity.
Classic cars abound in this coastal town, its crumbling facades surrounding Maltese as he hunts down his prey, its streets closing in on those that live there, and in this we’re shown that those inside the organised world of crime can be just as trapped. Caught within this life, is Giulia Melendez (Valeria Solarino) the mother/sister/wife to an important Mafia family, but she acknowledges the suffocation she feels, and when commenting on a ‘unique’ orchid she’s grown, its beauty unrivalled, is she in fact referring to herself, especially when she says the orchid is dying.
This mini-series has more than enough material for its eight episodes, its short run packing a hefty enough punch. Maltese: The Mafia Detective reveals not just the stories of organised crime in Sicily’s not so long ago history, but also of a way of life, of differences in wealth, and the natural beauty of the island in comparison to the dirt of those who rule it.
Creator: Leonardo Fasoli
Other notable works:
- ZeroZeroZero 2019-2020
- Gomorrah 2014-2021
Creator: Maddalena Ravagli
Other notable works:
- ZeroZeroZero 2019-2020
- Gomorrah 2014-2021
Creator: Gianluca Maria Tavarelli
Other notable works:
- The Young Montalbano 2012-2015
