Watching Sympathetic Perpetrators on Italian Television

Watching Sympathetic Perpetrators on Italian
                    Television

“Evil, as depicted in scripted series on TV, has a singular allure for viewers.
Having sprung into the international media spotlight in recent years, Italian-
made serial dramas have probed evil’s murky depths through the narrative
construct of complex characters—criminals, killers, mafia bosses—anti-heroes
who have given viewers a front-row view of hell. Dana Renga’s Sympathetic
Perpetrators succeeds admirably in leading us on an extraordinary journey
through the ins and outs of Italy’s crime series output, which has raised the qual-
ity bar and prompted a real renaissance in Italian TV. The book explores titles
such as Romanzo Criminale, Gomorrah or Suburra—to name but three of the
most internationally renowned—and applies a close textual analysis to laser in on
characters who elicit empathetic appeal while raising ethical dilemmas in viewers’
minds. In doing so, it provides pivotal insights not only for understanding a key
aspect of Italy’s contemporary popular culture but also more broadly for contex-
tualising the significance of anti-heroes in today’s television drama, which creates
a hidden yet strong link from quality US output (from The Sopranos to Breaking
Bad and beyond) to the European offerings.”
                                    —Massimo Scaglioni, University of Milan, Italy

Dana Renga

Watching Sympathetic
Perpetrators on Italian
      Television
      Gomorrah and Beyond

Dana Renga
The Department of French and Italian
The Ohio State University
Columbus, OH, USA

ISBN 978-3-030-11502-9         ISBN 978-3-030-11503-6 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11503-6

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018967758

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Cover image: Cover photo by Emanuela Scarpa - Gomorrah Season 2 - © Copyright by
Cattleya S.r.l./ Sky, S.r.l., 2016
Cover design by eStudio Calamar

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Switzerland AG
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To my grandmother Dora Renga (1907–2004),
  my first serial television viewing companion

Acknowledgements

I am incredibly fortunate to have written, and published, a book on pop-
ular television. I have been an avid television viewer for as long as I can
remember, and my earliest serial television viewing memories involve
watching the long-running soap General Hospital with my grandmother
Dora Renga and my cousin Diane Lynn. More days than not, I raced off
the bus to arrive just after the installment began, and while eating cook-
ies, we would watch and chat about the trials and tribulations of Luke,
Laura, and co.
   This book exists because of the support of many individuals and
institutions. I thank the Division of Arts and Humanities at The Ohio
State University for generous research funding which allowed me to
travel to Bologna and Rome, where I was frequently on the lookout for
Alessandro Borghi. I commend my research assistant Jessica Henderson
for her invaluable assistance in research astuteness and the formatting of
the tables and bibliography. I am forever in Paolo Noto’s debt for con-
necting me with Sky Italy, who generously provided me with the book’s
cover image and an image inside of the book, and I thank Cattleya, Sky
Italy, and Roberto Saviano for generously allowing me to include in the
book the two images from Gomorrah. I wish to thank the editorial team
at Palgrave Macmillan: Lina Aboujieb who supported the project, and
Ellie Freeman who patiently answered my endless questions, and saw the
book through to completion.
   I have found that television invites participation, and this book has
benefitted greatly from conversations and exchanges with colleagues,

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viii      Acknowledgements

students, friends, and family. To my friends at The Ohio State University,
in particular in the Department of French and Italian, The Department
of Comparative Studies, the Film Studies Program, and the Department
of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, I am very appreciative of
exciting discussions, collaborations, and debates surrounding popular
film and television, and I thank all of my colleagues at OSU for their
support and attention to my work. I am incredibly lucky to work with
such amazingly smart people. I am grateful to the students enrolled in
small seminars and large general education courses with a focus on
organized crime and serial television whose insights into television’s
many viewing pleasures greatly shaped the book’s introduction. I am for-
tunate to have been invited to present parts of the book at several insti-
tutions, including Lakeland Community College, Loyola Marymount
University, Miami University, New York University, The University of
Bologna, and The University of Notre Dame. I extend warm thanks to
all involved in these experiences, as conversations with so many smart
and interesting people gave me much to think about and made positive
impacts on the book (while hopefully advancing the burgeoning field of
#BorghiStudies).
    I approached television studies through film studies, and I could not
have asked for a more supportive and welcoming group of colleagues
working in Italian television. In particular, I would like to thank Luca
Barra, Giancarlo Lombardi, and Massimo Scaglioni for providing me
with substantial resources and engaging in stimulating conversations
regarding Italian television’s cultural specificity and global reach (and,
of course, discussing all things Marco D’Amore/Ciro di Marzio). I am
incredibly fortunate that many of the book’s chapters were read and
commented upon by so many clever people, including Tom Hawkins,
Giacomo Manzoli, Judith Mayne, Robin Pickering-Iazzi, Sergio
Rigoletto, and Monica Seger. I am humbled by their generosity in pro-
viding me with beneficial (and prompt) feedback, and I thank them—
together with Dom Holdaway, Àine O’Healy, Paolo Noto, and Jim
Phelan, and many others—for joining me in useful deliberations sur-
rounding criminal antiheroes.
    I am particularly indebted to a group of brilliant friends who have
been there well before the book’s inception and who read and com-
mented upon drafts, chapters, abstracts, and proposals, talking through
inchoate ideas, providing me with invaluable insight, and challenging
me. To Amy Boylan, Danielle Hipkins, Genevieve Love, Alan O’Leary,

Acknowledgements       ix

and Elena Past, I am forever in your debt. I would like to make a special
mention to Allison Cooper and Catherine O’Rawe who supported the
project from beginning to end, reading and rereading material, pushing
me to think more broadly, and keeping me grounded through friend-
ship, humor, and more than one dance party.
    I gratefully acknowledge the support of my family, including my
friends across the USA, my mother La Donna, brother Alan and his fam-
ily, Joel, and Sofie (Sofie is owed a particular debt of gratitude for her
inquisitive mind). Finally, to Richard Samuels, I am most thankful for
your unwavering support, your willingness to drop everything and read
through a paragraph, talk through a sticking point, and help formulate
the sympathetic perpetrator identikit, all the while being a loving and fun
partner, and patiently abiding my obsession with Ciro. Writing this book
was joyful in large part due to your presence.
    A small part of the book’s material was previously published as
articles or a book chapter. A portion of Chapter 12 appeared as
“Remediating the Banda della Magliana: Debating Sympathetic
Perpetrators in the Digital Age.” In The Italian Mafia, New Media,
and the Culture of Legality, edited by Robin Pickering-Iazzi, 137–61.
Toronto, Buffalo, and London: University of Toronto Press, 2017. A
version of Chapter 15 appeared as “Making Men in Gomorra la serie”
L’Avventura. Italian Journal of Italian Film and Media Landscapes 1,
no. 1 (2015): 105–20. A portion of Chapter 17 appeared as “Suburra.
La serie as ‘Patrimonio internazionale / International Patrimony’”
SERIES: International Journal of TV Serial Narratives 4, no. 1 (2018):
63–80. I thank The University of Toronto Press, L’Avventura, and
SERIES for their permission to republish. Reprinted with permission of
the publisher.
    Cover photo by Emanuela Scarpa - Gomorrah Season 2, by an idea of
Roberto Saviano, © Copyright by Cattleya S.r.l./ Sky S.r.l., 2016.

Contents

1   Introduction: Sympathetic Serial Offenders		1

2   Rai: “Educate While Entertaining—Entertain
    While Educating” in L’ultimo dei Corleonesi, “Niente
    di personale,” and Il segreto dell’acqua		39

3   Mediaset’s Middlebrow Model: Il capo dei capi, L’ultimo
    padrino, Il clan dei camorristi, and L’onore e il rispetto		63

4   Sky’s Offer You Can’t Refuse and Romanzo criminale.
    La serie’s Criminal Payoffs		105

5   Faccia d’angelo: “The Allure of Evil”		141

6   1992 and 1993’s Difficult Masculinities		163

7   Making Men in Gomorrah 1 and Gomorrah 2		193

8   #ciaonetflix: Suburra. La serie as “International
    Patrimony”		231

9   Conclusions: Gomorrah 3 and Italian Television Abroad		257

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xii      Contents

Appendix		273

Bibliography		283

Index		327

List of Figures

Fig. 1.1   The sympathetic perpetrator identikit mapped out		                9
Fig. 1.2   Ciro’s (Marco D’Amore) tears in Gomorrah		11
Fig. 1.3   Spadino’s (Giacomo Ferrara) backstory as closeted
           in Suburra. La serie		12
Fig. 1.4   Leonardo Notte’s (Stefano Accorsi) charisma in 1992		14
Fig. 2.1   Angelo (Riccardo Scamarcio) contemplates Caravaggio
           in Il segreto dell’acqua		53
Fig. 2.2   Angelo is spied upon when he finally showers in Il segreto
           dell’acqua		55
Fig. 3.1   Totò Riina (Claudio Gioè) and Schirù (Daniele Liotti)
           face off in Il capo dei capi’s finale		 72
Fig. 3.2   Zio (Michele Placido) contemplates his past prior to surgery
           in L’ultimo padrino		79
Fig. 3.3   Tonio (Gabriel Garko) gazes at the viewer
           in L’onore e il rispetto		92
Fig. 3.4   Tonio is finally reunited with his family
           in L’onore e il rispetto’s finale		 94
Fig. 4.1   Freddo (Vinicio Marchioni) and Dandi (Alessandro Roja)
           bond while in prison in Romanzo criminale. La serie		116
Fig. 4.2   Freddo’s contrition after committing murder
           in Romanzo criminale. La serie		117
Fig. 5.1   il Toso smiles at his son as he is arrested in Faccia d’angelo		149
Fig. 5.2   il Toso’s (Elio Germano) allure in the title sequence
           of Faccia d’angelo		150
Fig. 6.1   Berlusconi (Paolo Pierobon) gives Leo a tour
           of his mausoleum in 1993		172

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xiv      List of Figures

Fig. 6.2     Leo and Bibi (Teo Falco) look toward a billboard in Milan
             in 1992		181
Fig. 7.1     Gennaro (Salvatore Esposito) and Ciro faceoff in Gomorrah
             (To be imbedded in the image: “Photo by Gianni Fiorito—
             Gomorrah Season 3, by an idea of Roberto Saviano,
             ©Copyright by Cattleya S.r.l./Sky S.r.l., 2017”)		 205
Fig. 7.2     Ciro mourns the death of his wife he just murdered
             in Gomorrah 2		218
Fig. 8.1     Aureliano (Alessandro Borghi) and Lele (Eduardo Valdarnini)
             spar in the boxing ring in Suburra. La serie		241
Fig. 8.2     Angelica (Carlotta Antonelli) spies on Spadino as
             he sniffs Aureliano’s hat in Suburra. La serie		244
Fig. 9.1     Ciro and Genny prepare to say goodbye forever
             in Gomorrah 3		263

List of Tables

Table A.1    Era mio fratello, Claudio Bonivento, 2007 (Rai)		       273
Table A.2    L’ultimo dei Corleonesi, Alberto Negrin, 2007 (Rai)		   273
Table A.3    Crimini (Rai)		                                         274
Table A.4    Il segreto dell’acqua, Renato De Maria, 2011 (Rai)		    274
Table A.5    Il Sistema, Carmine Elia, 2016 (Rai)		                  274
Table A.6    Uno Bianca, Michele Soavi, 2001 (Mediaset)		            275
Table A.7    Il capo dei capi, Enzo Monteleone and Alexis Sweet,
             2007 (Mediaset)		                                       275
Table A.8    L’ultimo padrino, Marco Risi, 2008 (Mediaset)		         275
Table A.9    Il clan dei camorristi, Alessandro Angelini
             and Alexis Sweet, 2013 (Mediaset)		                     276
Table A.10   L’onore e il rispetto, (Mediaset)		                     276
Table A.11   Romanzo criminale. La serie, Stefano Sollima (Sky)		    278
Table A.12   Faccia d’angelo, Andrea Porporati, 2012 (Sky)		         279
Table A.13   1992; 1993, Giuseppe Gagliardi (Sky)		                  279
Table A.14   Gomorrah (Sky)		                                        280
Table A.15   Suburra. La serie, 2017 (Netflix)		                     282

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