Il metodo Fenoglio - L'estate fredda

This recently discovered member of the always interesting Walter Presents stable on Channel 4 here in the UK started out like a very poor cousin to the excellent Montolbano adaptations (beautiful Italian coastal scenes (Bari this time), comic sidekick, mafia, beautiful women, fine dining, handsome, charismatic detective etc) but soon became something else entirely. There was depth to the characters and an involving story line involving child kidnapping, police corruption, drug smuggling, historical failures, family, love, paediphiles and, yes, dogs...I watched it all in one sitting and now miss it badly. Highly recommend.

This eight-part, Italian crime drama is set in the City of Bari in 1991. Sergeant Pietro Fenoglio believes that trouble between is brewing between local mafia clans but his seniors don't even accept that there is a local mafia. Inevitably he is about to be proved right. Vito Lopez, a senior member of the Grimaldi, turns on his increasingly paranoid boss after his friend, and more importantly for him, his dog are killed. It isn't long before violence flares and a child disappears. Away from the main investigation the prosecutor looks into the death of her brother some years before and Pieto's increased work leads to strains in the relationship with his girlfriend.

I thought this was a solid addition to the number of Italian dramas that have been available in the UK in recent years. The story gripped me from the start and got more tense as it progressed; especially after the kidnapping of Grimaldi's ten year old son. The characters, on both sides of the law, are interesting and the cast do a fine job bringing them to life. I liked how the story managed to incorporate certain real events without it feeling forced; one might think they were just 'part of the story' if one didn't know about them already. Overall I'd definitely recommend this to fans of Italian drama. I hope we get more of this.

These comments are based on watching the series in Italian with English subtitles.