I have not yet seen the first two seasons of this series, and my experience is limited with the start of the 3rd one, so I will not be rating it.
Even though we may be new to a concept and a set of characters, there are certain things that are supposed to work within the framework of a single episode. And they definitely did not work in the opening of I bastardi di Pizzofalcone S03.
First and foremost of all: The basic premise is that this band of renegade cops survive a bombing as they were celebrating at a fine restaurant. We see how the location is devastated, we learn that a waitress has died. The explosion is a huge one. However, none of the lead characters (who are suspected to be the target of the bomb attack) has died. Furthermore, they have ridiculously small injuries. The whole thing just does not add up. Regardless of who bombed the restaurant and for what reason, the visible, physical "knot" that we are expected to emotionally and mentally invest in simply does not function.
That's one huge problem. So huge that, you lose interest in the whole mood and the individual histories of the characters. The way the outcome of the bombing is depicted reminded me of the dynamite explosions in the Looney Tunes cartoons. Bomb goes off, we see dust and smoke all around, and the character reappears intact, with small bandages on his head. That was almost exactly how the physical outcome of that key attack was handled in that very first episode of S03.
And it was not the only "physically improbable" thing that annoyed me as a viewer: In one scene, we see Gassman walk a back street as some guy is tailing him from 7-8 metres behind. Our cop turns a corner, obviously to ambush or shake off his follower. Then the guy turns the same corner, cannot see Gassman and moves forward looking around for at least 50 meters. At that point, Gassman reappears from behind, as he had hid in an alley.
Now, that is the laziest and most stupid way of trying to convince the viewer how a cop can handle such a situation. It is a simple abuse of the editing process. Gassman could not have have gotten 50 meters ahead of his follower within the time frame in which he had disappeared from eye sight. For some viewers, such things may not matter as they extend the suspension of disbelief to every single aspect of a fictional narration. However, it matters for me. Especially if the concept is one that kind of intends to build up a realistic world of cops and criminals.
Of course a single episode is never enough to judge a TV series by, however the kind of approach I got to see in this one honestly raised quite a few red flags.
So far, this one falls way behind not only the majestic "Il commissario Montalbano", but also behind mediocre Italian cop show like "Nero a meta".
