बोरिस

This is a little masterpiece, a real work of art but it sure has a big limitation: you will hardly understand it if you are not Italian, or if you haven't at least lived and worked in Italy for quite some time.

Boris mocks a particular kind of shows (something in between a serial and soap-operas) that you can find on the italian television.

In these shows everything is unquestionably bad: acting, directing, screenplay, characters, dialogues, photography.

So it is a comedy about something that's so corny, trivial and low budget to result funny, but it is actually much more that that.

It depicts the whole world of italian tv entertainment for what it actually is (or, at least, was when it was shot), and that's what makes it interesting.

It highlights patronage, laziness, lack of passion and competence, abuse and a whole number of behaviours we as italians laugh about, but intimately we are fully aware they are the reasons scuttling our country and preventing us to unfold when it comes to entertainment and in general most creativity environments.

I myself work in entertainment, and it's no accident if near all tv/cinema/music/theater workers I know are huge Boris fans: everything in this show is both hilariously and sadly true to anyone who has experienced one of these work areas.

If you are not part of this world but you appreciate irony you'll still like it.

If you are not from Italy and you happen to watch it... well don't be too frightened! Let's just say everything is not this bad here, and luckily products like Boris can prove it.

Disguised as a comedy it gives a rather cynical and unforgiving look to the attitude Italy and italians have with work and, at times, with life, leaving you with a bittersweet taste after every episode.

What makes it even more brilliant, in my opinion, is that the creators did this "from the inside", as Boris was aired on the public national TV.

So, not for everyone but definitely worth a try.