Neve alle Azzorre

This is an amazing show-a tour de force of writing, acting, directing, filming, story-telling. The plotting is remarkable, in that it unfolds as it must have had to, but is surprising at every turn. It is a series fully aware of itself in the history of such movies as it mentions-Dirty Harry, Carlito's Way, even Matrix-but never derivatively. It's rammed with life, history, local and world culture. It's wicked and delightful all along, and every single performance, every line of dialogue and voiceover narration, hits home with the viewer and with the characters in the action. It's themes of poverty, the will of God, and the motives that animate the human condition suffuse every scene and shot and situation. Great too is the the use of language-Portuguese, Italian, English-and of the actors who move in and out of them as they work out their fates.

A couple of actors are really good in their roles in just the right balance between caricature and naturalism. Namely Rodrigo Tomas. Others, like Afonso Pimentel, are over-the-top and right down unbelievable, playing characters that behave as randomly as being catholic in one scene and muslim in the next. But the worst part is that some of the options taken by the directors are simply in poor taste: the cringe voice-over by Pepe Rapazote, the extended disco scenes, the exhausting drone shots, the fact that no-one so poor would look as fit and groomed as Jose Condessa or Helena Caldeira, the fact that almost nobody in the cast has the unmistakable accent of that particular island. In fact they mostly speak in a very metropolitan central-Portuguese accent. Moreover, the difference in quality between the episodes directed by Augusto Fraga and the ones directed by Patricia Sequeira is ENORMOUS, with her episodes very often lacking in ideas, structure (her cutting is absolutely random whereas Fraga's is almost cinematic), or rhythm. It doesn't help that she also gets the least eventful episodes, but still, what she chooses the do with them seems devoid of purpose and often borderlines the telenovela.

I'm not gonna lie, my expectations were really low but I was still curious about it, I start watching it and the story was just too addicting to just stop in the first episode, the more you watch, the more you wanna watch. It's a great feeling I haven't felt in a while! If you are into kind of thriller slightly dark humor vibe with a lot of profanity, I really recommend you take a look at this. Enough to say that the story is actually part real, part fiction... Just like titanic... The events are real but the story itself is not, but actually I was surprised of how accurate the show came out to be to the real event that took place in Azores. I was also surprised by the quality of the visual effects and editing, besides some art choices, and dialogue comparing the budget of this show compared to some mainstream shows. I would totally recommend to see it!

Loved this show so much I wanted to rewatch it right away over and over again!! 😁 Gongratz to all the people who worked on this show!! It was so beautiful to watch and so exciting!! Every episode was so engaging it grabbed my attention and didn't let go!! From the start the characters brought the viewer onto that island and kept us all entertained. It was really refreshing to watch and the most beautiful part is where it was filmed: in the azores! Such beautiful place! Every scene with natures , the mountains and ocean all around them were breathtaking! I totally recommend everyone to watch!! Have fun!

In a worldwide perspective it's another gangster/historical/fictional show, which considering the budget, it came out with an excellent result in terms of production.

In a local perspective (as a Portuguese) it's the best in that genre show that we have made. For us, it has all the actors, all the scenes, all the beauty of S. Miguel, attached to one of the most iconic dark event of Rabo de Peixe community that marked a generation, very well fulfilled with a fictional story that "forces us" to want to see more.

For those who complain about the lack of Azores actors, according to Wikipedia there are 8 Azorean actors... I know there are many more irl but why is that such an issue?

10*