Framed! A Sicilian Murder Mystery

I LOVE Italian comedy. Much funnier than most junk on American TV, where they say a lame joke, then there's a laugh track. Italian comedy moves at a much faster pace.

Is it stupid? Yes. Is it ridiculous? Yes. Is it far fetched? Yes. Will you laugh your butt off? Yes!!! A totally hilarious romp that will distract you from what's going on in the rest of the world.

We watched all 6 episodes in one sitting and, even with the not quite good dubbing, were laughing out loud the whole time, not many shows these days can make a person do that. It's not meant to be taken seriously, ok.

I watched this entire 2 season Sicilian comedy because 3 of my grandparents came to America from there and I very much enjoyed my visit to Sicily a few years ago - although I like one of the main characters can do without ricotta cheese! I also like hearing the Sicilian language which in this series is clear and well spoken. The plot of Incastrati (Framed) is quite intricate - never a dull moment. At first I was expecting a comedy in the American sense but soon decided the label "comedy" is meant in the Shakespearean way, i.e., "Framed" ("Incastrati") is not a tragedy - all's well that ends well. If you enjoyed the tv series "Monk" about an obsessive compulsive detective you might like Framed as well - a dedicated homicide detective (Agata, as in Agatha Christie perhaps?) searches for "the guy" while a meek bachelor and his feisty partner who run a small repair business together realize their romances keep going wrong. The twosome don't repair anything but they do keep their heads above water while surrounded by endlessly menacing trigger-happy Mafiosos. I was rather surprised about the plot with all its complexities but glad I watched to the end - a well-crafted mystery set in stunning locales.

Usually I'm not a fan of our local productions, as (nowadays) they are a mix of bad and poorly executed. This... this I had to recommend to everyone I know. Ficarra and Picone are often fun, and here they shine! Their characters are lovable stereotypes, with the supporting cast also having good characters, and I connected a bit with Salvatore when, early on, he talked the ears off his friend by telling him about the latest episode of his favorite show, just to get complaints about having gone on for the whole morning, and that was just the first 5 minutes! I have a bit of that habit too. Anyway they get into stupid amounts of trouble, all easily avoided by having common sense, and meet characters that can only be described as "picturesque" like Useless Thing and the rest of the local mafia, or the journalist. All very humorous. Speaking of humor, I like to watch things with subtitles enabled, and can say that here (at least the subtitles) the jokes and humor is translated well enough into English, and that's important! All in all I enjoyed both seasons, plenty of laughs and all of that with a decent plot to keep it together. It's not Coliandro, but hey, not everything can be that good.