Love detective mystery dramas and non-English/American ones also fascinate me. 'Inspector Montalbano' is one of the best and most entertaining examples. It is not easy breathing freshness into a well-worn genre but 'Inspector Montalbano manages to do so with aplomb.Watching 'Inspector Montalbano' is, as said in my review summary and one that to me is apt, like eating a delicious Italian meal that immensely satisfies and leaves you wanting more. There may be very familiar tropes, but in a way it's inevitable and doesn't detract from the enjoyment at all. A couple of stories (like last night's "The Mud Pyramid") may not be as engrossing as most others, or have the most logical, easy-to-follow-entirely plots or the most cooked-all-the-way-through denouements, but this doesn't matter when far outweighed by the rest of the show being so good.If you love all things Italian (with them having some of the best scenery, food and music of any country) and love detective mystery dramas, 'Inspector Montalbano' will be right up your alley most likely. It's beautifully shot always and the scenery is stunning, making those who've never been to Italy want to book a holiday there as soon as possible. The music is never over-bearing or low-key with a nice atmosphere and flavour.Scripts are always tautly written and infused with beautifully balanced and hilarious humour. The subtitles are not hard to follow, while the cases are absorbing and rarely feel convoluted while suitably challenging the viewer. The characters may be stereotypes but well-written ones, especially one of the most fascinating foreign detective mystery dramas titular characters there is to me and the scene-stealing Catarella (hilarious comic relief but more than that).Acting is terrific, especially from Luca Zigaretti who is a treasure in the title role. Angelo Russo's comic timing is a refreshing and always perfectly timed joy. Direction is always paced beautifully and tight while sometimes appropriately deliberate.Overall, brilliant. 10/10 Bethany Cox

The series (movies) are good stories of detection as we really want to know who did it and why; but they also reveal the complexity of Commissario Montabano: A man committed to serving his town even at the cost of having a personal life. My wife and I enjoy the "real time" passing built into the movies and would suggest you watch the series in order. While the focus is on Montabano you also watch the supporting cast grow: "Mimi" Augello the assistant Commissario and ladies man; Fazio, (son of Montabano's mentor) the young, dependable detective inspector; Catarella the officer who provides humor through his bumbling but yet proves to be a valuable asset to the team. And throughout there is a fine supporting cast who bring real personality to their roles. On occasion we suspect some of the actors are actual location residents who were pressed into service as the performances seem so real. Montabano's Sicily and town of Vigàta have a real non PC feel. The Mafia still is a presence; and the police department has to deal with not only administrative incompetence but with contemporary social issues and the normal boring run of the mill crimes that plague modern life. The series is a refreshing thinking police/crime drama that keeps your attention and involves you in the lives of the characters. After a while, you even forget the actors are speaking Italian and you are reading subtitles.

I have to admit that every time I watched this series on TV, my feelings were a mix bag full of disgust, ridiculousness and helplessness. Allow me to tell you why: This series is supposed to be a quite serious drama, because it involved murders, homicides, heavy crimes, thefts, forgeries, assaults, drugs and so on that needed Montalbano and his detective on that island to solve those crimes. But the amateurish screenplay writer didn't know the exact procedures of police works, he just dreamed up everything that he thought to be easily and conveniently added into the storyline, the scenarios and the plot. His poor logic also could not distinguish what a police drama should be, all he could come up was just "would be(s)". Nor he could distinguish the genres between drama and comedy or, comedy and farce.In order to dramatize the series for those who got the same problems of logic, I mean, the viewers, this screenplay writer had made Luca Zingaretti who played the role as Commissario Salvo Montalbano, a quite old, bald, short built, bow-legged actor, to become a sex symbol from Italy, making lot of female characters fell for him, allowing him to get involved in a lot of romantic entanglements, and then finally, got him a fiancée from Genoa, a much taller woman who always threatened to leave him and dissolve the long and tiresome engagement.Since the screenplay writer could not clearly distinguish what a drama from a comedy or a farce, what qualifications needed to be a policeman, he put a guy, a very controversial character, an actor named Angelo Russo, to play the role of Agente Catarella, a extremely stupid yet extremely capable character in the police force, as the receptionist, phone answering shtick, a clumsy, awkward almost to a moron-level stupid guy to be a policeman, and at the same time, since the screenplay writer did not have the basic education in logic, he also made the stupid guy a quite competitive and smart computer researcher. What a baloney! A moron/clown-like guy could be a policeman? It only happened in a Italian TV series.Then again, there were countless problematic flaws in the directing and the editing. For instance, let's just take from those scenes from the latest Season3, the poor sequences of the different times of the day were just astounding: You have to pay closer attention to how they poorly edited and patched the sequences of the time; they left from the place to investigate a crime scene at night, yet when the next scene appeared, it suddenly became a day time with sunshine. Are you telling me, from A place to the B location needed at least 12 hours on that island? When Montalbano met his fiancée in the broad daylight, then suddenly in the next scene coming up, it was after dark late at night; again, meeting in the early afternoon outside of the police station, then got in the car, drove away, then reached the restaurant around 8:00PM? How far they went? they drove from the east of the island to a restaurant on the west side? There were so many scenes and settings that couldn't link logically. I just wish that I could be an Italian, then all the stupid arrangements and the logic problems would be solved and disappeared. Then again, there is a very encouraging message to those who are bald, short built with bow legs and over 50s, don't be in despair, guys, you could be as sexy as the main character, Commissario Salvo Montalbano.

Detective Montalbano ( Il Commissario Montalbano ) is a film rendition of a classic series of detective novels written by Andrea Camilleri.Our hero Salvo Montalbano, played by the excellent Luca Zingaretti, is a chief detective (Il Commissario) working in the province of Ragusta, Sicily, Italy. Salvo lives a single life, is a gourmet, and a long-distance swimmer with a beautiful ocean-front house. Salvo is confronted with crimes that require his wits, stamina, and a the ability to deal with political and bureaucratic pressures to close cases " quickly " and without stepping on the wrong toes, unless of course, they belong to his subordinates. He manages to somehow accomplish this and also maintain a relationship with his distant and " long-suffering " girlfriend, Livia, living on the mainland in Genoa ( not counting the beautiful women he encounters on-duty in Sicily ).I first saw episodes of this RAI program in Germany where it remains very popular, and began buying the Camilleri novels in the US. I also started collecting the 18 volume DVD collection, which are available from the EBAY Italia website. MHz Television in Virginia, deserves a big credit for introducing the Detective Montalbano series to North America with English subtitles, although the Mhz film quality is somewhat grainy and less colorful when compared to the original DVD.The original novels jump between Italian, Siciliano, and a mix of both. The films make good use of the mainland Italian detectives assigned to Ragusa having to contend with the local police staff language and Sicilian customs. As mentioned in the review above, Catarella, a local officer at the front desk is enjoyable when both confronted by, and confusing to, Salvo Montalbano.If you have been to Sicily, or plan on visiting someday, you will enjoy this series by RAI. Highly recommended !