Life is a series of loose ends played out in a ghost town.

Milf's acting up.
'Usual' sort of timebombs going about, lots of lying and I'm only about 15 minutes in.

Right, I better pay attention.

An hour in and I'm as confused as Salvo, by the end I'll be properly lost, but he'll have it all worked out, somehow...
Reminds me why I watch on timeshift and have to pause and rewind occasionally.

Hmm..

Trying to watch my recording of this, but I'm starting to think I preferred the young "Mentalbandy."

Tonight the storyline was easy to follow.

It had its wonderful crazy, moaning old man as well.

Him and his Daughter were both 'on form' as Montalbano's moany and sarky characters go.
'I picked the lock F'em'
The Daughter had an old fashioned attitude to extra marital affairs, nobody else seems to bat an eyelid.

Now, what the hell was going with the drive by shooting from the X5, we heard nothing more about it.
There always a couple of coppers loafing about outside the station, had 2 motorbike coppers for added colour tonight.

I thought this episode was the most poignant of all the Montalbanos. The main relationship, despite it being a ploy, turned into one that was genuinely warm and affectionate on both sides. At the end, Montalbano looked lonely and bereft, and despite the 'husband' being a crook, he saved Salvo's life and had a decency. The scene with Catarella repeatedly running into the car bonnet was priceless too.

It's a characteristic of Italian crime fiction that loose ends, as in real life - especially in Italy - are not tied up. In their society the crims rarely get caught and half the story is buried. They think our Marple-like solving of crimes down to the last crumple in a shirt is a characteristic of the English speaking world with our exactness and crusading exposes of misdeeds.

South East Sicilian towns ARE ghost towns for much of the day. Apart from chronic depopulation, you barely see anyone in the streets and the shutters are down on the shops with everything closed during the siesta from about 12 and it doesn't pick up until the passagiato in the evening. My criticism is they never show this period when everyone parades around nor do they show the markets that Salvo would undoubtedly be drawn to as a food lover.

Montalbano just gets dafter and dafter.

Are there no seat belt laws in Italy?

Oh, and some acting lessons wouldn't go amiss.

I thought Livia was quite good this week

K

I have PM'd you again. I have episodes 2 to 6 but will delete shortly!

Having watched both Young and Older Montalbano in their own series, I preferred the Young one. Better storylines and scripts, and interesting to see how the current characters came to be in his life i.e his housekeeper, Fazio etc. and the back story of his relationship with his father and Livia.

I've only seen a couple of Young Montalbanos and last night was my first older one Have to say I agree with you. I found last night's episode truly tedious ......it seems they just accept that a certain amount of crime will take place, and as long as they 'solve' a bit of it, that's okay

I thought it was rescued by the wonderful scenery and by the character parts eg the cleaning ladies, the guy at the station etc.

Not sure I could watch every week

Following on from my post querying seatbelt laws in Italy - I came across the following information from Avis:


Love the "please"! (Implying "but only if you feel like it".)


Obviously, the police and their friends are exempt.

The whole thing is absurd really, though, isn't it?

Hi, first time I'm posting here but am a big fan of both the old and the new Montalbano and have been reading all your posts!

Regarding seat belt laws in Italy - my husband is Italian and I've visited Naples and its suburbs quite a bit. Can't speak about all of Italy but I must say I've haven't seen the seat belt law being enforced in Naples and the surrounding areas. Been in quite a few taxis where we were the only ones wearing seat belts! Also quite common to see small cars packed with around 7 passengers, children on laps, even in the front seat and no one wearing seat belts!! I do believe it's different in the North.

Hi Ella This is interesting to hear.....Sicily may be similar to the southern Italian mainland, I guess. I have only been to Sardinia and absolutely loved it......don't remember too many seatbelt s being used there either!

The non-wearing of seat belts is a 'macho' thing, from what I've heard. Real men don't need safety measures, that sort of thing, and it's more prevalent in the south because society there is less enlightened than in the north.

Still loving it. At times a little complicated to follow - and he breaks all the rules on the 'familiarity' front (and gives hope to everyone everywhere who are 'thinning' with his endless ability to be linked and more with beautiful women!

A blue light would be a cheaper way of showing it was the police station.

They've hired the cars and uniforms for the twice a series traffic jam (5 cars in the middle of nowhere), so they might as well use them.

I'm still clueless as to what that drive by shooting and ensuing chase was all about.
Hey ho that's Montalbano

Had never heard of or seen this series until last Saturday's, which I caught by chance. Bearing in mind it that I think it was listed as being series 9, episode 2, that means I'm a bit behind! I really enjoyed it though, partly as Luca Zinagretti's a bit of a dish! It went on about 30 minutes longer than I thought it needed too and I'm not sure what was happening half the time, but the scenery's nice.

Question - I notice a few posts mentioning the difference between 'young' and 'old' Montablano episodes. Completely different series with different actors I presume?
When's it normally on, just Saturday's?

I'm relatively new to Montalbano.

I agree that it's often quite difficult to follow - on Saturday he was being seduced one minute and the next scene was of him having food at his desk, so I don't know if they 'did' or not! - it's also filmed in a ghost town and lots of negative things that people are saying here are true.

BUT.....it's the only cop series I watch and enjoy. I think Luca's a really good actor and he's a treat to watch, very easy on the eye! Not to mention the gorgeous Sicilian background.

BIB not sure how you came to that conclusion.
She appeared to be teasing him for most of it IMO, only way to decide if it was genuine would be after they'd got what they wanted from Salvo and she was still a friend.
Salvo walking around, with visions of them laughing etc, is purely down to him being a bit soft.
She was a beard and willing to bed Salvo for a criminal enterprise.

Young Montalbano to Inspector ('old') Montalbano is as Endeavour is to Morse; i.e. Young Montalbano is a prequel and yes, the actors are different.

Both shows are on Saturdays. Saturday 21:00 is pretty much the designated BBC4 slot for subtitled European drama.

I still love the meandering nature of this show - had a few questions about certain aspects of this week's plot but think I basically understand it now. Catarella was acting crazy even for him what with the throwing himself on the bonnet of Mentalbaldo's car!