The Young Montalbano (TV Series) Ritorno alle origini (2012) User Reviews

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[Tweekums · 9/10 · 21 September 2013]

This episode opens with a man sipping coffee as he eyes a variety of attractive women… he is of course Mimi; Montalbano's womanising deputy who will be familiar to fans of the original series but here it is his first day in Vageta and he is about to meet Montalbano for the first time. Montalbano's first impressions of Mimi are not good and he quickly gives him an apparently trivial case involving the theft of a box of beer caps belonging to a man who does not throw anything away… literally! Not long afterwards a second case emerges; this time involving the disappearance of a three year old girl. She is soon found several miles away and apparently unharmed. The family don't want the case to proceed but Montalbano is convinced that the girl couldn't have got that far on her own so starts looking for kidnappers. Away from the cases Mimi starts to take an interest in a potential witness but we know it is Salvo she will end up with… she is Livia.

This was another fun episode which introduced two important characters from the original series. Mimi's introduction was particularly fun... he was even more of a ladies' man than I remembered and the scenes between him and Salvo were entertaining too; Alessio Vassallo who plays him is a welcome addition to the cast. Sarah Felberbaum's portrayal of Livia was also good; I could see why both Mimi and Salvo liked her! While the introduction of these characters was the most important thing in the episode the cases were entertaining too… even if the collection of the man whose beer caps were stolen was rather disturbing. As always there was just the right mix of drama and humour; something that makes this series a delight to watch.

Younger Mimi Augello debuts

[TheLittleSongbird · 10/10 · 22 October 2017]

Love 'Inspector Montalbano' and feel that it does a great job bringing freshness to a well-worn genre (not intended as a bad thing, love crime/mystery drama but there's a lot out there with familiar tropes to each other).

Was not sure how its prequel series 'The Young Montalbano' would fare when hearing of it. It sounded interesting to see the great 'Inspector Montalbano' characters in their youth, but also questioned the necessity. With that being said, had mixed expectations before watching 'Endeavour', the prequel series to one of my favourites 'Inspector Morse' and it ended up nearly as great. The same goes for 'The Young Montalbano', it must have been no easy feat to live up to such a good show and have a younger actor for the title character filling in very big shoes but 'The Young Montalbano' manages it splendidly.

Some may question the physical resemblances of the younger cast to 'Inspector Montalbano's' cast for continuity's sake, Mimi is a notable example. That was not an issue at all to me. With the previous two episodes "The First Case" and "New Years Eve" being so brilliant, of course there were high expectations for "Back to the Roots". So it was a relief to find yet another episode on the same level. It is notable for introducing Mimi Augello and what an introduction it is, true to his older version and just as interesting. Livia is immensely charming too.

"Back to the Roots", as hoped and expected, is beautifully shot and the scenery is stunning, making those who've never been to Italy want to book a holiday there as soon as possible and is a treat for anybody who loves all things Italian. The scenery as always is atmospheric and the use of it very clever, the locale as always is suitably colourful. The music is never over-bearing or low-key with a nice atmosphere and flavour, a lot of it is very cleverly used. The sound effects are remarkably authentic.

Oh, and something that was neglected to be mentioned by me in my reviews for the show and its individual episodes is how the food is enough to make one salivate over, it looks so delicious and almost too good to eat.

Part of 'The Young Montalbano's' appeal, and one of the prime examples being in "Back to the Roots" again, is how it manages to stay true to what was so good about 'Inspector Montalbano' and is every bit as successful at creating a history that is both incredibly interesting and plausible. The humour is fun, the conflict is tense in a nail-biting way and the drama charms and affects. Montalbano's personal life is even more complicated here. The characters as their younger selves, for what they lack in physical resemblance, more than make up for that in maintaining the same personalities we know and love the characters for and being just as interesting in development. Catarella when younger is just as hilarious, if more subtle. Even the supporting characters are given a lot of attention.

Very like the best episodes of 'The Young Montalbano', the story is well-paced, absorbing, intelligently written and brain-teasing, while keeping logic intact, not being too easy to solve (actually like 'Inspector Montalbano' it's pretty complex with more than one case going on) and not confusing or alienating the viewer. Some of it's disturbing too but not in a gratuitous way.

The acting is very good, Michele Riondino had a Herculean task filling the shoes of the incomparable Luca Zingaretti but is more than up to the task and does it more than admirably, balancing comedy, drama and intensity with ease. The characters of Mimi, Livia and Catatella are very well-filled, Alessio Vassallo is especially good as Mimi.

In summary, another brilliant episode. 10/10 Bethany Cox