Gomorrah: Italy's Greatest Crime Saga – TheAttReviews Review

🎭 The Immortal Lives: Iconic Characters & Performances

If Gomorrah's storytelling is exceptional, its characters are legendary. Chief among them is Ciro "l'Immortale" Di Marzio – a character whose very nickname, The Immortal, has become the stuff of TV legend.

The Twin Pillars:

Marco D'Amore as Ciro – D'Amore's portrayal is both ferocious and subtle. He dominates the screen with quiet menace, conveying Ciro's ruthless efficiency through icy stares and restrained body language. Yet beneath the hitman's stoic exterior, he lets flickers of soul and sorrow emerge, hinting at the humanity Ciro has buried deep. It's a performance of minimalist intensity that makes "The Immortal" utterly compelling and eerily believable as a man who always comes back for more.

Salvatore Esposito as Gennaro – Esposito undergoes a remarkable transformation over the series. In the beginning, his Genny is a chubby, naïve mob heir living in his father's shadow. By the end, Esposito has convincingly morphed Genny into a cold-blooded crime lord who can instill fear with a single glare. The actor brings a nuanced depth to this journey, shading Genny with moments of self-doubt, desperation, and steely resolve.

Supporting Cast Excellence:

Gomorrah's world feels alive with memorable characters beyond the two leads:

• Fortunato Cerlino is magnetic as Don Pietro Savastano, Genny's iron-fisted father whose old-school brutality casts a long shadow
• Maria Pia Calzone, as Genny's mother Imma, brings a quiet ferocity and shrewdness, showing that behind every great don may stand an equally formidable donna
• The show also presents a rogues' gallery of gangsters – from the flamboyant rival Salvatore Conte to the venomous drug queen Scianel – each portrayed with scene-stealing conviction

"Crucially, Gomorrah never turns its mobsters into caricatures or superheroes. These are flawed, dangerous, flesh-and-blood people, and the performances drive that home."

The Result: By the time the credits roll, the aura and legend built around The Immortal and his compatriots ensure that their place in crime drama history is sealed. The Immortal lives on in the pantheon of great television anti-heroes, and Genny's tragic arc stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the Tony Sopranos and Walter Whites of the world.

🎨 Neapolitan Noir: Gritty Realism and Style

One of the first things you'll notice about Gomorrah is its uncompromising visual realism. The show is largely filmed on location in Naples – often in the infamous Vele di Scampia housing projects – and it shows.

Authentic Urban Battleground:

The camera doesn't flinch from the graffiti-stained stairwells, claustrophobic concrete apartments, or the stark high-rise slums known locally as "Le Vele" (the sails). This isn't the postcard Italy of tourist brochures; it's a bleak urban battleground bathed in harsh neon light and shadow.

The filmmakers transform Naples itself into a character – from the labyrinthine alleyways of Secondigliano to the looming presence of Mount Vesuvius on the skyline, there's a constant reminder that in this city, beauty and violence co-exist.

Visual Style and Technique:

Director Stefano Sollima and his colleagues adopted a striking neo-noir style that blends cinematic flair with documentary-like grit. The color palette often tilts toward cold blues and grays, mirroring the emotional coldness of gang life, yet bursts of rich color (flickers of warm light in a cramped church, the garish glow of a nightclub) punctuate key moments.

Every frame feels authentic – you'll see:

• Laundry lines flapping over battered balconies
• Football-obsessed kids chasing a ball (one memorable touch: a gang of boys naming their scrappy street dog Neymar after the soccer star)
• Weathered nonnas observing criminal goings-on from their windows

"Such minuscule details ground the series deeply in Naples' culture."

Sound and Music:

Cinematographically, Gomorrah opts for a kinetic, immersive approach. Hand-held camera work and tight close-ups put us right in the tension – whether it's a hushed conversation in dialect or a sudden drive-by shooting, the viewer feels present.

The soundtrack by the band Mokadelic deserves special mention: brooding electronic beats and mournful melodies swell in at just the right moments, amplifying the sense of dread or tragedy. In quiet scenes, you might only hear the distant wail of a siren or the echo of prayers at a roadside shrine, grounding us in a living, breathing city.

The Result: All these elements combine to transport the audience into the Camorra's realm. Watching Gomorrah, you almost smell the gunpowder and feel the Neapolitan heat. Few shows outside of perhaps The Wire have achieved such a perfect marriage of setting, tone, and story, and in Gomorrah every shot fired and every tear shed feels earned and real.

📈 From Book to Screen: Saviano's Legacy and Adaptations

It's impossible to talk about Gomorrah without crediting Roberto Saviano, the man who started it all. Saviano's 2006 book Gomorrah: A Personal Journey into the Camorra exposed the bleak realities of the Neapolitan crime syndicate with unprecedented courage – so much so that local mob bosses marked him for death.

The Author's Courage:

The author, who grew up in Naples amidst the very horrors he described, wrote the book as a fearless act of truth-telling. As a result, he has lived under police protection for over a decade, dodging assassination attempts (including foiled car bombs) by the Camorra.

"This harrowing real-life saga lends Gomorrah the series an extra layer of authenticity and gravitas – the world we see on screen is deeply informed by Saviano's first-hand knowledge and personal sacrifice."

It's a rare case where the creator's own story is nearly as dramatic as the fiction. Unsurprisingly, the show's lore and setting draw heavily from Saviano's reportage, and he deserves full credit for providing the rich, terrifying sandbox in which these characters play.

Screen Adaptations:

Yet, equally, credit is due to those who adapted and expanded Saviano's work for the screen. The TV series diverges from the book's nonfiction format, inventing its own characters like Ciro and Genny while capturing the essence of Saviano's findings.

Under the guidance of showrunner Stefano Sollima and writers like Leonardo Fasoli, Gomorrah the show has accomplished something truly remarkable: it stays true to the spirit of truth in Saviano's book while crafting an original, edge-of-your-seat narrative.

The Broader Universe:

For those interested in Gomorrah's broader universe, it's worth noting the other adaptations of Saviano's work:

• 2008 Film: Director Matteo Garrone released the film Gomorrah, a hard-hitting ensemble drama loosely based on the same book (won the Grand Prix at Cannes)
• Spin-off Film: L'Immortale (The Immortal, 2019), helmed by and starring Marco D'Amore, dives into the backstory of Ciro Di Marzio

Final Thought: Roberto Saviano's ongoing ordeal – living in hiding in his own country – underscores the real-world stakes behind this story. Gomorrah's existence as a series is practically an act of defiance against the Camorra's intimidation. In that sense, every episode is imbued with a bit of Saviano's rebellious spirit.