Due to the fact that in the previous text I avoided spoilers, this time there will be a lot of them. If you don't want to spoil your experience, skip further reading.
So not prolonging. I do not know how faithful this story is to the facts, but I assume that the most important elements took place (in one form or another - sometimes you need to change the chronology of events or other things, because, for example, they do not fit into the series narrative or are difficult to transfer satisfactorily. into the language of the film), e.g. the death of important characters or their ideas. I really liked the swindle of the main Mafia Boss of Naples. He perfectly showed what one of the standard threats to which older people are exposed looks like. It was so real that although I was considering such a scenario myself (after he was imprisoned), I believed he was really sick! Even when he was rescued, I initially thought Ciro wanted to get rid of him, the scene in which the young gangster said that Big Boss didn't mean anything anymore. He wasn't even touched by the news of his wife's death, wow! I am equally delighted with the story of the other gentleman. His character is extremely multidimensional, I haven't thought so long about one character and its ambiguity for a long time. I think I changed my opinion about him 4 times - first I considered him a solid, faithful soldier of Pietro Savastano, then a clever rat escaping from a sinking ship, then pure evil that has no emotions in it (as she wisely and accurately summarized him Immacolata, we men can't, or at least most of us), I'm currently at the stage that he's a cynical opportunist. Wise, clever, a bit greedy, but able to stay on the wave for a long time, like an experienced politician or surfer. Kind of like Littlefinger from Game of Thrones. As with Pietro, this actor perfectly impersonated his role, which I can basically say about all the important characters in this series. When I saw this gentleman, I didn't see Marco D'Amore, just a fucking traitor, selfish and gangster who would commit any meanness to achieve his goal. You can despise people like Pietro's wife, but it is also worth paying attention to (and even admiring) his intelligence, adaptation skills to new conditions, or the pursuit of a chosen goal.
And since it is speech, as I wrote in the previous text - I was captivated by its character. To paraphrase a saying familiar from my area - while her husband was in prison, she had to throw away her dress and wear pants like a man. She took over his duties, temporarily stabilized the situation in Naples, made her spoiled son a man. I really liked her and was sad to be murdered by Ciro, but it was to be expected. With all due respect, women are less likely to be mafia bosses (as I wrote in the anime review "Kingdom", it is harder to find a woman who meets the necessary criteria). Before I explain it, this short explanation would not be a hypocrite. Yes, I wrote several times that women can be more ruthless than men, they are often better organized (and for this reason they are better suited to work that requires accuracy), but unfortunately their emotions and the ability to deal with them are their weakness in this case . Already ignoring the fact that she took pity on the injured family and got rid of the moneylender because she had made a much worse mistake. Immacolata made a good diagnosis of the risk to her family, but chose the wrong way to deal with the problem. She thought too much about the solution, and acted too little - such threats must be eliminated, not let go free - threats do not impress such people, only the lead loaded in their heads speaks to them. Even though she had prepared a plan B, Ciro was a few steps ahead of her and did what Imma was supposed to do. Despite this, I liked her bitchy face, the approach to managing the "family business", using people (admittedly for the wrong purpose, but on the other hand giving them jobs), or the Catholic faith important to Italians, but she lacked experience + she showed for a lot of goodness. By the way, I am surprised that she criticized her husband's subordinate so much, and did not see the same (or even worse) in her husband.
As for the general opinion, although the S2 does not differ from the first in terms of the amount of content (I could even say that there is even more of it), I liked it less. I don't know why it is, I gave a few reasons during the screening (when I commented on these events aloud), but when I started writing notes to this text, I was not convinced of them. Or else, each of them is true to some extent, but I can't take any of them to be decisive factors. There are less experienced actors, the action focuses mainly on the most important characters or those of little or medium importance. As a result, the former are a bit boring for me, and the latter do not have much skills, because why invest your budget on talented episodic or (at best for them) third-plan actors? There is even more action and content (especially some scenes, e.g. a car chase - if you watch, you'll understand what I'm talking about, it's fucking good!), But because the series shows everything quite meticulously, without exaggerated shortcuts, they dominate smaller scale scenes. Or at least I think so, I haven't done a detailed analysis so I might be a bit wrong about the build quality. In the case of the "power" of individual events, the 1st season more often caused the "WOW! But that was good!" Effect in me. It's not a big drop in quality, maybe it's my fault because I watch it too often (1 episode every day until dinner), but it bothered me a bit. There are a few other reasons as well, but most of them have been fixed or improved over the course of this season, so I don't think they're worth mentioning.
I can definitely praise both seasons for showing two important threads well. In 1, it was the theme of Gennaro's transformation and Ciro's lack of affection (changed in 2), and in 2, a development of this thread - the alliance leader is not quite as bastard as it was shown in S1 (Ciro said explicitly that he is not like Pietro and the spirits of his victims keep him awake at night, which confirms his behavior. You can see that he does not manipulate, does not lie and is not duplicitous, and each of these features is not unknown to him) and shows the difference between a democratic and authoritarian approach to mafia management. Although Ciro had a good cause, as his old Don rightly pointed out, it is very difficult to run such an organization in a democratic manner. You have to be a ruthless bastard who follows his rules (or at least has enough strength to control his soldiers, and the rest will fear him more than Ciro's men). Pietro rightly noticed that dogs attack other dogs too much, fighting for small things. In this way, they weaken their value to other gangs and their internal coherence, and as Don (once again) wisely noted, a common direction is very important. Not only in the context of faster achievement of the goals contained in the strategy, but also for other reasons. Simply put, a democracy in which everyone has an equal vote often performs worse than one where the weight of the vote depends on the ratings (in the case of politics and elections - e.g. knowledge, education, contribution to society, in the case of the mafia - e.g. real influence, knowledge or actual strength). Ciro has shown naivety and ignorance, but he is young, so it is understandable.
Coming back to Gennaro's transformation - I felt that it would come to this, because the alternative was his death (and this, as you can easily guess, was excluded). I liked this boy and his relaxed approach to life, but there is no need to hide it - it does not fit the world of criminals. At first, he was even less suited to it than his mother, who had known for years that he was too weak and stupid for the position. His world revolved around parties, easy girls, and impressing his friends with his father's standing, his soldiers, and his resources. As the unsuccessful attempt to defile his manhood showed, without strong shock therapy he would not be able to manage his father's mafia empire. After the events in South America, he was forced to redefine his life so far, i.e. to abandon or reduce his faults, pity and weaknesses, while strengthening his strengths. Initially, he relied solely on his strength, but luckily for the audience, he began to use his brain over time and became more sophisticated. It is true that it is not too big, but with each episode, it gains more and more of my sympathy. When I watch it on the screen, I feel like I saw one of my colleagues from the street where I grew up (of course, apart from all the bad qualities of Gennaro) - even when he persuades someone to do something wrong, he does it with such ease in his head sympathetic a smile on his face that is impossible to like.
All in all, as I said, even though there is more going on in Season 2 + I think it has a higher budget, overall I'm a bit disappointed with it. The second half is admittedly more interesting, but just like after S1 I was genuinely interested in what would happen next (especially after such a final, the shootout between Gennaro and Ciro was wonderful!), The second half filled me too much. Even the scene of Pietro's death did not impress me, but this is probably because he deserved it + it was predictable. When he entered the cemetery and asked the guards to stay in the car, I knew Ciro would kill him. I wanted to stop at this point and finally watch the new season of "Baki" on Netflix (if only for a week to take a break from "Gomorra"), but I watched S3E1 from momentum and decided that I would do it after the third. There were too many things going on in it that I can forget, so in order not to waste an hour, I will watch this one. It could have been better, but still, it is pretty good - especially against the background of disappointing Netflix series and season 2 of "Euphoria" (and if its level does not rise, I will rather end my adventure with HBO production). If 3, 4 and 5 keep more or less the same level (and 3 is promising so far), I will definitely watch the whole thing. But I'll probably have to take another break after S4. My S2 rating is a strong +6/10.
