Christian 2, review: even angels have guns
Christian 2, review
“What did you see? What did you hear? What did you try?” These would be precisely the questions to ask those returning from the other world, and it is with these great questions that the first season of Christian leaves us, the series by Roberto Saku Cinardi directed by Stefano Lodovichi.
Christian 2 --> The "forced utopia" produced by Sky Studios and Lucky Red is about to return. Christian 2 is coming to Sky and streaming on NOW (find out how to subscribe) starting March 24 with 6 new episodes. The faces of Edoardo Pesce , Silvia D'Amico , Antonio Bannò , Claudio Santamaria and many others return in a second season which takes up various plot points left unsolved, in a journey between crime, drama, comedy and mystery.
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Christian 2: between a mystery and a laugh
This particular TV series was born as a curious but immediately convincing experiment , with balanced narrative rhythms and stimulating dialogues, which manages to touch the theme of the supernatural and spirituality with new expedients and languages, all in Italian. The first season (here our review) shows the figure of Christian, a criminal from the Roman suburbs under the wing of the boss Lino (Giordano De Plano). After a life spent in crime, an event is ready to change his life: the appearance of mysterious stigmata on his hands initiates an opposite path, aimed at doing good deeds and at a possible redemption. As Christian and his neighbor Rachel go through this change together, Matthew, a Vatican emissary with a miraculous past, unravels the great secrets of the new Roman messiah.Christian 2 -- > Even with the second season, the series confirms itself as a well-written product, which brings new narrative dynamics to the table, more complex but always well calibrated. Once again Christian's exploits attract more and more people from the neighborhood tormented by Lino's violence, people who find their own faith, the sick who want to heal, even the dead who need to be resurrected. And to quote one of the titles from the previous season: "But not for free". With a pinch of almost grotesque comedy, conveyed by a Romanesque colouring, the lever is still on turning everything into a business: Christian is a miracle machine. This is a leitmotif that often manages to make inroads in the public, with a veiled and “clever” sense of humor – almost in the footsteps of the saga I can stop when I want and the like. Behind this nice find, however, much deeper food for thought is hidden, with a truly unexpected twist in the plot capable of radically changing the tenor of the series.
Not even Christian 2 lacks a darker side. The violence becomes increasingly raw and outspoken, but the spiritual and mystical dimension also causes a sense of unease: miraculous events, particular visions, angelic figures. We don't resort to who knows what technical expedients to give life to a supernatural dimension, on the contrary we try to propose the opposite: a surreality that seems as real as possible. This is how mysterious otherworldly figures appear as ordinary human beings in real places, whether it is a room or a vast countryside on the Roman outskirts. A dimly lit environment or an object covered by a white veil manages to disturb the viewer much more than any special effect.
The devil and holy water
Christian's road intertwines several times with that of Matteo, a darker character who here becomes a real co-star. The two are like day and night, and the stereotype of the forced and burino Roman meets a reserved and composed man, with an impenetrable mind, two opposites whose path is more similar than one might think. In the new season their being two great nemeses is accentuated even more, embroiled in a struggle between good and evil that does not always bring the expected implications to the screen. Who is the devil and who is the holy water? Probably none. Christian 2 teaches how the concepts of right and wrong, good and bad, are more fleeting than ever. One is always on the razor's edge between faith and fanaticism, between the idea of leading and the thirst to command, in a continuous carousel of sinners who punish other sinners, with a subtle but wise criticism of precepts to be questioned.-->
Christian 2 Edoardo Pesce and Claudio Santamaria respectively step into their roles impeccably, giving comedy or seriousness just enough to be credible. The two characters are perfectly poised between reality and the surreal, open to a spirituality that has arrived almost by magic, but with deep roots, and at the same time rigidly anchored to tangible life, and to feelings and emotions such as love, hate , revenge and forgiveness.
However, the second season of the Sky series never loses its collective dimension. If it is true that Christian and Matteo become the two key figures here, the eye is always vigilant on the poor conditions of the Italian suburbs, on crime and delinquency, as well as on the individual stories of secondary but never marginal characters, such as Rachele and Davide, another young henchman in Lino's gang. These evolve, their stories are amplified and the viewer's lens can dig deeper and deeper, to discover new psychological and interpersonal dynamics.
