I made the mistake of watching the first episodes of the second series of Romanzo Criminale without refreshing my memory about the first which was developed after the successful 2005 film.
The fictitious crime drama series does follow actual events in Rome
’s crime history and the role of corrupt politicians. The Crime gang whose history is featured in the two series was in fact a combination of two gangs of young men who dreamed of becoming big time and eventually controlled drug distribution throughout Rome, leading the high life of fast cars and gambling but also attempt to establish themselves through financial investments.
The first series ended with the leader of the combined group known as Lebanese who was rejected by his mother because of his criminality and is gunned down by two brothers, why I cannot remember. The first two episodes deal with the aftermath of the killing. Towards the end of series Lebanese had become wild and unstable and with the second in command attempting to go straight because of a serious relationship with a young woman who had previously been the girl friend of his brother who he had worked hard to keep in college and out of trouble. The impact of the girl turning to Freddo led the brother to dropping out of higher education and taking drugs.
The death of Leban and the instinctive need for revenge results in Freddo abandoning plans to leave Rome with Roberta and to become unofficial leader. The gang are not members of the Mafia but have an arrangement as they have with right wing political gigues and their placed men in position of power in the police and judiciary. They want to give authority to Dandi, a young man with a liking for fine things especially Patrizia originally a high class beautiful whore but now runs a whore house for him with the help of her male gay companion
The complication is that the young police detective Commissario Scialoja has a grand passion for her and she had shown interest in him. His hands are not clean and is regarded as a Communist sympathizer because his sister was part of a communist action group and who arranged to leave Italy when she was about to be arrested.
In these two second series episodes the vultures gather over what appears the breaking up if the gang, They kill one man for boasting he was responsible for the Libanese’s death and then one of the two brothers thought to be responsible.
The Commissioner then picks up Freddo’s brother and holds him in jail knowing that there will be an attempt to get to him by enemies of the Freddo and that Freddo will be forced into action. Freddo’s attempts to protect his brother in jail while he gets his lawyer to seek the release fails and the young man is beaten up and susceptible to pressure from the Commissioner and agrees to wear a wire and attempt to trap his brother. This does not work and Freddo sends his brother packing.
Freddo is also at sixes and sevens with Roberto infuriating her when he abandon the trip away but she then gives him alibi for the killing of one of the brother thought responsible for Libanese. Later when she appears to waiver he sends her away knowing what he has to and the likely implications, especially with the Commissioner hot on his trail.
The second series opened with a flash back to how Libanese and two other formed the nucleus of their gang as boys. There is anger when they discovers that Libanese’s cars have gone and when they discover they have been taken by his father he is given the opportunity to save himself not by getting back the expensive ones but the Mini which they used in the early days. This is then pushed down a mountainside so that no one else can use the vehicle.
They also insist on the immediate liquidation of his assets in order to provide a funeral fit for a king but his mother rejects the money and one of his closest friends steals the coffin which he places in the best available so he and the other have a wake. They do this with special food and drink before returning the coffin to the mother and attending the formal funeral where the Commissioner also attends.
The police take the other brother to stop him being killed by the group and to test for evidence of his guilt but the secret power group delay returning the findings but let Freddo see a copy in order to enable the group to get their revenge and settle things. Freddo then agrees that Dandi as the driver and two other should undertake the assassination of the other brother once he is released from custody. When this starts to go wrong Dandi freezes from putting himself in the firing line to pick up the under fire other two one of whom is wounded. Dandi returns to Patrizia to lick his wounds having been approached to take over the gang by other interests. However he may not have bargained that one of the two others getting away by taking a hostage.
Freddo also tracks down to person who sold the brother the drugs and finds that she is a feisty female who points out the brother was an established addict in need and that she is best local distributor than all the others. Freddo’s makes enquiries and puts her in charge of the area previously managed by the Libanese much to the anger of another of the hangs with whom the Roman group had previous problems.
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