The Best TV-MA Movies to Watch (+Language: Italian)

Despite reportedly having a hundred-million budget, Those About to Die looks laughably cheap. From the CGI backdrops that take us to 10 different locations in the first 20 minutes to the inconsistent costumes, poor lighting, and cheesy narration, almost everything about the show is off-putting. Even the brief presence of Sir Anthony Hopkins can’t save […]

With years of films depicting Italian crime syndicates, most focus on their leaders – the Dons, the Capos, and the Consiglieres. Most of them focus on the mafia’s men. However, in this series, it’s the women who are the stars of the show. Based on the novel of the same name, The Good Mothers is […]

From the title alone, A Murder at the End of the World is, of course, a murder mystery, a whodunit set in an isolated location, a la Agatha Christie. But the second TV collaboration of showrunners Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij infuses amateur forum-based sleuthing, with contemplation of technological dependence and on human connection. It […]

Also known as Rabo de Peixe, after the real town where the series is based, Turn of the Tide follows a group of four friends, who dream of a life outside their hometown, where nothing ever happens. Except, something does finally happen, and it’s whole packs of cocaine washing up on the island’s shores. It’s […]

Based on a novel, The Lying Life of Adults might feel, at first, like a standard Netflix coming-of-age series, complete with vintage styling (the 90’s, this time) and teenage shenanigans, like skipping classes, preoccupation over sex, and rebelling against parental disapproval. Sure, the show does go through these moments, but the writing of original novelist […]

After the ending of the show Suburra: Blood on Rome, it had seemed like there was nowhere else for the franchise to go, with plenty of the main cast dead. But after three years, the world of Suburra is back on Netflix in Suburræterna, and despite the chaos that reigns in Rome, there are still […]

Heist movies and TV shows as of late have been trying to experiment with form more than substance. In the case of the Italian series Everybody Loves Diamonds, we’re shown the actual heist right from the beginning, as the show then moves back and forth through time to track the investigators right on the thieves’ […]

As impressive as Vasco Rossi’s life was, it’s hard to connect to someone you haven’t heard of, which is probably why this docuseries is best seen by die-hard music fans alone. The series takes its time to introduce Rossi and explain his impact on Italian music, but even then, it can seem like something you’ve […]

There is a warm glow and a languid mood about We Are Who We Are that makes it feel familiar for anyone who’s seen Luca Guadagnino’s works. But this eight-part series is longer than the auteur’s films (a stacked list that includes Call Me By Your Name and Bones and All), and so it can […]

Cassie Bowen (Kaley Cuoco) is a hot mess. She’s flirty, flighty, and constantly blackout drunk, so when she wakes up one day to find a dead man next to her, it’s not entirely beyond the realm of possibility that she’s responsible for it. But as Cassie uncovers new memories over time, it gets harder and […]

The drug trade is international, but it is rarely portrayed as such on TV. Drug thrillers often take place in one country and in one or two languages (usually Spanish and English) – but in reality, there are producers, buyers, and sellers, all based in different parts of the world. So a show depicting the […]

Fans of Stephen King would likely know how long the fictional town of Castle Rock stood in his novels. Hulu’s Castle Rock weaves two original tales based on what is known about this strange, strange town, with the first season centered on a mysterious inmate and the second centered on a mentally ill nurse. While […]

This wonderful Italian epic made by HBO was a huge hit in Italy but remains little-known elsewhere. It’s based on four famous books that tell the coming-of-age story of two brilliant girls who grow up in a poor suburb on Naples in the 1950s. It also has scenes from the current time where one of […]