The Miracle / Il Miracolo - Sky Atlantic

Butson

Started last night, enjoyed it.
Italian with Subtitles

Review here -

As the latest Italian crime drama to hit our screens, The Miracle has a couple of things in common with Gomorrah and Suburra. There is the Catholic obsession with faith, for one thing, and there are, of course, buckets of blood, but that’s about it. Because this isn’t any old Neapolitan mobster blood, but rather the crimson tears streaming down the face of a plastic statuette of the Virgin Mary. Nine litres an hour.


It’s inexplicable, and a measure of a drama that offers something different from the usual mafiosi, operatic betrayals and corrupt politicians, which, let’s face it, we’ve seen a lot of since The Godfather. Instead, as the benevolent Italian prime minister gazes at the blood-spurting figure, here’s a drama that is so hushed, solemn and weird that it’s almost flirting with being deadpan satire.

A white-coated boffin explained to the prime minister: “Imagine squeezing an orange; the juice will always weigh less than the orange itself. So far, since we’ve been here, a statue that weighs 2 kilos and 300 grams has produced more than 600 litres of blood.” The prime minister nodded solemnly and furrowed his brow as he realised he had bigger fish to fry than calling a referendum to leave the EU. For in Italy a weeping statue is a national emergency.


What could this holy MacGuffin mean? A warning? A symbol for the spiritual bankruptcy of elite society (which we saw contrasted with despair on the streets)? A cipher triggering crisis in each person who sees it? So far it’s not clear, but certainly everyone seems depressed, and perhaps a telling twist came at the end when a vile, whoring sleazebag — shambling about looking like some decayed 1970s-era Marlon Brando — was revealed to be a high-level priest and pillar of the community. At the close he gave a sermon of staggering hypocrisy about the need to walk according to the spirit (“You must not be led to satisfy the desires of the flesh”). Frankly, I’d weep blood if I had this man as my representative.

Moving as slow as a Mass, this opening double bill of the novelist Niccolo Ammaniti’s drama lulled you into its strange, dislocated world. It could be the most distinctive two hours of television I’ve seen this year. Clearly, there really is something about Mary.



james.jackson@thetimes.co.uk

cozar

Really enjoyed this. The ending makes me think there could be 2nd series. A bit puzzled over the part at the end to do with salvo.

pinkypinky

Just finished this. Really liked it.

Major spoilery question:

The mob boss in the first episode who is discovered with the statue - is he the father of Beatrice who dies under suspicious circumstances? And therefore, are we watching his story in a different timeline to the rest of it? I.e. Are we to presume that the bleeding statue that Salvo and Nicolino take away is the same one?

Full_Circle_81

^I would say yes to all three spoiler questions above, though I myself didn't realise it was the same person till much later in the show.

I really enjoyed the show. I found it very affecting!

pinkypinky

Agreed. Am still thinking about it. They left the door open for a second series.