As most viewers already know, the series Detective Montalbano was inspired by the blockbuster crime fiction of Andrea Camilleri. Camilleri wrote about the Sicily he grew up in, one which no longer exists 90 years after his childhood. (As of this writing, he’s 93.) In his strange, fantastic stories and novels about Commissario Salvo Montalbano, he depicted the scenes and characters from his early years in the coastal town of Porto Empedocle. Some things in his writing will escape me always, as a non-Italian, non-Sicilian speaker… such as the flipping back and forth between Sicilian and Italian, his plays on words and his invented words. But there’s another aspect to his writing that transcends language and is accessible to all – his depiction of side characters. It seems a misnomer to call them minor because each one is so fully realized and interesting. They stay in your head, like a Dickens or a Tolstoy character – their passions and inner world are so real. Here’s an example – the young man, Lillo Scotto, talking about his crush on his boss, the seamstress, Elena.

Kudos also go to the scriptwriting team working with Camilleri – Francesco Bruni, Salvatore de Mola, Leonardo Marini and Valentina Alferi – and to director Alberto Sironi who always makes impeccable casting choices. Together, year after year, the team assembles the elements for magic.

The most magical element of all, of course, being Sicily. Especially the way it looks in the Detective Montalbano series – very few cars, empty, sunwashed streets, and that fantastic light. Just like Tano Cariddi (Remo Girone) says in The Octopus Season 3, episode 6, “You did well to come here… Sicily is beautiful this time of year.”

Detective Montalbano is available exclusively on MHz Choice.