For Lovers of Italian Dramas

The newest Italian drama to come to MHz Choice is Ever After, which chronicles a marriage in reverse as we start with the divorce between Anna (Greta Scarano, Detective Montalbano) and Enrico (Simone Liberati, Petra). Once a custody battle begins for their shared son, a social worker retraces their marriage and parenting, and we see both happier times full of love and buried deep secrets. The former couple’s scorched Earth campaign against each other has consequences for themselves and their son.

Based on the true story of the “Children of Selvino”, a group of over 800 Jewish children who survived the Holocaust and were cared for in a Northern Italian town. The series follows a team of caretakers who help their young charges in the aftermath of tragedy.

Based on the novels by Alessandro Robecchi (Questa non è una canzone d’amore and Di rabbia e di vento), Monterossi starts with a literal bang. Ex-TV writer Carlo Monterossi (Fabrizio Bentivoglio) decides to leave the popular show he helped create. The first episode without him at the helm is about to debut when someone tries to murder him at home. No stranger to scripted drama and with time on his hands Monterossi dives into his own dramatic investigation over who tried to kill him and why.

Teen angst and past mistakes play out in both a Roman high school and the complicated life of philosophy teacher Dante Balestra (Alessandro Gassmann, Bastards of Pizzofalcone). Dante, after many years of absence, returns to Rome to live with his 16-year-old son Simone (Nicolas Maupas, The Sea Beyond). Their relationship more closely resembles a dramatic odd couple than father-son as they each navigate confronting their past together and apart. The series is based on “Merli” created by Héctor Lozano.

Screen legend Sophia Loren plays her own mother in this two-part biopic based on the memoir of Anna Maria Scicolone, Sophia Loren’s sister. Love, mistakes, resentment, and lucky breaks are all baked into this wider story of Loren’s family.

Set in the late 1960s, The Saggese family agrees to an arranged marriage. Maria (Serena Rossi) agrees to marry Vittorio Bassi (Maurizio Donadoni) and move to his farm in Northern Italy. Only, it isn’t Vittorio she marries, but his nephew Italo (Giorgio Marchesi) who is rumored to have been involved in his first wife’s death. We follow Maria as she builds a life for herself, becoming more ensconced in her new home before past events and past loves return to test her resolve.

Elena Zonin (Vittoria Puccini) has been on a years-long pursuit of an organized pedophile network when a body is found in the Venice Lagoon. Elena quickly suspects it’s connected to her investigation, and she finds herself heading back to Venice after a 20-year absence. From the creators of the critically acclaimed Gomorrah, this limited series packs a visceral dramatic punch.

The hottest show coming out of Italy, The Sea Beyond follows the lives of young men and women serving time in a juvenile detention center on the Gulf of Naples. The series centers around Filippo (Nicolas Maupas, Un Professore) and Carmine (Massimiliano Caiazzo) who have each made tragic mistakes that landed them behind bars. The Sea Beyond is brimming with both drama and romance, with the added wrinkle of living in a detention center. What’s not to love?

In this coming-of-age drama Italian drama, learning music may be the easiest obstacle to navigate as the series follows seven talented musicians at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan under the strict tutelage of Maestro Marioni (Alessio Boni), known to his students as “the bastard”. Matteo (Leonardo Mazzarotto) is a violinist who is a sensitive newcomer. Barbara (Fotinì Peluso) is an accomplished singer whose ambitions don’t always match the expectations from her family. Dominic (Emanuele Misuraca) has effortless talent and finds himself in a love triangle with his new friend Matteo and Barbara. Music becomes a refuge for the insecure cellist Sofia (Chiara Pia Aurora) and shy pianist Robbo (Ario Sgroi), who are foils to the rebellious Rosario (Francesco Tozzi) on the drums. Visually impaired violinist Sara (Hildegard De Stefano) rounds out the seven.

This tale of immigration to the U.S. begins in Sicily in 1921. Carmela Carrizzo (Luisa Ranieri) and her family are peasants working under the supervision of a brutal mafia boss. A series of events leaves the family nowhere to turn except for the promise of a safe passage to America. Over the course of two seasons the series chronicles the trials and tribulations of starting over in New York City.

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