A brilliant investigator with a checkered past, Inspector Giuseppe Lojacono was, at his previous post in Agrigento, falsely accused of passing info to the Mafia – info that helped mob boss Carmine Parisi escape justice. (He also has a rather unfortunate nickname, which thankfully is only referred to once in Season 2.) Wanting to make a fresh start, Lojacono agrees to the assignment in Naples, despite it being described to him as a “hellhole”. The only downside for him: a long-distance relationship with his teenage daughter, Marinella, who stays with his ex/her mother back home. Their fiery father-daughter conflicts will have to be long-distance – for now, at least. Upon arriving in Naples, Lojacono meets the new team, made up of new transfers like himself as well as two holdovers from the previous “regime” – plus their new boss, Palma.

A man seriously devoted to his beloved dog Nennella, Luigi Palma is the new chief of the Pizzofalcone Police Station, and it’s his job to get all the new, disparate personalities to function together. Their task: to close all pending cases (mostly petty) before the precinct is permanently closed on December 31^st. See, the previous Pizzofalcone team was seriously corrupt and in bed with the bad guys and drug dealers. So the clock is ticking – this is most certainly a temporary assignment. But Palma and Lojacono see it differently and push the team to open new investigations and tackle bigger cases. This they do, as Palma runs interference for them. He does this remarkably well, sheltering the squad from political machinations despite pressure from above.

Sgt. Ottavia Calabrese is one of the holdovers from the previous administration. An IT expert, Ottà is the station’s point person for data retrieval and online searches. At home, she and her husband face the challenge of raising their autistic son, Riccardo – one that puts a strain on their marriage. At work, Palma takes a serious liking to Ottavia – and she to him.

Giorgio Pisanelli, the other holdover, is recently widowed and was the station’s acting supervisor until Palma’s arrival. A workaholic despite some serious health issues, the 60-something Pisanelli is obsessed with a series of deaths that were hastily classified as “suicides” – but he’s convinced they were anything but. He calls upon the help of his good friend, the Franciscan monk Brother Leonardo, and together their inquiries lead them to conclude the “suicides” are actually murders, and a serial killer stalks the streets of Pizzofalcone…

Lt. Francesco Romano has anger issues, and that’s putting it mildly: violent and short-tempered, he was exiled to Pizzofalcone after almost strangling a suspect at his old station. At work, his rough methods can prove useful in corralling suspects and running down perps – he’s really the only one of the new team to fully earn the “Bastard” moniker. At home, he has an equally difficult relationship with his wife, Giorgia, which comes to a head over the course of these six episodes.

Officer Marco Aragona’s powerful family connections got him into the force in the first place – and his youth and brash manner tend to turn people off on first impression. But although he may act like a third-rate Inspector Coliandro, Aragona eventually settles into the job and proves to be an intuitive and insightful investigator. His conflicts with his family, particularly his father, continue: his dad has lined up a new job for his son in Avellino, but Marco wants to stay in Naples and be forge his own path. To this end, he’s moved out of the family home – and into a hotel.

Officer Alessandra “Alex” Di Nardo is the youngest member of the team, a weapons expert and firearms connoisseur nicknamed “Calamity Jane” – a passion she inherited from her father, a former general. As the series opens, she still lives with her parents, both very overbearing and oblivious to her homosexuality – they want her to settle down, get married and start a family. She keeps up the pretense with her imaginary boyfriend, Ernesto. Shortly after her reassignment to Pizzofalcone, Alex meets and embarks on a tentative relationship with Dr. Rosaria Martone, the head of forensics – a woman with a very unique taste in interior design, to say the least.

Not officially a member of “The Bastards”, Laura Piras is an ambitious and tenacious public prosecutor who spearheads the majority of the high-profile murder investigations in and around Naples – thus necessitating her close interaction with the Pizzofalcone team. She forges a strong working relationship with Chief Palma, and a much more personal one with Inspector Lojacono. Who can blame her, right? These beautiful people fall hard for each other, but Laura is the more hesitant of the two about mixing work and business.