A Professor 2: 4 things that didn’t convince us about this season

From the sofa at home we are excellent at doing anything, including writing a television series. This applies to foreign ones like game of Thrones but also for Italian ones like A professor which, for two years now, has gathered a very fierce fandom which, as it should be, expresses favor or dissent based on what happens on the screen even if those protests often turn into real obsessions that seem to neglect any other event in the world. The fandom’s protest is also legitimate from a certain point of view: hope to the end that Simone and Manuel, that is, the two protagonists played by Nicolas Maupas and Damiano Gavino, get together after kissing and going a little further – even if we don’t know for sure how much – during the first season. A professor he chose, however, to follow another path and to insist on other keys: some made sense and some left us perplexed too. This is why we decided to face it with complete serenity four points of this second season which needs to be clarified and which, perhaps, could have been developed differently.

The bisexuality of the story is there. Only it’s not Manuel’s, but Mimmo’s

The protest carried out more clearly by those who follow A professor And having overlooked Manuel’s attraction towards Simone, explaining that the topic of bisexuality has not been fully explored. Leaving aside the fact that Manuel seemed to be attracted to Simone once, since she no longer thought carnally about him during the episodes leaving that to be an isolated incidentit’s clear that A professor decided to explore the theme of the individual’s bisexuality not with Manuel but with Mimmo, who in the fiction is played by Dominic Cuomo. Mimmo says, in fact, that he had a relationship with a woman even though, in A Professor 2, ends up not only falling in love with Simone, but also having a sexual relationship with him. We realize that’s not what most fans wanted, but it’s what A professor he said. We could have chosen to face Manuel’s inner journey to try to delve deeper into his disagreements between his attraction to girls and that to Simone. but the truth is that, based on how the character was written and represented, Manuel seems perfectly happy and serene like this. From what we’ve seen Manuel is interested in girls, except for that night which, once closed, never recurred. It remains that bisexuality within A professor – it would be a lie to say otherwise – there is, and it is that of Mimmo who, over the episodes, has built a solid relationship with Simone. Which didn’t happen with Manuel.

Simone’s homophobic attack unfairly downplayed

At the beginning of the series Simone, as we have seen, is targeted by a group of bullies who think it is wrong. Simone, who is not a boy who sends word to her and who also plays rugby, he didn’t sit idle, although doing something against the strength of a pack is very difficult. And so, when he was about to give in to the disproportionate violence of a bully towards him, here comes Mimmo who gives the latter a blow to the head leaving him on the ground dying. Beyond the fact that Simone takes the blame for the attack in Mimmo’s place, at a certain point A Professor 2 shows Professor Dante Balestra justifying and minimizing what happened to his son by defining it a girlish. Maybe he did it to protect Mimmo, but we can’t say that the series gave the right importance to one form of discrimination which unfortunately is still very strong in our country. The homophobic kids should have paid for what they did and Dante, who has always been on the front line against injustice, should have been the spokesperson for that battle both as a teacher and as a father. Unfortunately this did not happen, and we did not like this.

The disasters committed by Dante Balestra

Although the most interesting stories are those of children, it is Dante (Alessandro Gassmann) the true fulcrum of the story even if, in this second season, he has done even more than the first. First by cheating on Anita (Claudia Pandolfi) with Floriana (Christiane Filangieri), choosing to withdraw into himself and not say anything, and then driving away his loved ones when he learned he was at risk of a brain hemorrhage which could have cost him his life. Dante, however, not only says he doesn’t want to undergo the operation, but he also demonstrates it a certain form of selfishness because the thought of being able to leave his son alone doesn’t even remotely occur to him until the latter shows him his concern. The scene of their embrace is beautiful, but the constant messes that Dante makes inside A professor perhaps they are becoming a bit too much, given that at a certain point it seems that the kids are more mature and conscientious than the adults – except when Nina chooses to kidnap her daughter and run away abroad, putting Manuel at great risk too.

The sexual assault on Luna

Among the many topics of which A professor he acted as spokesperson there is also that of the gender violence. It happens thanks to Luna’s character (Luna Miriam Iansante) who, at a certain point, decides to meet in person the boy to whom she has been sending her risqué photos on her phone for some time. The two see each other, but it doesn’t take much for the girl to understand that his intentions are to take advantage of her together with his friends. Intervening to save her before it’s too late are Dante (and who else?), Simone and Manuel, who put the scoundrels to flight while protecting Luna. The problem, however, is another: taking note of the fact that the police would never have intervened on the spot because the evidence suggesting a possible attack was not sufficient, why didn’t the series show the continuation that we would have been most interested in seeing, that is, how justice would punish the rapists? Showing on Rai1 that actions have consequences would perhaps have helped the cause much more than Manuel and Simone’s saving intervention, or not?

What to do when we no longer like a series?

Thus we arrive at the heart of the matter: A professorproduced by Banijay Studios Italy, it’s not a perfect series, but there is no doubt that he tried to tell the many facets of adolescence by addressing many implications. From homosexuality to bisexuality, passing through disability, racism and gender violence. We agree that the issues have not always been addressed in the most appropriate way but, so, what can we do? Go ahead and watch A professor because, even if the story doesn’t continue as we would have liked, it is still capable of keeping us company and making us feel less alone, or not? This is the point to focus on because, if we no longer like a series, perhaps it would be best to leave it alone so as not to poison our existence with narrative twists that we won’t see. Insisting on the path of often ruthless criticism risks not being constructive for anyone: neither for disappointed fans nor for the screenwriters who try to do their job to the best of their ability