The King, the review: Luca Zingaretti's series is increasingly dark

«Mattia Torre said “Hell is full of second seasons”, because second seasons usually never manage to meet the expectations that the first ones had created. In this case, however, I am really very satisfied with the result.” And one cannot disagree with Luca Zingaretti who returns in the role of The king, the absolute monarch of San Michele prison. In this second season of the Sky Original prison drama – produced by Sky Studios with Lorenzo Mieli for The Apartment and with Wildside, broadcast from 12 April on Sky (and streaming on NOW) – the omnipotent director Bruno Testori alias Zingaretti becomes increasingly dark. Besides being behind bars. The first season, in fact, ended with his arrest. Now Testori is a prisoner of his own kingdom. «Before he almost had the right of life and death over his inmates», says the actor, «and now suddenly he finds himself inside a dark and dark cell, with his loyalists transferred, but above all with the prison population who he can't wait to skin him». What is the plan to become free and regain power? First of all, Zingaretti specifies, «stay alive».

He will be the one to get him out a deal, very difficult to comply with. Which – without spoilers – will test his idea of ​​justice, and of good and evil, even more. «Bruno constantly finds himself having to choose between an evil and a lesser evil, while trying not to betray himself. This is what attracts the viewer most of all”, says screenwriter Peppe Fiore. «He looks a little like Colonel Kurtz. He had a mission, then he lost his bearings, and it became an obsession”, continues Zingaretti. He is always at his side inside San Michele Isabella Ragonese in the role of commander Sonia Massini, but it is not certain that she will continue to trust him. «I find her Hamlet-like: she always asks herself doubts», says the actress, «and she has enormous difficulty when it comes to acting because she is always contradictory. Justice is a human construction, therefore imperfect.”

Doubts, shadows, intrigues, power, falls, the series works because there is no room for judgments or acquittals, and even less for political correctness. Eight episodes, directed by Giuseppe Gagliardi, tell us a story of corruption, violence and desire for power. They come back Anna Bonaiuto still a magistrate who investigates against Testori but who could surprisingly become an ally, and Barbora Bobulova, Testori's ex-wife, secret service agent and mother of his daughter. And new characters are added: Fabrizio Ferracane in the role of Gregorio Verna, head of the secret services, Thomas Trabacchi, magistrate accused of murder, e Catherine Shulhahis lawyer.

The story is raw and increasingly dark. The price to pay is very high, but the result is decidedly new when compared to other Italian titles. The important thing is not to expect a happy ending.