Here is our review of This world won’t make me bad, the second series of Zerocalcare on Netflix that hits the mark again
Pressured after the success of Tearing Along the Edges, Zerocalcare has produced a new series for Netflix. The result? A new heralded success. The reason? That Zerocalcare more than many authors is able to take current news and process it in a way that is at the same time brilliant, ironic, dramatic and reflective. All his style, all his language, his difficult topics punctuate with moments – sometimes light-hearted, other very profound – destined to remain indelible this new story which is not the continuation of the previous one but something completely new.
Many of the things that happen around us in this strange country soon end up becoming normal. We forget about it in a moral numbness and only rarely do reflections of indignation towards an increasingly oppressive everyday life resurface. For Zerocalcare this is worth less, and in fact it always provides us with a lucid critique of those things that are part of our lives but to which we should not acclimate. If with Tear along the edges the theme was the evergreen doubts and insecurities related to growth, in This world won’t make me bad is strictly (almost embarrassingly) topical. The second series of Zerocalcare on Netflix is a very lucid satire on capitalist society, vacuous and opportunist politics and social pressures. Available to stream with all episodes from June 9ththe irreverent series certainly has something to tell.
The plot and the trailer | Review This World Won’t Make Me Evil
Tearing along the edges had the task of introducing the world of Zerocalcare to the general public, presenting the protagonist, his friends Sarah and Secco and his anxieties, but it took place in an almost dreamlike atmosphere. This world won’t make me bad takes a few more risks and brings them into their (and our) city and daily reality. One is born rough cross-section of today’s Italya wonderful country where (as Giancane sings in the new acronym) bridges collapse, ships sink, rights die and ministers applaud. The story begins with the arrest of Zero punctuated by the punk notes of “I Fought the Law” and chronologically retraces the facts that led to that event, through his voice and under the dim light of an interrogation room with the Don Matteo posters on the wall. It turns out that the climate in the neighborhood became heavy after that a group of migrants was dumped in the local reception centre like a parcel post that no one wants to pick them up. The walls are covered with posters that alarm consciences with the threat of ethnic substitution and it doesn’t take long before the fascist thought (“or rather, Nazi, because by now the other word is largely devoid of meaning”, argues Zero) even lead to violent conflicts.
In this tense climate ready to explode at any moment, a gigantic figure rises, a new character who reveals himself little by little along the six episodes and who it seems to contain within itself all the fears and all the confusion of today’s people, Cesare. Cesare is an old friend of Zero who after several years of absence returns to the neighborhood where he grew up, finding a world that he struggles to recognize and in which he is unable to fit. At the time of their unusual friendship, Cesare and Zero couldn’t be more different. One was wiry and full of strength while the other was more like the “frog of the Muppets”. Yet somehow they had both found a useful friend in the other. If outside were the opposites, inside were the same insecurities. Zero, who has moved on and partly redeemed himself, would like to do something for him but realizes he is unable to help him feel at home again and to make the right choice to find his place in the world.
Lucid satire | Review This World Won’t Make Me Evil
This World Won’t Make Me Bad is not, as it hadn’t been Tear Along the Edges, a simple cartoon. Do you remember the blade of grass scene? Here, even the new Zerocalcare series encloses like a casket several other moments of verging on poetry. Reflections on life, on who we are, on limiting self-criticism, on our place in the world, supported by excellent animation in every situation, which together with everything else makes us understand that not everything in this truly wonderful country works badly. Once again, Michele Rechalias Zerocalcare, screenwriter, director and dubber, in the latter case together with Valerio Mastandrea and some surprise entriesnails us to the sofa with a fun and enlightening work, capable of approaching important issues with skill and a necessary indelicacy.
This world won’t make me bad, the title suggests, says the difficulty in remaining oneself in the midst of life’s contradictions. And she does it with the usual, irresistible narration made up of digressions, anecdotes, emotions and twists and turns of Zerocalcare. It’s a lot of fun finding out little bits of comedy in the quick dialogues and animated sequences of the series. Discovering that in some cases they are nothing more than opportunities for the author to do a bit of liberating self-irony, such as the criticisms of the “incomprehensible” dialogues because they are too dialects to Tear along the edges.
What are right and wrong? | Review This World Won’t Make Me Evil
You laugh heartily but you also reflect a lot, especially when you recognize yourself in the reasoning and experiences of the past and present of Zero, Sarah, Secco and the other characters. He reflects on a question: faced with a difficult choice, when being on the right side means getting involved, taking risks, not flattening yourself to silence and atrophy, are we still able to make the right choice? The narrative device to make us question the question is disconcertingly simple: faced with an increasingly indifferent society and a policy that is increasingly distant from people, a reception center is seen as the source of all problems.
The answer, which we don’t want to spoil, is given by an old retired janitor of the school who theoretically should have been at the center of attention of the protest narrated in the plot. The mirage of solving any problem in one’s life through hatred towards one’s neighbor is soon unmasked, showing how the reality, too often forgotten in the continuous rush we seem to be forced to, is that war between the poor is not the solution.
Conclusions
In conclusion of this review, we must take into account that This world will not make me bad by Zerocalcare on Netflix, told in this way, could end up raising a fuss. In fact, he takes one extremely clear political choice which given today’s context is not so obvious. We’ll see about this. Passing instead to a budget on the series we can say that it is excellent, with the only flaw compared to Tear along the edges that Armadillo’s conscience is a bit dull, almost caricatured compared to last year’s counterpart. But other than that there’s little to say, even this Zerocalcare series on Netflix is unmissable, and six episodes give the impression of being too few.
Plus points
- Extremely lucid in satire
- Ironic at the right point
- Excellent animations
- Apt soundtrack
Points against
- More ephemeral than the first series (at least we hope)
- Armadillo too speckled
Are you looking for new movies and new TV series to watch? Discover the new Disney+ subscription, the streaming home of Disney, Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars, National Geographic and now Star too. Subscribe now to only 8.99 euros per month on this page.