Zero is the new Netflix original Italian TV series that will be available on the Italian platform and in 190 other countries around the world from April 21, 2021. Here is our review.
ORIGINAL TITLE: Zero. KIND: Science fiction. NATION: Italy. CREATOR: Antonio Dikele Distefano, Menotti. CAST: Giuseppe Dave Seke, Haroun Fall, Beatrice Grannò, Dylano Magon, Daniela Scattolin, Madior Fall, Virginia Diop. time: About 25 minutes per episode. DISTRIBUTOR: Netflix. EXIT: April 21, 2021.
Zero is the new Italian Netflix original TV series, available on the platform in Italy and in 190 countries around the world from 21 April 2021 with a first season of 8 episodes of approximately 25 minutes each. The TV series is based on the book I have never had my age by Antonio Dikele Distefano who took part in the screenplay together with Stefano Voltaggio, Massimo Vavassori, Carolina Cavalli and Lisandro Monaco. In the creative team also took part Menotti, cartoonist and screenwriter, creator of The Called Jeeg Robot, whose touch you see very clearly from the first episodes.
Plot | Zero review
Zero takes us to a Milan made up of suburban neighborhoods and luxury residential areas, connected by a young and shy protagonist, who delivers pizzas with his bicycle. Zero lives in the Barrio, a suburban neighborhood that is in grave danger and precisely in this context, he becomes aware of his superpower, invisibility. Here, he decides to help his peers, Sharif, Inno Momo and Sara, save the neighborhood and make it a better place.
From the very first episode, Zero emanates novelties, of those who are preparing to bring about a revolution and this revolution is certainly linked to the way of conceiving and producing TV series in Italy. Beyond the smudges, script, direction and photography are the three elements that launch Zero as one of the most interesting series of recent years and that will certainly make a lot of talk about itself.
A Much Written TV Series | Zero review
Zero is a very written series, in the sense that they are present in the script with great clarity and detail, a very specific plot, a city that speaks, Milan and a message to communicate. These are many elements, perhaps too many within eight short-lived episodes, but they still show the intention that the product itself is very solid.
The plot focuses on the theme of invisibility, with young protagonists who live in a suburban neighborhood or who live in a luxury residential neighborhood, like the case of Anna, Zero’s love interest and who are united by not being able to be seen or feel within the company or a group. All young people with talents and inspirations, from comics for Zero to architecture for Anna to music for the new group of friends from the Barrio. And this invisibility is also transposed in the form of super power: Zero can actually become invisible. So thanks to this element, ua realistic series, set in a Milan that speaks for itself, also becomes science fiction.
Even if the writing of the scenes and characters exudes realism, for example in the dialogues that are fast, that use modern speech and change if the protagonists are in the Barrio or if they are in City Life, the new luxury district of Milan. The characters alternate irony, funny jokes, moments of intensity and despair, exactly as happens in everyday life.
So we can say ch even without the sci-fi aspect, Zero would have been a very interesting series, because its protagonists are current, they talk about the current situation of a city, its neighborhoods, its problems and the Italians of the first and second generation.
Direction and photography direction for an international product | Zero review
Alongside such dense writing, there are one direction and a photography direction that aspire to make Zero an international product. This is because the direction is tight and fluid, it doesn’t dwell too much on the same situation, it quickly changes characters, locations and themes. As much as this can be seen as a flaw in the series, it sometimes shows hasty scene changes, actually pushes a lot on dynamism. A dynamism that is also supported by the images of Milan flowing behind Zero’s bicycle as he delivers pizzas from one neighborhood to another.
And here is also inserted a photograph with vivid, realistic colors that best enhances every situation or neighborhood in which the scenes are inserted, alternating in the fields with the close-ups of protagonists in the most emotionally intense moments. The sci-fi aspect of Zero’s invisibility is also really well done, thus putting direction and photography on the international levels of the serial products we are used to.
A current story | Zero review
The topicality of Zero is what is transmitted inside a very precise and good level technical writing and direction package: Zero is a current TV series, which can speak to young people, but also to adults who have not yet realized how society is changing. The language is current, as well as the problems experienced by the protagonists, not to mention the work of Zero, that is, delivering pizzas as a rider. The soundtrack enhances all this with the artists of the rap and hip-hop scene of the moment, which sees the intervention of Marracash, Coez, Mahmood, Tha Supreme, Gué Pequeno and Madame.
Conclusion
Faced with all these fresh and original aspects, Zero, the new Netflix TV series is definitely not a perfect TV series: there are smudges in writing and directing, as well as very young leading actors who certainly need more acting experience. The very dense and precise writing tends to make situations happen too quickly, thus leaving the viewer a little bewildered. But these are forgivable aspects for a first season of a new product that survived even shooting during the first pandemic of 2020. All these aspects can be fixed in a possible second season, which at that point would lead Zero to being a TV series. that really can create a serial revolution in Italy that seems to have already begun anyway.
A TV series that shouts news and bodes well
Points in favor
- A current theme
- Realistic dialogues
- Direction and photography of great aesthetic appeal
Points against
- A little too fast script