The cop paired up with the civilian expert who doesn’t necessarily play by the rules but gets results isn’t exactly a new concept; in fact it’s almost as old as TV itself. We’ve even seen shows like this take place in the art world, like the new Italian series ChiaroScuro on Netflix. So how good is this iteration of the concept?
CHIAROSCURO: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: In Rome, a man in a tux rides into an art reception to reveal a Renaissance painting by Titian at a museum. He informs the gathered crowd that it’s fake, then proceeds to headbutt the man in charge of the museum when the art expert’s father is mentioned.
The Gist: Cosmo Speranza (Pierpaolo Spollon) is an art expert who is proficient at spotting even the best forgeries; he learned that from his father Rufo (Alessandro Preziosi), an art professor and master forger who shot himself when Cosmo was a kid, right before the police came to arrest him.
When the body of the director of the National Gallery is found inside one of the main rooms, police detective Angelo Tiberi (Andrea Lattanzi) arrives at the same time as Cosmo, who was supposed to see the director. Cosmo sneaks in and tells Tiberi and the other detective, Elenora (Romana Maggiora Vergano), that the man’s temple was punctured by a square-based nail and his body is posed just like in an Artemisia Gentileschi work. It turns out that painting was stolen from the restoration room.
Angelo, who is annoyed by Cosmo’s presence, sees him at the auction house that sold the painting to the museum, and helps Angelo get the testing the auction house did on the painting — but not before he sees it himself. He also gets information from the auction house’s director, with whom he has an — ahem — personal relationship. Angelo finds out from his boss about Cosmo’s history, his dad’s suicide, and how the boss has kept an eye on him for decades.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? ChiaroScuro has a similar feeling to the series Art Detectives.
Our Take: The idea behind ChiaroScuro is that in every episode, the reluctant pairing of Angelo and Cosmo are going to investigate different murders in the art world, but they’ll end up being tied to a serial killer who had something to do with Cosmo’s father. It’s the reason why he takes Angelo’s boss up on the offer to consult with the police department so he doesn’t get arrested for his assault at the Titian exhibit.
Spollon and Lattanzi work well together as this mismatched pair; you know that Cosmo’s expertise, as unorthodox as it might be, is going to be useful to Angelo as the body count increases.
What we hope is that as the two men begin to trust each other, and their worlds start to mix a bit, the show’s writing will stay focused on how the two of them get closer to the killer that seems to be out to torment Cosmo. We also hope that the show has the same level of humor as the first episode. It’s a hell of a lot more entertaining to see these reluctant partners drive each other nuts, so when they do combine to find out information, it’s all the more satisfying to see.
Performance Worth Watching: We are definitely intrigued by Matilde Gioli, who plays Cosmo’s no-nonsense sister Leda, and Romana Maggiora Vergano’s Elenora, mainly because Angelo seems to have a crush on her.
Sex And Skin: Only some brief hints of it when Cosmo sleeps with the auction house director.
Parting Shot: Cosmo stares at a square-shank nail, left in his father’s old art studio by the person that used a similar nail to kill the museum director.
Our Call: STREAM IT. ChiaroScuro is a good example of a procedural crime show that works because the mismatched pair solving the show’s murders work so well together, and that there’s a comedic tone that helps move the show along.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
