Il commissario Manara is an Italian television series of the detective genre, a spin-off of Una famiglia in giallo, which has Guido Caprino as the leading actor, in the role of Luca Manara. The genre is a combination of detective crime and sentimental comedy. The series consists of two seasons of twelve episodes: the first was broadcast from 8 January to 12 February 2009 on Rai 1, while the second aired from 3 March 2011 on the same network. A third series, of which the subject had already been laid out, was not completed.
Production
is a spin-off of the 2005 television series Una famiglia in giallo, in which the actor Guido Caprino, interpreter of Luca Manara, appeared in a secondary role in the 5th episode entitled "Biscotti al Veleno". For the new series that saw him as the protagonist, Caprino claimed to have been inspired by Frank Zappa for behavioral psychology and the physiognomy to be attributed to Commissioner Manara, being in first person an estimator of the Italian-American composer and guitarist. The episodes are set in a fictional location not precisely specified between Orbetello and the Argentario promontory, but in reality the first season was filmed about 90 kilometers away, in the countries bordering Lake Bracciano. In particular the seat of the municipality of Trevignano Romano was transformed into the police station directed by the commissioner Luca Manara. The second season of the series, announced in 2010, was shot in Maremma and in Rome. Filming lasted 19 weeks, from May to October 2010, for a total of 105 days. In July 2012 the third season did not appear in the RAI production plans, and the creator of the series Alberto Simone began to fear that he had now reached the epilogue, thus commenting the news on Facebook: "The new Series Subject that we already had written, full of even more amusing novelties and with a gigantic twist in the life of our friendly protagonist, it will therefore remain in the production drawers ". In August 2013, following the change of direction of Rai Fiction, the realization of a third season was confirmed and the broadcast was scheduled for autumn 2014 on Rai 1. In the first months of 2014, however, the series was finally definitively suppressed.
Plot
The first season begins with the arrival in Tuscany, in a town of the Maremma Grossetana, of the new commissioner, Luca Manara, a nonconformist who, thanks to his charm, conquers every woman in the country. He is working with subordinates who are a bit clumsy but willing, and thanks to their help he is able to solve the murder cases that occur in each episode. In the police station he is working closely with Inspector Lara Rubino, played by Roberta Giarrusso, whom he had already met during the school for inspectors, and, between highs and lows, the two begin a relationship that will lead them to get engaged in the final episode, very rich in twists. The second season begins with the marriage between the two protagonists, Luca Manara and Lara Rubino, who is interrupted by a murder. Due to the fact Lara moves to Milan for a refresher course, and is temporarily replaced in the police station by Marta, played by Anna Safroncik , a colleague with a dark past who will fall in love with the protagonist. In reality, Manara still loves Lara and at the end of the series she will rejoin with her, while Marta will return to the anti-Camorra team together with a colleague who heads the anti-terrorist team. Recurring characters are Lara's aunt, Caterina Bentivoglio and her sheepdog Brigadiere; the policemen of the commissarial bumbling and clumsy but willing, in particular the Toscani-Sardinian couple who in the first series falls in love and gets married and in the second gives birth to a little girl named Alice; the coroner Ginevra Rosmini, a seductive devourer of men; the superintendent Casadio, who does not appreciate the methods of Manara but must recognize each time his skill; and finally Ada, the owner of the farm where Manara lives. The strong Piedmontese accent characterizes the recurrent cameos of Bruno Gambarotta in the role of the policeman Quattroni.
