Beautiful Bari on the Adriatic is your next destination, if you tune in to Cold Summer – airing on Channel 4 at midnight on Sundays for eight weeks from 13 April, and available to stream on Walter Presents. But don’t expect sunny beaches and azure waters. In the shadows of the city a mafia war is brewing. Standing in the way of the gangsters is Pietro Fenoglio played by Alessio Boni.
The programme was a sensation when it aired in Italy in 2023, attracting up to 4.3 million viewers per episode.
Our lead man looks like a young Clint Eastwood, but this is no spaghetti Western. Fenoglio is a man of culture who listens to classical music and enjoys strolling the art galleries – when he’s not keeping an eye on the city’s mafia captains, that is. The story begins in 1991, the year before the Cold Summer of the title, when the mafia really did run out of control for a while in Bari. From the outset, you’ll get the feeling you’re in for a complex yet epic story with plenty of characters.
If you enjoy the show, try the book. We gave it five stars!
Fenoglio and fellow detectives Pellecchia (Paulo Sassanelli) and Montemurro (Francesco Centorami) are called out when a housekeeper finds her client dead in his kitchen with his throat slashed. The man turns out to be a loan shark. Luckily, a local gossip saw a young man fleeing the scene and noted his car’s registration number. But what would a medical student from a wealthy family need a loan shark for?
The case is being overseen by Gemma D’Angelo (Giulia Vecchio), a young, new prosecutor who seems thorough and highly professional. It looks like she will be a figure of importance as the series unfolds.
While the loan shark slashing seems straightforward, plenty of other things are going on. Out of hours, Fenoglio has been keeping an eye on the movers and shakers in Bari’s organised crime. From afar, he observes the aftermath of a first communion. It’s the son of Nicola Grimaldi, a key player in the local mafia. Grimaldi is called away – sent to pick up 20kg of narcotics from a crew in Milan. While he’s gone, one of Grimaldi’s lieutenants goes missing. Just a burned out car remains.
There’s a mob war brewing, and Fenoglio senses it. When he raises the case of the missing criminal with Chief Valente, the senior officer waves it away. Traditionally, Bari isn’t a city beset by mafia clans, he says, steering the conversation back to the loan shark. This could be significant down the line. Do the gangs have contacts in the police force and if so, how high up do they go? Is the loan shark’s death connected to something bigger?
Meanwhile, in his loft at home, Fenoglio has a wall covered in clippings about criminal kingpins. He’s joining the dots – his own secret investigation. At least things are going well with his girlfriend, who has just been promoted in her role as a teacher. She’s talking about children…
When Grimaldi returns from Milan, he’s furious…
With so many pieces in play, complex connections and possibilities, it’s no surprise to learn that Cold Summer is based on a crime novel. We reviewed it, in fact – The Cold Summer by Gianrico Carofiglio, published in 2018 and a five-star read.
Like the novel, the show is layered with authenticity. We’re back to the early 90s, so you’ll see boxy Alfa Romeos and Fiat Pandas, baggy jeans, big trainers and Gameboys. Fenoglio is not your typical detective. Though a bit of a maverick, he’s a soft character with a gentle demeanour who mostly follows procedure. He lets Pellecchia and the prosecutor D’Angelo play the role of bad cop, and sometimes he sees less obvious angles and motives behind what’s going on. He’s a man of honour, which brings a soft, sentimental tone to the show as a whole – even though things get pretty ugly.
As the series progresses, there will be kidnapping, murder, arson and police corruption. A key mafia player will turn state witness and figures in both law enforcement and organised crime will become targets. Violent retribution is on the way, which could tear the city apart.
Cold Summer first aired in Italy in 2023 as Il metodo Fenoglio – L’estate fredda, directed by Alessandro Casale. It consists of eight hour-long episodes with subtitles in English. In the US it will be available via PBS Passport from 2 May. In Australia, it’s available on SBS On Demand.
Absolutely loved it!!!
Will there be a season 2?
Watching from Ontario, Canada
Watching from New Jersey absolutely love the show finished it in one night.
Hello! Thanks for dropping by. Yes it’s great. We’ve also just posted about the Spanish show Memento Mori. It’s a bit different to this but you might also enjoy it.
It appears to end with the possibility of a second season due to several loose ends in the story. Was that the plan?
I think so too.
Just watching it on C4; enjoying it immensely. Great to encounter faces from other Italian crime series (eg Il Cacciatore; Mafia Only Kills etc)
Having been more used to the state police or the Anti Mafia crowd in all the other series I’ve watched, I’m glued to Wiki re the Carabinieri’s separate sphere of operations, as even Lolita Lobosco, also (state) policing in Bari, seems to be called in for any local murder! Fascinating stuff.
Also fascinating of course is any look back, such as this series (and the great Romanzo Criminale), at the insidious spread of mafia power in places previously ‘unclaimed’. Despite all intentions to abhor the subject as entertainment, it’s always absolutely riveting stuff. (The assassination of Giovanni Falcone ought to seem gratuitously employed as a narrative device so frequently, yet the horror and pain of that day never loses its impact through it all.)
But good gravy, were appalling sweaters really so prevalent in 1991? I must have blanked out that particular trauma! I was also mystified by the mobile phones. They look WAY more advanced than the quasi-bricks you’d see your local drug dealers wielding back then. But again, it might be memory playing tricks. Minor details.
My god, isn’t Bari incredibly beautiful? Pretty much paradise.
(BTW and not trying to be a clever dick: that isn’t Grimaldi pictured above; it’s Lopez.)