Suburra: Blood On Rome – Netflix Season 2 Review

Episode Guide

Find Her
Consequences
Closer
Upside Down 
The Crib
It’s War
Saints Peter and Paul
Tell Me The Truth – CLICK HERE FOR THE SPOILER-HEAVY FINALE REVIEW

After the tumultuous ending to last season, Suburra picks up where it left off on the eve of election day. With the politically charged narrative in full swing, the rest of the season sees our trio of main characters come up against their toughest challenge yet, culminating in a final battle where blood will be spilled and plots left unresolved. With a shorter run time and a fair few twists and turns along the way, Suburra outdoes itself with an impressive second season, one that leaves the door wide open for a third season after a truly shocking finale.

The story begins with political candidate Amedeo Cinaglia preparing to play a key part in the final outcome of the vote, given the backing he’s received by Samurai. As the results come in and Cinaglia snatches 9.4% of the vote, the attention turns to our trio of heroes in the aftermath of this revelation. After being played as Samurai’s pawn last year, Gabriele vows to start anew, taking up a prominent role in the police force. Unfortunately, the past has a funny way of coming back on you and the same is true here as he winds up mixed up in the crime business again.

Back amongst the gypsies, Spadino begins to assert his authority although a leadership challenge by his own mother brings this into chaos as the group is splintered over who to follow. With his sister awol and still grieving over his father, Aureliano is on the warpath to find her and we see him leading his gang with an iron grip after deciding against Samurai’s help early on.

With the character relationships already established, a dramatic series of events, including an influx of migrants to Rome and Samurai tightening his grip over the city, pushes all our characters together to try to fight against Samurai’s tyrannical presence in the shadows. All of this is played out as a game of cat and mouse as the two groups try to outsmart one another before a shocking finale (which you can read about in our finale review separately) that will leave you desperate for a third season.

Stylistically, Suburra keeps many of the same visual and audio choices as before with little deviation; the recurring motif plays throughout the series at some of the more dramatic moments to great effect. However, unlike last season that featured spliced edits of the end of an episode before jumping back in time and seeing what led up to that moment, this season we receive a bit more exposition about our characters through the use of flashbacks. There’s also a fair few musical montages here too that weren’t evident the first time around, most of which spread out with 1 per episode.

Having said all of that, it’s really the story that keeps things interesting and it’s here where Suburra really outdoes itself. I really enjoyed the first season and yet somehow the second season outdoes itself with a really impressive amount of plot progression. With a more condensed run time and extra urgency around the main plot points, Suburra is a fast paced, highly enjoyable slice of Italian crime. While there are a few subplots here that feel a little unnecessary, the truly shocking finale makes it worth persevering with and I can only hope Netflix renew this one based on this showing.

Click Here To Read Our Spoiler-Heavy Review Discussing The Finale

or

Click Here To Go Back To Our TV Show Reviews