Streaming series review - The Cases of Guerrieri

The Cases of Guerrieri (originally, Guerrieri: La regola dell'equilibrio) ***1/2 (out of 5) This new series from Italian TV debuts here with eight 50-minute episodes featuring a likable, honorable lawyer (for the cynics among you, it's fictional, not a documentary) handling a wide variety of criminal cases, ranging from the amusingly minor to the deadly serious. Attorney Guerrieri looks like he was cloned from the genes of Benicio del Toro and Robert Forster, adding up to a good look for a protagonist. He's respected, but not one of the rich attorneys with an upper-crust clientele. He's an accessible, man-of-the-people practitioner, somewhat akin to The Lincoln Lawyer.

As the pilot opens, he's severely bummed out by his just-concluding divorce despite being surrounded by a handful of assistants, colleagues and friends who hold him in deservedly high esteem. He accepts a new client's request for an appeal of his conviction for drug smuggling. The picture is complicated by uncertainty over whether he'd been set up as a patsy, including whether his very attractive wife might have been involved. He also takes on the cause of a judge he's known since school who may be unjustly targeted by a zealously ambitious prosecutor. The former case dominates the first two episodes; the latter runs throughout, leading to a tangled web of developments and plot twists.

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The series is set in the picturesque coastal city of Bari in sunny, southeastern Italy. It's small enough for Guerrieri to go from home to office to court on his bicycle. He's also something of a boxer, though only in the gym, not in any real-world heroics. Like most European fare, there's not a lot of physical action. Also, though his courtroom scenes are excellently written, there are surprisingly few of them for a legal drama.

Most of the running time is devoted to the investigation and research stages of the cases, with quite a few personal story arcs for the solid cast of regulars. Some of the several romantic sidebars get a bit soapy, but not enough to detract from the substance of the cases and clients. As to the love stuff, there are a few brief steamy scenes among members of the attractive cast, but no exposure of any naughty bits.

What makes this series compelling is that the outcomes aren't always what we or Guerreiri want them to be. It's not like a Perry Mason, in which the suspense was invariably just about HOW he'll prove his client's innocence, not IF. All major plotlines reach a point of resolution, though a several leave room for expansion.

The series is based on seven novels (thus far; these episodes are mostly based on the fifth) by Gianrico Carofiglio, so there's plenty of material in hand for a long run. I just learned they got the green light for Season 2 and will start production soon. This cast is deep and talented enough, with well-defined personas to satisfy viewers for several seasons if the renewals keep coming. With luck, we're getting in on the ground floor of a franchise.

(The Cases of Guerrieri, in Italian with subtitles, streams on MHz Choice as of 8/18/26)