“Everything Calls for Salvation” is an Italian drama on Netflix (in Italian, with subtitles, or dubbed) about a young man who wakes up in a psychiatric ward. Daniele (Federico Cesari) can’t remember the night before or what prompted this involuntary hold, and he doesn’t think he belongs alongside some of the more ill patients. How is he ever going to make it a week? And why are his parents so mad at him? And why are all the doctors being so abrasive?
The seven-episode first season plays out like a sunnier Italian “Girl, Interrupted,” with Daniele learning a lot from his fellow patients, some of whom are around for short stints like he is, others of whom are long-term residents of the facility. “Often it only takes one second to hurt someone, sometimes less,” an older roommate tells him.
“Salvation” feels occasionally like an affirming Y.A. show because of the triteness of some of its characters, such as Nina (Fotinì Peluso), a reluctant starlet and Daniele’s love interest, and especially because of its bright and sunny visuals. But just when you think the warm fuzzies are nigh, things get — or stay — fraught or sad or intractable. Actually, self-acceptance will not heal everything, and change is only ever incremental at best.
Season 2 jumps two years ahead, and Daniele now has a beard, the worst hoop earring I’ve ever seen and a custody battle. He swears he is ready for a nursing internship back at that same hospital, though a combination of the facility’s lax approach and his own severe anger issues and lack of clinical experience create a volatile environment for him and his patients.
Again, the warm beachiness belies a complicated cynicism; goofy side plots undercut some of the show’s ideas about mood and maturity, but “Salvation” never drifts too far from Daniele’s (or Nina’s) sometimes frightening behavior.
There are plenty of flimsy moments here, and the characters occasionally seem to come from different shows. But when it’s working, it hits some of my favorite kinds of scenes: vicious fight dialogue between characters who both messed up; credible-to-the-character poetry as dramatic runner (this is rare! TV poems usually seem phony baloney); and a fantasy musical number.
The post ‘Everything Calls for Salvation’ Is a Beachy Italian Drama appeared first on New York Times.
