# Inspector Montalbano (1999)

> A Sicilian police inspector untangles murders and corruption in the fictional seaside town of Vigata, with wit and sensuality.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/34301

## Facts

- Seasons: 15
- Episodes: 36
- Episode runtime: 100 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: crime, mystery, drama
- Created by: Andrea Camilleri
- Network: Rai 2, Rai 1
- Cast: Luca Zingaretti, Peppino Mazzotta, Angelo Russo, Cesare Bocci, Marcello Perracchio, Davide Lo Verde, Roberto Nobile, Pippo Pattavina
- TMDB rating: 8.3/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0920489/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: mild
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: mild
- Tone: wry, melancholic, sensual, humane, sunlit

## What critics say

Viewers broadly acclaim the series as a warm, well-crafted Sicilian detective show, with its lead performance and sense of place singled out, though later seasons are rated unevenly.

## Synopsis

Inspector Montalbano (1999-2021) is an Italian national-television crime series created by Andrea Camilleri and produced for RAI. Luca Zingaretti plays Commissario Salvo Montalbano, a shrewd, sensual police inspector in the imaginary seaside town of Vigata, Sicily, supported by Peppino Mazzotta as Giuseppe Fazio, Angelo Russo as the flustered switchboard operator Catarella, and Cesare Bocci as Mimi Augello. Each feature-length episode, about 100 minutes, adapts one of Andrea Camilleri's detective novels and follows the inspector as he untangles a murder or a web of local corruption, moving between the police station, crime scenes, and the town's trattorias and beaches. Across fifteen seasons the format stays episodic while the inspector's personal life and the rhythms of Sicilian life give the stories continuity. The tone is wry, humane and sun-warmed, with melancholy undercurrents about justice, loyalty and aging. Dialect, food and the sea shape the atmosphere as much as the cases do. Fans of Wallander, Father Brown and Death in Paradise will find resonance in its mix of puzzle solving and regional charm, a television mystery built on character and place.

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