Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Suburraeterna’ on Netflix, An Italian Crime Drama And Sequel to ‘Suburra: Blood on Rome’

The eight-episode Suburraeterna is the latest Netflix series to be spun out of Suburra, the 2015 crime film based on the 2013 novel of the same name by Carlo Bonini and Giancarlo De Cataldo. Suburraeterna carries over a few characters from Suburra: Blood on Rome, which closed out its third season on the streamer in 2020. But it expands its cast, too, with new families and criminal factions – not to mention Catholic priests – vying for control of The Eternal City, its government, and the 24-hour flow of cash and contraband.   

SUBURRAETERNA: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

Opening Shot: It’s been three years since the events of Suburra: Blood on Rome, and Alberto “Spadini” Anacleti (Giacomo Ferrara) is now a DJ living in Berlin. But a desperate phone call from back home in Italy interrupts his M83 remixes. Fleeing gang violence and wars for control – not to mention your own family – only gets you so far. 

The Gist: A show like Blood on Rome could have only ended in violence, and the last time we saw Spadini, he was giving a burial at sea to his friend Aureliano Adami (Alessandro Borghi), the darkly heroic Ostia gangster. But Suburraeterna has some explaining to do before it returns to Spadini and that phone call. In Rome, the Anacletis are now in charge of a large piece of the drug trade, with Mama Adelaide (Paola Sotgiu) as Sinti clan matriarch and Nadia (Federica Sabatini), Auerliano’s onetime lover, as her enforcer on the street. (Nadia has donned Aureliano’s signature winged neck tattoos in tribute.) Damiano Luciani (Marlon Joubert) manages the dogfighting side of the Anacleti business, but he’s also married to Angelica (Carlotta Antonelli), who used to be Spadini’s wife. They have two little babies. Which is crazy, because neither Angelica nor Damiano should be in the Anacletis’ good graces. Especially Damiano, who has history with the family going back 20 years, when they murdered his parents. “I allowed Angelica to marry you,” Adelaide says, “because you and your siblings are dogs and that’s what she deserves.”

Damiano’s sister Giulia (Yamina Brirmi) and his brother Cesare (Morris Sarra) are not content to work in their small Ostia fish shop and receive drug biz scraps from Nadia. When they make an aggressive move to better their standing, it impresses Ercole Bonatesta (Aliosha Massine), a political climber who wants to knock Amedeo Cinaglia (Filippo Nigro) out of his perch as Rome’s biggest governmental power player. (Cinaglia is another veteran Blood on Rome character who is also in league with the Badalis, a Sicilian mafia group.) The big noise Giulia and Cesare make, with the reluctant aid of their older brother, is sure to shake up the tenuous state of criminal control in Rome. But what about the priests?

That’s right, the Roman Curia is involved in all of this, too, specifically two rival cardinals, Tronto (Federigo Ceci) and Nascari (Alberto Cracco). While the former aligns with Ercole and his maneuvering for power, the latter is in cahoots with Cinaglia and the mafia for control of a large slush fund that will retain the political status quo in Rome and perhaps elevate Nascari to Pontiff status. What all of this comes down to is a running gun battle that leaves behind a significant body count. It’s also sure to cause another fluctuation in The Eternal City’s criminal hierarchy, and it’s guaranteed to bring Spadino back home in some fashion. Which is exactly why his nephew Victor (Gabriel Di Stadio) makes that frantic phone call to Berlin. Sure, Spadino killed Manfredi Anacleti (Adamo Dionisi), his own brother and Victor’s father. But family’s family, right?

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? While it’s possible to watch and enjoy Suburraeterna without having watched Suburra: Blood on Rome, you’d be missing out on the latter’s epic familial struggles and sudden stabs of violence. Max features Gomorrah in its multi-season entirety, a riveting and equally violent tale of rival mafia clans set in 2000s Naples. (Gomorrah: also once a movie!) And a lot of the jockeying for power and street-level control in Suburraeterna echoes the fantastic Gangs of London, which just announced that the writing and filming of its third season is underway.    

Our Take: In the early going of Suburraeterna, when a fed up Giulia and Cesare vent their frustrations over Nadia and what they feel they’re owed, it’s easy to see their more taciturn brother Damiano as a peacemaker. He’ll make a note of their grievances, and use his standing with the Anacleti family to find a solution. And in a way, that’s exactly what happens. But it does not play out how you’d imagine. Suburraeterna, like Suburra: Blood on Rome before it, keeps its characters knotted in bonds of family that extend deep down through the generations. Moves that are made on the surface – maybe to enact control over one faction, or settle a score, or reach for the power that somebody believes they deserve – have consequences that move backward and forward through time, and in that sense, Suburraeterna is right to utilize flashbacks when it comes to the Luciani siblings and their motives. Through their eyes as children, we better see the connections between these families, and we also better understand how those experiences can still have profound effects in the present. Long memories – these warring clans have ‘em, even when they’re technically at peace. And it’s that understanding that seems to undergird every character’s motivations, no matter what side they’re currently on. 

With that in mind, it’s sure to cause more upheaval, the return of Alberto “Spadini” Anacleti to Rome. But with the new factionalism at work in the city, the character being back on this criminal scene doesn’t guarantee anything. It only makes the whole thing more fragile, more volatile, and that includes Spadino’s inter-family relationships. Spiritually, Subterraeterna has picked up right where Suburra: Blood on Rome left off, and we’re here for how this latest round of vendettas and power struggles will play out. The city of Rome feels like it’s about to explode.  

Sex and Skin: There’s a brief love scene between Damiano and Angelica; we are also privy to the physical side of a situationship between Ercole and Miriana (Giorgia Spinelli), which they conceal from their colleagues in city government.

Parting Shot: In the capital, the power centers of drugs, clans, and government have shifted yet again. Violently. And we return to Berlin and Spadino, having now witnessed everything that led to him receiving that phone call from Italy in the first place. It’s a 15-hour drive from Berlin to Rome…  

Sleeper Star: Amid the new blood of Suburraeterna, mixing with the characters who managed to survive Blood on Rome, it’s the fiery but loving dynamic between Marlon Joubert and Yamina Brirmi as Luciani siblings Damiano and Giulia that really stands out. 

Most Pilot-y Line: Adelaide, the Anacleti family matriarch and ruler of their Sinti clan, does not mince words when her people are attacked. “I’m saying that we’ve got dead men, that they took a ton of our stash. I’m saying blood will be spilled. You’re at risk of ending up an only child – I’m telling you now.”   

Our Call: STREAM IT. Suburraeterna extends the Suburra universe in typically entertaining fashion, with lots of testing of family bonds, bold action on lasting vendettas, and an overarching stretch of political theater that reaches all the way into the Vatican. 

Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.