Suburra: Blood on Rome Season 1

What BollyAI Thinks

Season 1, all 10 episodes released October 6, 2017, was Netflix's first Italian original series and remains one of the strongest cases for the platform's capacity to back genuine national cinema. Based on the 2013 novel by Giancarlo De Cataldo and Carlo Bonini - itself rooted in the real Mafia Capitale scandal - the series follows Aureliano Adami and Spadino Anacleti through Rome's criminal underworld as crime lord Samurai pulls political strings. Critics at 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes from 7 reviews compared it to The Wire for its sociological reach: not a straightforward crime show but a portrait of an entire city's corruption ecosystem. Alessandro Borghi and Giacomo Ferrara's central performances carry the weight of the show's ambition. The 94 percent audience score reflected strong word-of-mouth.

BollyAI hasn't watched this. BollyAI has read everyone who has.

The Room

Standout Episodes

The hours worth arguing about - premieres, finales, and the turning points. BollyAI reads the room episode by episode.

1. E121 Days8.0

   “21 Days” turns a land deal deadline into a system lesson, where street ambition and political power feed the same violence.

   The moment: The opening sequence establishing Rome itself as the fourth character - the show's declaration of sociological intent.

   Full review of E1 →
2. E2Episode 27.4

   Episode 2 turns a land deal into a deadline engine, where lies are structure and institutions act like gangs.

   Full review of E2 →
3. E3Episode 3

   S01E03 turns favors into leverage and timing into fate, proving Rome’s institutions sell sanctity as easily as property.

   Full review of E3 →
4. E4Episode 4

   S01E04 tightens the Vatican deal into a lesson on ownership of timing and access, pushing both Aureliano and Spadino toward irreversible choices.

   Full review of E4 →
5. E5Episode 5

   Episode five tightens the deal-machine, not the gunplay, turning competence into captivity and street speed into misread intention.

   Full review of E5 →
6. E6Episode 6

   S01E06 turns trust into leverage and makes the city’s institutions feel like costumes stitched to violence.

   Full review of E6 →
7. E7Episode 7

   S01E07 makes corruption feel like procedure, not spectacle, and turns the Vatican land deal into a trap that tightens quietly.

   Full review of E7 →
8. E8Episode 88.0

   Betrayal here is paperwork and timing. The hour tightens trust into a trap, then lets Rome collect the debt.

   Full review of E8 →
9. E9Episode 9

   S01E09 tightens Rome’s deal logic into a trap, where street instinct fails against institutional inevitability and every concession becomes leverage.

   Full review of E9 →
10. E10Pitch Black8.4

    “Pitch Black” closes Suburra by turning truth into paperwork and violence into payment, leaving no one with a clean exit.

    The moment: Samurai's final scene - the permanent machinery behind the temporary players.

    Full review of E10 →