The holidays call for shows and films centered around the Christmas theme. From rom-coms to horrors to family dramas, Christmas films come in all forms! This year on Netflix, I’ve watched four Christmas releases, ranging from a single mother finding love unexpectedly (My Secret Santa) to a Christmas heist (Jingle Bell Heist), an almost separation (A Merry Little Ex-Mas), and finding love in a foreign country (Champagne Problems), each in a way trying to add a new flavor to the already existing Christmas film buffet. And now to add to the list, we have an Italian Christmas series titled Sicily Express. Most of the films released on the platform this year either unfold in the United States or somewhere in London or Paris, so a Christmas series set in Italy already sounded interesting!
Sicily Express is a comedy drama series centered around two best friends, Valentino and Salvatore. They worked at a hospital in Milan, and they missed being with their families in Sicily. They’d decided to take a two-day leave to attend the opening of their wives’ farm-to-table shop, but their manager refused to let them return home. He despised individuals from the South, so naturally Valentino and Salvatore weren’t his favorites. They tried to reason with him, but he wasn’t interested in listening to them. His plan was to make their lives difficult so the men had only an evening to spend with the families, and the next morning they once again had to be back at work, and if they failed to show up, they would lose their jobs. Valentino and Salvatore didn’t have the heart to break the news to their wives, Maria Teresa and Claudia. They were already upset because their husbands were late for the opening, and they had expected to at least spend another day with them.
Valentino’s daughter, Aurora, was overjoyed to see her father. She missed him, and the long distance often troubled her. She had come to realize that maybe the reason why her parents often argued was because of the distance between them, and if she could ask for one thing from Santa, she would ask him to just erase the distance between Milan and Sicily. Aurora had even innocently drawn a picture for Santa to give him a clear idea of her vision. Valentino could’ve worked at his father-in-law’s fish factory, but he refused to settle for a job that didn’t have any relevance to his medical degree. His father-in-law was quite upset with him, because he thought that if Valentino cared enough about his wife and daughter, he would’ve made the sacrifice and stayed in Sicily. But Maria Teresa supported her husband’s decision; she knew how important the job was for Valentino, but at the same time, she often wished that there was a way for them to just be together as often as they wanted. During dinner, Salvatore blurted out that they would have to leave early in the morning the next day, and that left their families furious. Although they eventually had no choice but to make peace with the fact that the men had to leave, deep down, they all hoped there was a solution to this endless problem. The five episodes delve into what happened after a solution magically appeared before Salvatore and Valentino.
Sicily Express is an out-and-out comedy, and it doesn’t even attempt to be pretentious. The five-episode series is meant to make the audience laugh, and well, it works. The plot is simplistic, and the narrative is also straightforward; the series does not indulge in any over-complication. The episodes are short and crisp, and the script sticks with the main plot without getting distracted by multiple subplots (something that we’ve seen happen with most shows on OTT platforms). Without getting too serious or too preachy, the series manages to comment on greed and how politics divides people. Now, of course, this could’ve just been a film and not a series, and honestly I really don’t understand why the creators opted to make a series out of this very brief, uncomplicated story. I think a lot more people would’ve ended up watching Sicily Express had it been a film!
By now everything about holiday films is so been-there-done-that that it was quite a relief to watch a series centered around Christmas that manages not to be cringy. It is a sweet little tale about a little girl’s dream of bringing her family close for Christmas, where the bond between the two best friends, the north and south conflict, and the government’s lack of any interest in people’s welfare are also crucial. The north and south conflict is probably the most important aspect of the show, and this might be extremely interesting to those who might not be aware of it (I was quite invested!). The people from the two regions aren’t all that accepting of one another, and this discrimination is a result of socio-economic and cultural divides. I don’t know if the conflict is as in-your-face in everyday life in Italy as depicted in the film, but surely it continues to be extremely relevant (it’s quite obvious that some bits are exaggerated). Overall, a Christmas series that talks about very real cultural issues and conflicts is definitely way more interesting than the usual ‘finding love unexpectedly during the holidays’ trope!
For some, the performances might seem way too exaggerated, and well, there’s no denying it, but over-the-top acting is pretty much a requirement for slapstick comedy. So, I am personally not complaining about the performances; they were quite befitting of the genre. It was also interesting how the show manages to blend a tad bit of bizarre (with characters stuck in a portal) into the mix; that was quite unexpected, but somehow it worked. Also, the comical representation of the Prime Minister who thrived on the conflict between the people of the two regions is definitely worth a mention. The fact that the ministers were shown partying in the parliament before they ended up at a meeting cluelessly was also quite hilarious. Overall, Sicily Express is an entertaining watch that thankfully doesn’t drag longer than it should. It manages to offer something new to the plethora of holiday films while also catering to the usual themes of ‘family love’ and ‘Christmas miracles.’
