The 2024 Netflix biographical drama series, Supersex, is surely one of the most explicit and bold shows by the streaming giant, as it deals with the life of Rocco Siffredi, a famous and celebrated adult entertainer. Coming with the warning that the plot is only loosely based on Rocco’s life, the seven episodes follow Rocco’s rise to fame and the various problems that he had to deal with throughout his journey. It seems clear that Netflix’s Supersex series tries to look into masculinity through the lives of individuals like Rocco and his brother Tommaso, but the presentation is not convincing enough to be taken seriously.
Spoiler Alert
What is the Netflix series about?
Supersex series begins in 2004 at an adult film convention being held in Paris. As fans and media excitedly gather around, all eyes are on the arrival of the most popular man in the industry—Rocco Siffredi. Dubbed the Italian Stallion, Rocco is already very famous and distinguished as an adult entertainer, having won numerous accolades for starring in innumerable films. The man obviously enjoys the attention and the love he gets from everyone around, and it is evident that his profession is now part of his very personality. After a few smaller events, Rocco Siffredi sits down for an interview in front of the gathered crowd, but it is now that he suddenly loses all confidence and style. Rocco is shocked to see a particular face in the crowd—one that is very known and close to him, but one that is not supposed to be present at the scene.
The man in the crowd is actually Rocco’s elder brother, Tommaso, with whom he had no contact in the last couple of years, to the extent that Rocco had heard of Tommaso having committed suicide. Therefore, his reaction makes sense, but the protagonist keeps losing control over his life, committing a shocking act in public out of his sex addiction. Initially, Tommaso does seem to be a ghost or part of Rocco’s troubled imagination, but then a soft collision with another man in the crowd confirms that he is indeed very real. Within some time, Tommaso appears to Rocco on the roof of the building, where the brothers are all by themselves. A heartfelt reunion takes place, but only to be followed by Tommaso holding his younger brother at gunpoint, demanding a resolution to a long-standing matter regarding the two.
How did Rocco become the best in his profession?
Rocco Tano was born and brought up in the Italian town of Ortona, where he lived with his parents and many siblings. Among the siblings, he was closest to Tommaso, who was believed to be a stepbrother, as he had been the son of a sex worker. Tommaso, or Tommy as he was better known, was mostly avoided by the Tano parents, but Rocco always looked up to him as a mentor, and a major reason for this was that Tommy was in a relationship with the local darling of the town, Lucia. Like every other boy and man, Rocco was also mesmerized by Lucia, and so when she and Tommy married and moved away to Paris, the boy dreamt of life outside of Ortona as well. As a teenager, Rocco left home and started living in Paris, at the same house as his stepbrother and sister-in-law.
From quite a young age, Rocco had grown aware of and unnaturally interested in physicality and attraction, and the fact that those around him also egged him on did not help either. He wanted to use his body to make it big in life, with no inhibitions or moralistic limits, and so he gradually found his way to an adult club, where he started working as a performer. It was here that he met with his first producer and entered the adult film industry. Over the next many years, Rocco became famous and celebrated for both his skills in performing and his gifted physique, which is naturally an important part of the profession he was in, and he also took on the surname Siffredi.
But along with the meteoric rise and celebration that came Rocco’s way, there were also quite a few complaints and criticisms against him, almost all with regard to his treatment of women. Supersex series only makes slight mentions of this matter in passing and lacks any depth whatsoever with regard to the vast and wild world of adult entertainment. By the end, it comes off as a lopsided portrait of the man who has been rather conservative and problematic throughout his career, and this makes the show even more uninteresting.
Why did Tommaso have a falling out with his family?
Netflix’s Supersex series is tremendously invested in the relationship between Rocco and Tommy throughout their lives, to the extent that Tommy can be considered one of the protagonists as well. The brothers had been very close to each other from a young age, but there were also some underlying problems between them, mostly with regard to Lucia. As Lucia was a young woman in Ortona with a much more open mindset than most others, her character was often questioned by the elders in town, and both Rocco and Tommy hated it. However, one day, Rocco stumbles across Lucia getting intimate with a different man, despite being in a relationship with his brother, and he is forced by his mother to report this to Tommy. The elder brother did not believe the report, and he instantly felt that Rocco was trying to wedge a gap between him and his lover, just like everybody else in town.
This was the first time that the brothers fought, and the reason was something very integral about Tommy’s character, as shown in the Netflix series. Tommy seems to have already had an insecurity about his romantic relationship, and Rocco’s statement only confirmed it, making him react so terribly. In fact, the man’s range of insecurities was not just limited to his wife and her seemingly unfaithful habits; it also included his own profession and, most importantly, his birth. To begin with, Tommy does not really have any real profession of his own, and in Paris, he earned his livelihood working at a restaurant run by an Italian family with ties to the mob. Tommy was also acquainted with the mobster running that part of Paris, Jean-Claude, and he eventually got hold of the restaurant business for himself, despite the latter eyeing it.
It would not be wrong to call Tommy a criminal, for he had multiple police records against him. The police once came to his house in Paris searching for the man who had beaten up a taxi driver in Marseille. A few episodes later, he is seen attacking and possibly killing his boss, the man who owned the Italian restaurant, simply because he did not want to hand over the business to Tommy. Therefore, he had started his business with bloodshed, but what was perhaps more shocking was his behavior towards his wife, Lucia. Tommy made Lucia work as a sex worker in the Pigalle square of Paris, and he initially made it seem as if this was just a crude way to ensure that his wife also brought money to the family. However, it is very evident that Tommy’s decision to make his wife sell herself was born out of extreme insecurity and vengefulness against her because of her previous infidelities in Ortona. This makes Tommy forever stuck in a weird loop of extreme love for Lucia while also expressing constant doubts about her loyalty.
Similarly, the brother is shown to have an equally strong self-doubt with regard to his biological origin, for he knows that he is not the real son of the Tano couple but that of a sex worker. This fact keeps haunting him towards the very end, and this is also why he has a falling out with his mother, which is not resolved even during her death. In a situation that is largely affected by this, Tommy also shows grave doubts about the parental identity of the son that he and Lucia have after a few years. Although Tommy accepted the baby and lovingly named him Claudio in honor of his dead stepbrother, the man gradually started to doubt that the boy was not his and must be one of the many men who got intimate with Lucia.
Tommy has a falling out with his wife and son because of this reason, and his relationship with Rocco is also marred because of his very personality. It is evident that Rocco did have some romantic feelings for Lucia, but nothing ever happened between the two. However, Tommy suspected an affair between the two and forced his brother out of his house and his life because of it. He also kept a deep-rooted feeling that Rocco did so little for him in life despite him giving the younger brother a launching pad, which is not very convincing either. There is a sense throughout the series that it tries to portray Tommy in a manner that would evoke sympathy, which I personally found very hard to feel for the character.
Why did Rocco have no lovers in his life?
One of the negatives of Rocco Siffredi’s life that Supersex series manages to show is his inability to have any serious romantic relationships throughout his life, which is a direct result of his terrible sex addiction. Rocco does get involved with quite a few women over his life, but none of the relationships last because of very basic differences, the most important of which is his unwillingness to leave the adult entertainment industry. Quite a few of his partners wish to bring him out of the rather humiliating and treacherously demanding profession, but Rocco refuses to, for he feels significant in the world only because of his work. Beneath these claims about his love for the job, is obviously a very unhealthy addiction to physical pleasure, and it ultimately hurts his health as well.
After a string of relationships that do not work out, Rocco is seen getting involved with a woman named Rosa Caracciolo towards the end of the series. Being a professional model, Rosa also tries to convince him to leave his profession and enter the more respectable field of modeling instead. However, Rocco turns down this advice too, and for a change, he himself decides to end the relationship, stating how he cannot ever be with anyone. Despite earlier believing that Rocco only knew how to express the rough adrenaline-fueled acts during intimacy and had no idea about lovemaking, Rosa decides to have kids with him, meaning that she settles with him.
What happens to Rocco and Tommaso?
Supersex’s ending once again brings us back to Paris in 2004, solving the mystery of why Tommy was holding his brother at gunpoint. The relationship between Tommy and Rocco is marked by extreme ups and downs, terrible fights, and falling outs, only to come close again after some time. There is undoubtedly a tinge of toxicity in this brotherly bond, especially with regard to how the two easily forgive each other’s faults only based on their supposed brotherhood. In the end, Tommy comes to Rocco and holds him at gunpoint, asking for one last favor, which is to accompany him to a church where Lucia is getting married for the second time.
By this time, Lucia had separated from Tommy and had started living under the patronage of Jean-Claude, who eventually asked her to get married. Despite having a seemingly strong love for Tommy, Lucia agrees to the marriage for the sake of her young son and also because she knows that Tommy has killed himself by jumping into the Seine. Even Rocco had been told this, which is why he was terrified at seeing Tommy at first, but now that his brother has really returned, he does not need the threat of the gun to forgive all past grievances and help Tommy once again. The two intend to go to the church together, but Tommy beats Rocco to the place, now pointing the gun at Lucia, wanting to kill her for her betrayal.
Ultimately, Tommy does not kill Lucia, though, calmed down by the presence of both her and Rocco, and the man has a breakdown. He and Rocco then visit the Italian restaurant, which Jean-Claude had taken away from him as well, and they trash the place while celebrating their bond of brotherhood. Back at Tommy’s apartment, which is more like a hideout, he can no longer hold on to the pains of his difficult life and ultimately shoots himself dead. Following the loss, Rocco also decides to retire from the role of a performer in the adult entertainment industry and instead become a producer and director. Netflix’s Supersex series ends with a scene of Rocco handing over some samples to a clinic, suggesting that he also finally starts to receive treatment for his physical malady. Although the show does not delve into it at all, Rocco Siffredi’s retirement did not actually last because of his addiction, which made him reenter the industry once again, and he continues to be active.
