ROME – After the successful debut of the first three episodes on Mediaset Infinity (3 million hours viewed), the second season of ‘Viola come il mare’ with protagonists Can Yaman and Francesca Chillemi arrives this evening in prime time on Canale 5 with the first episode, while the other 5 will be broadcast on Thursday.
Freely adapted from Simona Tanzini’s novel ‘Do you know summer?’, in the second season the journalist Viola and inspector Demir return between impossible loves, new entries in the cast and new cases to solve.
Co-produced by RTI and Lux Vide, a Fremantle Group company and directed by Alexis Sweet and Laszlo Barbo, at the center of the series is Viola Vitale (Francesca Chillemi), a former Miss Italy who works as journalist at Sicilia WebNews, a small but fierce editorial team of an online newspaper in Palermo, which in this second season we will see renew itself and welcome new characters. Among these we will find the new publisher Leonardo Piazza (Ninni Bruschetta), who will prove to be almost a mentor for Viola, and will guide her through a path of professional and personal rediscovery. At his side there will also be the new director Vita Stabili (Alice Arcuri), a determined, independent woman who knows what she wants and who will inevitably end up clashing with Viola, and two new journalists, Raffaele (Lorenzo Scalzo) and Maryam (Virginia Diop), who will animate the editorial team. At Viola’s side is the irreplaceable Tamara (Chiara Tron), who will follow her in any case, in every service she will always have to take care of with her typical little desire to do anything. But the news doesn’t end here, because Viola will no longer have to deal with crime news in the strict sense: her new task will be to create a podcast that starts from the news to tell the human stories that lie behind it.
To do this, Viola will continue to collaborate with Francesco Demir (Can Yaman) neighbor and charming police inspector, always supported by his faithful assistant Turi (Giovanni Nasta)< /strong>. Francesco’s professionalism and intuition are fundamental to solving the cases that he and Viola find themselves facing together. But the Inspector, already from the first season, also relies on Viola’s ‘special’ ability: a ‘superpower’ that allows her to ‘see’ the emotions of others: synesthesia. Thanks to synesthesia, Viola is able to associate the colors she sees in the people in front of her with the emotion they are feeling. The relationship between Viola and Francesco, however, is not only consummated on a professional level: as neighbors, with apartments adjacent and a large shared terrace, the two find themselves sharing personal spaces, also made up of intimacy and confidences. As we saw in the first season, the attraction between Viola and Francesco is inevitable. But they both had to learn to keep it at bay, because it clashes with their vision of what a romantic relationship should be: for him just pure fun, while for her something absolute and profound, destined to last forever . And it is precisely with this dilemma that we left them: can two like them really try to be together?
If Viola felt ready to start something serious with Francesco, in fact, the latter perhaps never was. And he demonstrated it very clearly, running away even before they managed to have their first official date. Viola was upset but, watching him walk away from the top of her terrace, she understood that maybe it was for the best. If Francesco had stayed, if he had declared his love for her, he would have had to reveal his secret: Viola is ill with a serious degenerative disease, which significantly reduces her life expectancy. The same disease for which he is incessantly searching for the father he never knew, with the hope of finding a cure. Can you ask a man to love you forever if you know you will die? Maybe not. And this is why Viola is convinced: Francesco will never have to know. And now we find her like this: at peace with herself and above all with him. Viola has a different light in her eyes, she no longer cares about the rudeness Francesco gave her. She is ready to start again with lightness and positivity. And above all in friendship. But will it be true? Can two like them ever be just friends? Francesco certainly doesn’t think so, and he tells him so outright. Judging by Viola’s disorganized reaction, however, she too has some doubts. But he shakes his head and moves on. Try not to think about it, or rather not to think about it at all.
And so Viola starts swimming, every morning, free from everything. Or almost because on the beach he will end up meeting Matteo Ferrara (Giovanni Scifoni), a cheerful and profound man, with a charm all his own. It won’t take long before they become close and start meeting more often. But if this could already be enough to fuel Francesco’s jealousy, let’s imagine his reaction when he discovers that Viola’s friend is also the new PM. It goes without saying that there will be bad blood between them: a conflictual relationship that will take place inside and outside of work, with Viola at the center. A job in which the stakes for Francesco will therefore be higher. Not only due to the presence of the new PM, but also due to an investigation that will open the second season and which will see him personally involved: his mother, Sonia (Valeria Milillo), returned to Palermo, she is the victim of a mysterious accident that leaves her life in danger. What happened? And why did she return to Palermo? These are two of the questions that Francesco will ask himself. But to the second, Viola already knows how to respond.
There is one thing that Viola keeps hidden from the Inspector, and it is what his mother, Sonia, had confessed to her just before leaving Palermo: the man with whom Francesco grew up is not the his real father! Sonia had telephoned Viola to announce her imminent return to speak with her son and finally tell him the truth. And while he was on the phone with her, Sonia was holding in her hands the same photo that Viola also has, the photo of the man who she discovered was her father. Is it possible that Viola and Demir are half-siblings?! This will be one of the big questions that will open the second season, but it won’t be the only one: what really happened to Sonia, and why now that she had decided to tell the truth to her son? Francesco will have no choice but to investigate, to discover the truth about his mother and track down his real father.
LEONARDO PIAZZA (NINNI BRUSCHETTA): A breath of fresh air in the Sicilia WebNews editorial team, starting with the new editor: Leonardo Piazza. A charming sixty-year-old, he bought the editorial team, making notable changes, firing some journalists and keeping others who he considered worthy of trust, including the reporter Viola and the videographer Tamara. Firm but understanding, he demands excellence from the people who work for him and encourages them to always do their best. As with Viola, to whom he entrusts the recording of a podcast where he can talk about crime cases with a personal slant. Leonardo, in fact, having sensed the journalist’s talent in understanding people, decides to enhance it as much as possible. For Viola it won’t be easy at first, but thanks to Leonardo’s encouragement she will be able to face this new challenge. He himself, as we will see, had to learn firsthand how important it is not to give up.
VITA STABILI (ALICE ARCURI): Suit, blonde hair and Milanese accent, the new director of Sicilia WebNews is a true stablisher. Vita Stabili, in her forties, presents herself as a friendly person and determined to make the editorial office a welcoming place to work for everyone. But, as often happens when you are too kind, there are those who take advantage of it, and the initial availability will make room for rigor and discipline. Determination that he seems to have especially with Viola. In his eyes, in fact, the journalist seems to have a simpler life than hers: she is young, she is beautiful, and Vita fears that she may take away from her what she has struggled to conquer. For the new director, the editorial office is an opportunity for redemption. It would seem, in fact, that life has put her to the test, and we will soon discover what lies behind the rigid armor and inflexibility she shows with Viola. Will Vita be able to go beyond appearances?
MATTEO FERRARA (GIOVANNI SCIFONI): Matteo, dark eyes, clean face and calm, caring smile, is the new PM of the Palermo prosecutor’s office. He is a lucid and disciplined person, with the charm of composure and of someone who always knows what he wants. In short, a real pain in the ass in Demir’s eyes, who will give him a hard time. Matteo, in fact, is certainly not as understanding as the old PM Buscemi, and for him the Inspector is far too impulsive in decisions and resistant to the rules. It’s clear: there will never be bad blood between the two. What will sour their relationship even more and trigger the inspector’s jealousy, however, will be the friendship between Matteo and Viola which is born almost by chance on the seashore. Viola and Matteo get into the habit of going swimming and, after getting to know each other, they begin to do it more and more often, even together. The PM, in fact, with his kind words and optimism, knows how to be pleasant company for the journalist. In short, he is a real gentleman and Demir doesn’t like this at all.
RAFFAELE NOTO (LORENZO SCALZO): Young and handsome, athletic and a womanizer, Raffaele is the new sports reporter in the editorial office, where we meet him for the first time enchanted by looking at Viola’s beautiful legs. With her light-hearted attitude she believes she is irresistible and rejects love, preferring instead occasional relationships without too much commitment, a bit like the videomaker Tamara. The two, in fact, seem to share the lightness in sentimental stories and the intolerance towards stable relationships, even if they often find themselves bickering. But unexpectedly Raffaele will also get close to someone who, apparently, seems to be light years away from him: Maryam, the new reporter, from an Islamic family. What could two people who are so different at first sight have in common?
MARYAM NAZARI (VIRGINIA DIOP): Hijab on her head, casual clothes and character to spare. It is Maryam, the new journalist of Sicilia WebNews who will take care of the political section of the newspaper, and who doesn’t like labels, as she promptly points out on her first day in the editorial office. In short, it is immediately clear what it is made of. From an Islamic family, she defines herself as a modern girl with values, confident in her own ideas and zealous and at work, a real “perfect girl” who hardly breaks down. In reality, in everyday life she discovers herself lively and exuberant and with an unexpected passion that will lead her to develop a deep acquaintance with the new sports reporter.