The Leopard Review
Director: Tom Shankland, Giuseppe Capotondi and Laura Luchetti
Date Created: 2025-03-06 00:34
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The Leopard Review: Netflix’s new Italian drama Il Gattopardo is a six-part remake of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s classic novel, directed by Tom Shankland, Giuseppe Capotondi, and Laura Luchetti. The drama stars Kim Rossi Stuart as Prince Fabrizio, Saul Nanni as Tancredi, and Deva Cassel as Angelica, with Benedetta Porcaroli, Paolo Calabresi, and others. The drama is set in Sicily in the 1860s when Italy was unifying and a noble family struggles to hold on to power as the political tides shift.
The Leopard Review
I started this show expecting something grand—a visually impressive period drama with a rich, emotional center. And it’s got that, certainly. The cinematography is gorgeous, the costumes are gorgeous, and every scene seems to have been taken directly from a painting. But emotional depth and storytelling? That’s where it begins to get lacking.
Netflix’s The Leopard series is breathtakingly beautiful. The way it captures Sicily’s golden landscapes, the crumbling palaces, the candlelit ballrooms, all of it so carefully executed that you can’t help but be impressed. Each shot feels historic, and thanks to the production team who didn’t spare any costs to ensure every element was as real as possible.
But as I loved the visuals, I was really waiting for the story to catch me, and it never quite did. The series excels at setting its epic foundation—power, transformation, survival—but the emotional reward isn’t always there. I wanted to be invested in the characters, to care about their situation, but too often the drama was something I was observing from the outside and not something that I was feeling with them.
Kim Rossi Stuart as Prince Fabrizio, the aristocrat who can’t seem to get his footing in a changing world. This is the actor who would have been the emotional core of the show—the man who does nothing and stands by while everything he has ever known is stripped away. And yet, his performance was just a little too understated. I know Fabrizio is supposed to be reserved and dignified, but there were moments that I wanted to see more raw emotion out of him. Instead, he’s distant, and it makes it more difficult to really get behind his inner conflict.
Saul Nanni as Tancredi is particularly great. I loved the way his character is written and executed. It has the kind of youthful vitality that makes it so easy to see why Tancredi is so drawn to change. He’s charming, driven, and passionate, and his character’s storyline is one of the most compelling things about the show.
And then, there is Angelica, brought to life by Deva Cassel. She seems well suited to the part—graceful and captivating—but her part is more emblem of nouveau riche than well-rounded human woman. Her scene with Tancredi is great, but the romance between them is less emotionally engaging than it might have been. Since the romance between the two of them is so pivotal to the story, I wished for more tension, more ardor, more moments in which I felt the gravity of their decisions. Their relationship builds in a way that is more utilitarian than visceral instead.
This Netflix series is definitely more mainstream, and it makes some of the more cerebral concepts more digestible, if you can imagine. But in doing so, it sacrifices some of the enchantment. The series is beautiful to behold, but it did leave me with the sense that it might be better.
Summing Up
Period dramas are a thing in themselves that are difficult to dislike, and on that basis, this Italian drama The Leopard is a worthwhile watch. Production design, costume, and cinematography are all excellent. The cast is decent, but sometimes it feels like they are reining themselves in. And a mention for Saul Nanni, because he does bring much-needed energy to the series, and Tancredi is one of the more interesting characters.
2025 The Leopard series is now streaming on Netflix.
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