It’s raining good action on Netflix. After American Primeval (2025) and the French To Life (2025) appeared this week ACAB: The series (2025– ) on the streaming service. The brand new Italian action series is also popular.
Strikingly current
The new Netflix series is written by Carlo Bonini, who previously Subura (2017–2020) in Suburræterna (2023– ) wrote. So that’s not surprising ACAB is now also popular. Italian critics insist that the series is coming out “at the right time”, pointing to the violent clashes that took place just three days ago between protesters and police in several Italian cities, following the death of a 19-year-old Egyptian man during a police chase in Milan .
You know that feeling when you start a series with zero expectations, or worse, with the thought that it will be pretty average, but you still want to watch it to pass the time? And then you’re surprised by how entertaining it actually is? Well, that’s what we experienced with ACAB.
Intense and powerful story in six episodes (…) If you are curious about a nuanced, cruel, brutal and heartbreaking thriller series that feels very realistic, then this is ACAB a good choice.
Social unrest
The new series starts with a night of fierce fighting in Val di Susa. A Rome Mobile Unit team loses their chief, who is seriously injured. However, the team of Mazinga, Marta and Salvatore is not like the others, it is a team from Rome, which has had to learn to contrast chaos and problems with extreme methods, but also with the harmony of a tribe, almost like a family.
A family that the new commander, Michele, who is part of the reformist police, has to deal with. For such a police force, teams like these are the symbol of an old school that needs to be re-established.
As if the chaos that hits the new team at the moment of maximum internal vulnerability isn’t enough, there is also a new wave of people’s dissatisfaction with the institutions. Amid rising tensions, team members are called upon to take sides and forced to question the deeper meaning of their work and their own membership in the department.
Beeld: Still ‘ACAB’ via Marco Ghidelli/Netflix © 2024