There is a new Italian series that is depopulating on Netflix. He released on June 3 without any notice or advertising from Netflix but despite this he jumped from the first day of debut in third place among the most viewed titles in Italy on Netflix, even exceeding the miniseries with Julianne Moore, Sirens. He is titled Sara – The woman in the shadows and is an all -Italian crime miniseries with the protagonists of exceptional women: Teresa Saponangelo and Claudia Gerini. Inspired by the literary saga of Maurizio De Giovanni and consisting of six episodes, this crime series, set in Naples, seems to have breasted in the heart of the public.

But how is Sara really – the woman in the shadows? Is it worth seeing it or would it be better to focus on something else? Here is our thoughts after seeing it all but in the meantime, a small hint to the plot.

Sara – The woman in the shade: the plot

The protagonists of the story are two women. One is Sara, an ex acting agent of the internal secret services that lives in total solitude after the death of his partner and then there is Teresa, an old friend and colleague still involved in the work by the field agent. One is blonde, the other is brunette. They haven’t been talking about for years but this job have started together and return to attending after Sara’s son is killed for what looks like a road accident. During the investigations that the two will secretly make and collaborating will be many hidden truths that will emerge, the old and new wounds that will open and many unresolved issues to face. All in the name of justice.

Sara – The woman in the shade: a local crime that does not upset but lets herself look (just like fiction)

Let’s immediately make a premise: behind Sara’s writing – the woman in the shadows are the same names that have worked on highly successful fiction as doc – in your hands and behind the camera there is the same director of Don Matteo, sea outside, Belcanto. And the fiction halo must be said that everything is seen in this new Netflix crime.

It is not necessarily a negative note, however, above all taking into account that in recent years the streaming platform has become increasingly “generalist” by attracting a public much more used to the classic Italian fiction than the most sought after style and tending to the cinema of the serial story of platform. This meant that Netflix has expanded her target and involved a new slice of audiences that finds in titles like Sara – the woman in the shadows the perfect television leisure.

And this is how this crime made in Italy is conquering the Netflix audience and is destined to do it even more.

The strengths of this series? Two good actresses in the role of two women full of defects but precisely for this interesting. A plot that knows how to keep the viewer in check with effective narrative outsets and that veil of mystery that pervades the whole story until the end.

The defects? A plot that promises so much at the beginning but that, in the end, does not adequately repay us, a certain predictability and hastiness of storytelling, the “generalist TV” flavor that leads behind that, however, as far as we can consider it a defect if we think about the seriality of a certain level, becomes a valuable if we consider that the Netflix target is changing and that the public is looking for this platform, “serious” but also (and perhaps above all) a comfortable leisure.

If you take this series like this is pleasant, if you expect the masterpiece, then you are in the wrong place.

VOTE: 6.5

The best Netflix series of 2025, so far