The fifth episode of the people show hosted by Maria De Filippi on Canale 5 on Saturday evening offers, perhaps to celebrate Valentine’s Day, the ‘story of an interrupted marriage’ as the first course. Difficult family reunions follow but, surprisingly, also blood relatives who love each other. Guests Luca Argentero and Gerry Scotti. Let’s look at the pass and fail together.

Antonio wants to ‘bite feet’ (and thus throws away a 17-year marriage, a true champion): vote 2

Seventeen years of marriage and never an ‘I love you’. Or even just a compliment to his wife Noemi. Antonio is a disastrous husband who perhaps realized he was one, by chance, only when his exasperated spouse made him find his suitcases on the bed and kicked him out of the house. Another woman that Antonio meets in a sports center acts as the straw in this union which was already a sort of ghosting in presence. He takes her number from the group’s Whatsapp group, writes to her ‘How are you?’, then ‘You’re beautiful’ and, so as not to exaggerate, ‘I would like to feel your breath on my neck and bite your feet’. Noemi finds these messages on the criminal’s phone, by pure chance. And she immediately chases him away, with good reason. He assures that there was nothing physical with the owner of the feet that he would have liked to bite, his wife replies ‘only because I have you caught in time.’ who raised herself almost alone, Antonio doesn’t even work. Despite this, he even managed to give some gifts to his ‘digital’ lover, “taking money away from our girls in a period in which we were already in a very bad situation”. At least he will have a good character! Defined and self-proclaimed ‘transparent’ at home, he was already missing from his daughters when he was still there with them he doesn’t even get up from the sofa when his in-laws go to visit them. Antonio is a comfortable sofa. He now lives with his mother, but he doesn’t understand that the ‘family’ has finally been reunited: I am Noemi with her two daughters, serene and calm.

TV ratings: C’è Posta per Te loses (after years). The sensational comeback of Antonella Clerici

Katia, dad’s wife is a perfect villain (‘but she doesn’t have a rifle in the house, eh?’): rating 7

Terrible. But we promote for the ferocity, Katia was the villain of this episode, perfect for the role. Two crying daughters, Melania and Loredana, enter the studio, they would like to reconnect with their father who no longer looks them in the face because, honestly, his wife Katia doesn’t like them. Having been married for 30 years now, this man, Vito, is only a simulacrum, an empty shell, the ventriloquist’s puppet where the ventriloquist obviously answers to the name of Katia. Ours managed to interfere with the relationship between husband and daughters to the point of convincing him to miss both of their weddings. For trivial reasons, reported rumors, jealousies that never existed. Curious how, every time there is money to be spent, Katia recoils by distancing her husband from her offspring. The arguments regarding the wedding began, for example, when the eldest daughter ‘allowed’ herself to ask dad if he wanted to contribute to the wedding dress. He had never done it! However, Katia specifies, in a gentle tone, that she is not overwhelming towards her husband. No, never. He demonstrates this immediately, for example, by speaking first and in his place. “He has this bad habit of always letting me do the talking, he doesn’t understand that this makes me look bad. It’s true that he says to ask me every time someone asks him something, but it’s his way of doing things, I have nothing to do with it. I don’t keep a rifle in the house and I’m in charge, eh?”. Monte sentences pronounced by the puppet father Vito: two and a half. Most of which are mere echoes of his wife’s vowels. However, he manages to fire off a good missile, suddenly: “The two of them disgraced me on Facebook, the whole world knows it!”. And who went to tell him? But Katia, obviously. Will it be true? Maybe. Of course, ‘the world’ knew nothing about it at all. Meanwhile, this man missed all his daughters’ ceremonies: before the wedding, even communion, confirmation and eighteenth. And at the time there were still no social networks on which to find oneself, possibly, ‘spoiled’. It’s just a shame that the girls still hope for it. As one of the two says: “Since I was six years old I’ve been looking for a dialogue with you, just between you and me. But it’s never been possible because there’s always Katia.” The envelope opens, but it is clear that the terrible ‘stepmother’ has no intention of giving up. As soon as it rains, it will be their fault again and the carousel will begin again, the tunnel of horrors, the real or presumed snake relatives. Undeserving daughters of such a surplus of a father who in turn, however, manages to be very deserving of the woman he has chosen to limit himself to being her clutch bag for life. And waive all responsibility. Vito isn’t there, he doesn’t answer, how could he? He is a clutch bag, in fact. ‘Ask Katia’.

Luca Argentero ‘snubs’ Sofia Goggia (he repeats her beautiful speech without quoting her): rating 5

And it’s the turn of two sisters again: the younger one, Elisa, calls the older one, Clara, to surprise her. That is, introducing her to Luca Argentero, her favorite Italian actor. He wants to thank her because they both come from a difficult past: mum and dad leave suddenly, within a very short time of each other, leaving them orphans at the ages of 22 and 25. Clara gives up her degree (she would have had eight exams left to finish) to give Elisa the chance to study, she acts as both her mother and father. Improvising, apparently splendidly, both roles. So much so that now he deserves a nice gift: meeting Luca Argentero, in fact. And so be it. When the most followed ‘Doc’ on TV, however, sits next to her, he makes a bit of a mess. He brings back to the girl ‘the speech about the sacrifice that I heard an athlete make and which in my opinion represents you very much’. A series of indecisive babbles emerge while the recipient nods in ecstasy because she isn’t listening anyway. The concept, in reality, if you were to know how to say it, would also be very beautiful and profound. You can find it here, they are the words of the Olympic skier Sofia Goggia. Why did the actor limit himself to defining her as ‘an athlete’, neglecting to mention her name? He must have forgotten that part of the script, too busy mumbling all the other lines, pretending (poorly) to know them, we fail due to the sloppiness shown on the pitch. Other than ‘sacrifice’, Argentero didn’t even try!

But can Gerry Scotti cook or not? This is the dilemma: vote 6

It was really the sisters’ episode. This time four come into the studio, all to thank their father who raised them alone because their mother sadly passed away at the age of 41. The youngest was just two when it happened. The others are 9, 16 and 20. Dad Vincenzo never married another woman again and to those who asked him why he replied: “I already have four girlfriends”. His daughters saw him return from work every evening, take a shower and immediately start cooking, then get busy with the laundry. Only one request for all: “You can tell me whatever you do, as long as it’s not a lie.” A perfect ‘dad-mom’ who literally went out of his way for his offspring, sacrificing a lot of his own life and giving it entirely to his little ‘girlfriends’. To thank him, they introduce him to Gerry Scotti and Francesco, unwillingly, manages to put the host in difficulty. The man is, apparently, also an excellent chef and when the king of ‘The Wheel of Fortune’ begins a sentence describing himself in the kitchen, Francesco immediately stops him: “But how?! You cook?! It’s not true! And where would you find the time with all the programs you do? You’re always on TV!”. Now, in fact, this would be a dilemma worth investigating. It had never occurred to us to ask ourselves whether Uncle Gerry cooked or not. But now we want to know. Thank you, Francesco. Also for being a dad who gave hope to the entire category, often shared by little men with less thickness than plankton.

Alfredo is looking for his old flame Concetta (but in reality he wants to go to ‘La Corrida’): rating 7

Rich episode, harbinger of the history of horns, right at the beginning because the final of ‘The Voice Kids’ with Antonella Clerici in De Filippi was scary. And then, exceptionally, also the usual old man, this time named Alfredo, in search of an old flame he met six decades earlier. Curious choice, usually there are either deer or elderly people. Both of them together means war (on Rai 1, ed.). However, this Mr. Alfredo would like to see Concetta again. A long time ago, in Turin, they worked in two neighboring shops and every evening he accompanied her home, despite the fact that she was engaged ‘to a Sicilian’ and followed closely by a very strict family. The man says he only managed to steal a few kisses from her until she returned to Sicily within five months. Hopefully, not because of such advances. The production undertakes to find the lady with whom, Alfredo says, the relationship would not have ended there: he claims that they continued to write letters to each other for at least three years after the farewell. Letters that were burned by the woman who would later become his wife. Together with the photographs of Concetta, all straight in the fireplace, no mercy. Today, when Alfredo has been a widower for five years, three candidates appear before him in the studio. The third, as always, is the right one, ‘his’ Concetta. But she has completely forgotten about him, she is married and happy, she doesn’t even open the envelope for him. In her place, another does it, seizing the moment because she is interested in Alfredo. Love at first sight? Maybe! Meanwhile, the man complains about the rudeness of his old flame: “He made a mistake, a greeting is not a crime”, he protests. But then he falls back on his great dream: taking part in ‘La Corrida’ because ‘I’ve been playing the guitar for 35 years and I’m very good. However, I never find anyone to ask to audition”. Certainly not (anymore) at Mediaset for that program now. But perhaps Alfredo, after all, is luckier in love. Which, yes, is saying something.