Bang Bang Baby

Bubble gum, a foul-mouthed parrot, a psychic and a pulpy 80s soundtrack are all part of the strange nature of Bang Bang Baby, an Italian-language crime thriller set to launch on Amazon Prime Video. Set in 1986, the opening three episodes introduce viewers to 16-year-old Alice (Arianna Becheroni) who finds herself sucked into the underbelly of the Milano underworld when she discovers her father (Adriano Giannini) is still alive, after years of believing he was murdered. However, the timing for this reunion couldn’t be worse as she finds herself caught in a web of deceit and murder.

This Amazon series is a beast all of its own, an imaginatively weird blend of genres with a splatter of dark humour thrown in as a bonus. It’s also immaculately shot. Every scene oozes atmosphere and style whilst Echo and the Bunnymen’s The Killing Moon plays in the background. The result is effortlessly cool and challenges audiences to see what comes next. 

The show likewise refuses to hold the viewer’s hand when it comes to following its elaborate narrative. There are a lot of moving pieces and plot threads established in the early stages, with the show encouraging its audience to connect the various threads themselves. Though doing so is rewarding, the deliberately slow-burn pace of the opening act means that it takes a considerable amount of time before the detective work has any payoff. Until then, viewers are kept in the dark which makes for an unintentionally confusing experience. The opening episodes likewise suffer from a major pacing issue in which jumps between different subplots and locations disrupt the flow and only further add to the initial confusion. 

By the end of episode three, however, the necessary housekeeping looks to be out of the way. With all the key players and their motivations properly established, it should be possible to look forward to what madness the rest of the series has in store.

Andrew Murray

Bang Bang Baby is released on Amazon Prime Video on 28^th April 2022.

Watch the trailer for Bang Bang Baby here: