A New Series Lays Bare the Fascist Playbook

The show convinces us that this neurotic, often repulsive man could also be a Pied Piper for disenchanted Italians

- Aditya Mani Jha

It's difficult to play it straight with period dramas these days. Viewers expect to find modern-day references or resonances in them; this in turn becomes a way for studios to sell these to the public. English director Joe Wright's Italian language TV series, Mussolini: Son of the Century (on MUBI), takes a smartly calibrated approach to this problem.

The show, based on the first in a series of historical novels by Antonio Scurati, follows the early political career of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, who ruled Italy between 1922-1943. It has a startling, heightened aesthetic unlike that of a standard historical drama. There is jerky hand-held camera, Wright's hallmark tracking shots, and an orchestral score punctuated by techno music. As Wright told Vulture: "The idea was to employ a Brechtian form in which we allow the audience to be seduced by his charisma just as he seduced an entire nation and much of the world... and then pull the rug from underneath their feet."

Yet, the writing—by Stefano Bises, who worked on the acclaimed crime drama