Origins vs. La Serie: Pietro Savastano's Racism.
After finishing Origins, I decided to rewatch Gomorrah: La Serie because I remembered having a lot of issues with the prequel but wanted to see if they still held up.
One thing that stood out immediately was Pietro's racism. In Episode 4, Sangue Africano, he openly makes racist remarks about the immigrant clans in Secondigliano and even orders a massacre against them (which was based on a real event mentioned in Saviano's book).
Then you watch Origins, where Pietro is portrayed as a poor orphan who grows up with kids from all backgrounds, including his close Black friend Toni. The show goes out of its way to make him sympathetic.
So what were the writers thinking? How does someone with that upbringing suddenly become the arrogant, openly racist Pietro we see decades later? I'm not saying people can't change, but Origins never shows a believable progression that explains such a dramatic shift in his character.
To me, it feels like the writers of Origins wanted to tell their own coming-of-age crime story and simply used Gomorrah as the backdrop. They essentially said, "Btw, this is Pietro Savastano, guys."