Due Spicci

Due Spicci marks Zerocalcare's return to Netflix after Strappare lungo i bordi, released in 2021, and Questo mondo non mi renderà cattivo, which followed two years later, effectively completing an informal trilogy that has, over the years, cemented the Roman author's move from comics into animated series. The new story again follows Zero, the author's alter ego, whom he voices along with nearly every other character, as he tries to run a small venue in Rebibbia together with his lifelong friend Cinghiale, a venture that proves harder than expected almost immediately, weighed down by debts, bills and a constantly precarious financial balance. Matters get more complicated when someone from Zero's past unexpectedly resurfaces, bringing unresolved responsibilities and forcing the characters to confront choices they had been putting off for too long.

As in his previous work, the voice of the protagonist's inner thoughts remains the Armadillo, the imaginary conscience voiced by Valerio Mastandrea, a recurring device that has become central to Zerocalcare's style, turning interior monologue into comic yet revealing dialogue. The visual style, rooted in the author's hand-drawn comic-book line, remains distinctive and consistent, while the writing continues to balance sharp irony, often aimed at himself and his own social circle, with an underlying melancholy tied to the economic and emotional struggles of adulthood, particularly for a precarious generation raised in Rome. Compared with the two previous installments, each centered on a specific event, an accident and the pandemic respectively, Due Spicci unfolds over a more relaxed, everyday arc, perhaps less immediately dramatic but just as effective at conveying the sense of existential stasis typical of his work.

The series' release, at the end of May this year, has brought renewed attention from audiences and critics to one of the most closely followed Italian authors of his generation, confirming Zerocalcare's ability to speak equally to longtime readers of his comics and to a wider television audience.