1.3: Finding the Man of the House (‘L'omm ‘e casa’, Stefano Sollima)

The article focuses on episode 1.3 of Italian TV series "Gomorrah". ‘You’re the man of the house now’, Don Pietro tells his son Gennaro. This declaration is at the core of 1.3 whose title, ‘The Man of the House’, points towards the narrative centrality of seizing power on the home front: while Don Pietro must exert his power as Boss in his new prison domicile, Genny attempts to take over the family business. 1.3 is interested in the question of power as it pertains to who might be the new ‘man of the house’ both on the home turf and in jail. Starting from this central theme, I look at how the characters of Don Pietro and Genny are destroyed and rebuilt in this episode, a process which causes a shift in audience identification and allegiance.