Women are sexualized and then vilified for being sexual in the same breath. As with Rocco’s female co-stars, she isn’t allowed the same agency and status he obtains. Moreover, Manieri positions Lucia’s life as a counternarrative to Rocco’s. Fewer episodes and less time spent on the self-destructive café manager would have kept the storyline squarely on Rocco’s psyche. “Supersex” dwells far too long on Rocco’s dysfunctional brotherhood with Tommaso, giving the toxic and exhausting connection unneeded exposition. Becoming a porn star gives him financial security, but his inner turmoil stems from trying to live up to the expectations his family places on him. An invitation to a sex club awakens previously unknown desires. Still, his burgeoning sexuality and eventual domination in the porn industry come amid his defiance of Tommaso.ĭespite a lifelong admiration of Tommaso’s machismo, his brother’s treatment of Lucia, who funds their lifestyle through her sex work on the streets of Paris, slowly shifts Rocco’s point of view. This attention aligns with the financial and social status he hopes to achieve. As a young waiter in a Paris café run by Tommaso, Rocco notices the effect he has on women. Though the moniker is adopted from the gangster Roch Siffredi in the 1970 French film “Borsalino,” Rocco’s transformation from a sex enthusiast into a full-blown star happens in stages. Interestingly, the birth of Rocco Siffredi, the porn legend, isn’t depicted in the series. It also destroys the romances and familial bonds he tries to form and maintain. But his sex work comes at the expense of his mental health. The euphoria from observing and later engaging in sex is a feeling Rocco chases across the next three decades. The series unpacks his crush on Lucia and later his discovery of “Supersex,” a pornography magazine starring Gabriel Pontello. In addition to examining Rocco’s family dynamic, “Supersex” zooms in on his fixation on sex, which begins at a very young age. Tommaso also has the love of the town’s most stunning woman, Lucia (Jasmine Trinca), which only endears Rocco to him further. He represents a type of freedom and hypermasculinity that appears out of reach for the men of Ortona.
His mother is devoted to his mentally disabled brother Claudio, and Rocco lives in the shadow of his charismatic older half-brother, Tommaso (Adriano Giannini). Ten-year-old Rocco Tano feels trapped in the impoverished rural town of Ortona and lost in the chaos of his family life. Following Rocco’s retirement news, the show zips back to 1974. Series opener “Superpower” acts mainly as a coming-of-age story. For Rocco, porn acting has always been more than just a job, and to understand why, Manieri and the series’ directors turn their lens to the Italian Stallion’s past. Still youthful and energetic, he shocks the porn world by announcing his retirement. “Supersex” opens in Parigi in 2004 with the world-renowned Rocco speaking at a sex convention. Instead, it’s an overly complex examination of relationships and the vices people indulge in to escape their emotional turmoil. While the show, which stars Alessandro Borghi in the lead role, has some interesting chapters, the surrealist elements - including some hallucinatory moments and the bizarre way some of the sex scenes are filmed - make it more than a biographical account. Instead, the seven-part series, created by Francesca Manieri, is a tale about family, masculinity and toxic bonds. Loosely based on the experiences of real-life porn sensation Rocco Siffredi, known as the “Italian Stallion,” Netflix’s “ Supersex” isn’t actually very sexy at all.