The Netflix Original Baby is a gritty and honest portrayal of the complications of teenage life. Netflix’s Italian-language teen-drama follows the trials and tribulations of a group of high-school students in a wealthy Roman suburb. With any teen-drama comes an abundance of sex, drugs, and conflict, and this one is no different. One point of departure, however, is Baby‘s journey into the world of underage prostitution.
The series is filled with wealth and glamour and undertakes a number of controversial issues. As an Italian production, the show comes complete with its own style and nuances and differs in many ways from other teen-dramas. In this way, Baby fits into the library of Netflix’s original content perfectly.
10 Loosely Based On A True Story
The series was inspired by the real-life Baby Squillo (Baby Prostitute) scandal, in which a group of young girls became involved in a prostitution ring. The show is set and filmed in the Roman suburb of Parioli, the same suburb in which the real-life events took place.
While the majority of locations and local attractions in the show are true to life, the Liceo Collodi School that the characters attend is a fabrication that is based on schools in the area. To create this fictional school, the University of Tor Vergata was used. The faculties of Engineering and Economics were used to film the school scenes in the show.
9 Third Netflix Original From Italy
While there are now many more, upon its release in 2018 Baby was just the third Netflix Original production from Italy. In 2017 the first Italian Netflix Original was Suburra: Blood on Rome, which is set in a beachside town outside of Rome. This show follows another real-life political scandal.
In Suburra: Blood on Rome everyone from clergy members to criminals and politicians come to a head regarding a piece of development land in the coastal town. After this came Juventus FC, a documentary series about the Milan-based football club, following the daily lives of its players.
8 Where You’ve Seen The Cast Before
For a large portion of the cast, Baby served as a breakout role, and the actors had not appeared in many previous productions. There is, however, a small number of familiar faces. Tommaso Ragno, the principal of the school and Fabio’s father, can also be seen in fellow Italian Netflix Original The Trial (Il Processo), as well as season 4 of FX favorite Fargo.
Another parent in the show, Ludovica’s mother, is played by Isabella Ferrari. Ferrari is a well-known face in Italian cinema and within her lengthy Italian credits, was a role in the 1998 drama Nicholas’ Gift starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Alan Bates.
7 First Project By Italian Writing Collective GRAMS
GRAMS is a young Italian writing collective, that was created in an endeavor to bring young Italian writing to the screen. All five writers of the group had their own previous experience in various productions, but Baby was their first production together as a collective.
GRAMS is made up of five writers: Antonio Le Fosse, Romolo Re Salvador, Eleanora Trucchi, Marco Raspanti, and Giacomo Mazzariol. Although Baby is at its core, the story of the experience of two young girls, and their coming of age, the collective responsible for the story is made up of four men and just one woman.
6 It Was Almost Cancelled
Before Baby‘s release, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation gathered signatures to cancel the show, as they believed it to be glamorizing the world of sex-trafficking and prostitution rings. As a result of this, the show has often been met with criticism over its subject matter and depiction of minors.
Director Andrea De Sica however, has argued that he has purposely avoided nudity and glamorizing sex within the show and claimed that it was more about the “psychological problem of the free will of the teenager”. De Sica went on to say that “sex is not the main frame”, and despite consistent controversiality, the show has continued to be popular among audiences.
5 Benedetta & Alice Both Have Modelling Experience
Before being cast in Baby, Benedetta Porcaroli who plays Chiara had worked extensively as a model. Porcaroli has worked with Timberland, as well as Italian luxury brands Fendi and Gucci. She also worked for many of her teen years, with Italian teen-clothing brand Subdued.
Porcaroli is not along in this, as Alice Pagani, who plays Chiara’s friend Ludovica in the show has also done some modeling work more recently. In 2020 Pagani and fellow actor Nicholas Hoult were the faces of Emporio Armani’s Together Stronger campaign.
4 Castmembers With Famous Parents
The Italian expression “figli d’arte” translates in English to “children of art” and refers to the children of well-known or successful creatives – from musicians and writers to filmmakers and actors. This is applicable to two notable actors in the cast of Baby. Riccardo Mandolini who plays bad-boy Damiano is the son of famous Italian actors Mauro Mandolini and Nadia Rinaldi.
In a new addition to season three of the show, Anna Lou Castoldi plays Aurora. Castoldi is the daughter of actress Asia Argento who has starred in many American productions such as xXx. Most notably, however, Castoldi is the granddaughter of Dario Argento, one of Italy’s most renowned filmmakers, who among many other things wrote and directed the original 1977 horror film Suspiria.
3 Millennial Soundtrack
Although Baby is an entirely Italian production, the largely electronic soundtrack is in no way confined to a single country. With appearances from artists like Danish DJ Noir and Bulgarian Pavel Petrov, the soundtrack makes frequent use of English pop group London Grammar, and American artist Billie Eilish.
More than location, however, the soundtrack focuses on youth and contemporality and is produced by Italian musician and composer Yakamoto Kotzuga. Kotzuga himself is just twenty-six years old and falls into the electronic music genre, two facts that are hugely noticeable in his song choices for Baby.
2 Final Season Closest To Real-life Events
Of the three seasons of Baby, the final season appears to be closest in fact to the events of the 2014 scandal that inspired it. The real-life case resulted in huge media coverage due to the high profile nature of a number of people involved in the scandal and resulted in many trials and court hearings.
Baby season three focuses on the two girls as their secret-life is exposed and they must testify as to their actions over the course of the previous two seasons. Chiara and Ludovica get caught up in a media frenzy and cannot hide from their newfound notoriety in connection to the case.
1 Benedetta & Alice In The Croods 2
Season three may be the final season of Baby, but it is not the last time that some of the cast members will be seen together. Italian Netflix Original Film Under The Riccione Sun has both Lorenzo Zurzolo who plays Niccolo in the series and Isabella Ferrari who plays Simonetta, Ludovica’s mother.
As well as this, Benedetta Porcaroli and Alica Pagani have an upcoming project together. Porcaroli and Pagani will voice-act as Aurora Superior, and Hip, respectively, in the Italian dubbed version of Disney production The Croods 2.
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