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The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

1992: Berlusconi Rising

Streaming on Topic

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: a womanizing nationalist with an inflated self-image makes the jump from real estate and television to politics. That’s right, it’s Silvio Berlusconi, the subject of the historical drama 1992. The series, which originally aired on Sky Atlantic and La7 and is now available to stream on Topic, begins with the initial arrests resulting from the mani pulite (clean hands) investigation into political corruption, and the power vacuum left in their wake. The all-star cast includes former Miss Italia Miriam Leone as a vulnerable and cunning aspiring actress and Tea Falco as a party girl thrust to the top of her father’s compromised business. Berlusconi (Paolo Pierobon) plays a far bigger role in the second season—1993—but the trap has already been set. Call it the trauma of present-day politics, but escaping into the chaos of early-90s Milan was nonetheless cathartic. —Daisy Alioto