The rise and subsequent fall of the Italian television presenter Enzo Tortora could hardly be stranger. Known as the king of 1980s Italian TV, Tortora hosted the primetime show Portobello, which featured contestants trying to make a parrot speak. The program garnered 28 million viewers each week. But that stardom came crashing down in 1985 when Tortora was mistakenly convicted of participating in the drug-trafficking endeavors of the Camorra, an Italian mafia group. As he left his life onscreen for one behind bars, a media circus ensued. Directed and co-written by the Italian auteur Marco Bellocchio, the new series Portobello recounts that period of absurdity. “There is this innocent man, but he’s not a saint,” Bellocchio told the Hollywood Reporter in an interview last year. “This interested me. He’s not a saint, he’s not a hero.” Portobello is HBO Max’s first Italian original series. —Maggie Turner