Claudia Gusmano (Photo credit: Stefania D’Alessandro/Getty Images,)
An Astrological Guide for Broken Hearts, (Guida astrologica per cuori infranti), a new Italian original Netflix series
NFLX
Produced by Italian International Film – Lucisano, the series was created by Bindu de Stoppani, who also co-directed the six episodes with Michela Andreozzi. Set in Turin, An Astrological Guide for Broken Hearts follows Alice Bassi, a production assistant in a small television network. Alice is a single woman in her mid 30s looking for love. She meets Tio, who will guide her as a self-professed astrological guru to make changes in her life.
An Astrological Guide for Broken Hearts is a fun romantic comedy, that is reminiscent of Bridget Jones, or the Spanish series Valeria. It will pull at your heartstrings like all good romantic comedies do.
Alice Bassi, played delightfully by Claudia Gusmano, is like an Italian version of Zooey Deschanel and Bridget Jones mixed together. She is cute and quirky, finds herself in ridiculous situations in front of her heartthrob of a boss, Davide (Michele Rosiello), and is helped through her heartbreaks by her best friends Paola (Esther Elisha) and Tio (Lorenzo Adorni).
As the series begins, Alice is still pining over her ex-boyfriend Carlo (Alberto Paradossi), with whom she works at the television network. There is, however, no way for them to get back together. Carlo is now proposing to his new girlfriend, and she is pregnant. In an effort to move on with her love life, she starts dating again, helped by Tio, with whom she instantly becomes best friends, and his astrological guidance. At first sceptical about astrology, Alice is soon charmed by Tio’s character explanations through star signs as he helps her choose her dates. Thanks to the new boss and her introduction to astrology through Tio, Alice also progresses at work. She creates a new game show using Tio’s expertise in using star signs to determine compatibility for a lonely heart to find a partner.
Divided into six episodes, each subtitled with a star sign, starting with Aries and ending with Virgo, An Astrological Guide for Broken Hearts searches for Alice’s true love. A Libra, Alice needs to find a man with a matching star sign to suit her, as Tio explains to her. The series functions like the TV game Alice conceptualizes for the TV network she works for. Each episode sees Tio facing the camera, as if he were in the game show, detailing the personality traits of each star sign. Apart for the Leos, he isn’t particularly nice to the other star signs. Aries men, for example, are like Tarzan, while Geminis live in chaos. For each failed relationship, Tio quickly determines that it was because the man’s star sign was not compatible with Alice.
Does star sign compatibility actually work? Well, the series has not yet deciphered that, although there are small hints that it probably doesn’t. The series though sure has fun with it. If you’re a fan of romantic comedies, the plot of this series is pretty predictable, you’ll soon guess who is destined to be Alice’s great love, and that’s what in an odd way is so entertaining about this series.
With 6 episodes of half an hour, this first season feels too short. It will leave you wanting more, especially with its cliffhanger ending. Considering that there are 12 star signs in the Zodiac, 6 more episodes are surely due.
An Astrological Guide for Broken Hearts is on Netflix since October 27.