SUPERSEX offers a fresh, albeit a bit squeaky clean, coming-of-age story set in the porn industry

by Gary M. Kramer, Staff Writer

Developed by Francesca Manieri
Starring Alessandro Borghi, Jasmine Trinca, Adriano Giannini, Saul Nanni
All episodes streaming now on Netflix

Supersex, debuting March 6 on Netflix, is an engaging origin story of the “Italian Stallion” Rocco Siffredi (Alessandro Borghi). Dubbed the “King of Porn worldwide,” this admiring biopic is “loosely inspired” by his life. (The 2016 documentary, Rocco, also traced Siffredi’s life and career.)

Shrewdly, the series focuses more on the power issues around sex than the porn itself—even though Rocco insists, “Life is porn.” The industry is largely a backdrop for this character study and, while several scenes depict Rocco working on set, the series uses these moments to comment on his career. Rocco has difficulties in his initial shoots, but after acclaim in Europe, he arrives in LA and gets around not knowing English but talking in the language of sex. Supersex has fun recreating some of Siffredi’s films and the series just might renew interest in his, ahem, body of work.

Rocco’s success—men idolize him, and women want to be with him—is largely because he enjoys what he does and because he is well endowed. And if the series is initially cagey about showing Rocco in all his glorified manhood, the “money shot” comes at the end of Episode 4 with a full-frontal Rocco being symbolically baptized in a pool, erasing his past as Rocco Tano (his birth name).

The journey Rocco undergoes in Supersex is very much a standard coming-of-age story. The series opens in Paris, 2004, where Rocco announces his retirement from adult films before flashing back to 1974 Ortona, a coastal town, where young Rocco (Saul Nanni) finds a copy of “Supersex” magazine and becomes obsessed with it. He also lusts after Lucia (Jasmine Trinca), the girlfriend of his older non-biological “brother”/mentor, Tommaso (Adriano Giannini). (Tommaso is rumored to have “a whore for a mother,” and was raised by Rocco’s family).

As Rocco comes to learn more about sex, first seeing Lucia naked with another man—practically a primal scene—he comes to realize that sex is powerful. He eventually vows to make love to beautiful women and never be poor again. (Spoiler alert: he achieves both goals.)

However, Rocco needs to develop some talent and experience first. He loses his virginity to Sylvie (Jade Pedri) in an awkward scene, but it allows him to “understand the power between males and females.” Rocco, as the series shows, is self-aware and Borghi gives him a loveable quality that alternates between hound dog, hangdog, and top dog. He has compassion for women especially—just witness any tender exchange he has with his costar, Moana Pozzi (Gaia Messerklinger).

That said, Rocco can be into rough sex; however, greater emphasis is placed on Rocco’s inability to feel love. This may help him remain dispassionate in his work, but it really screws up his off-screen sex life.

Significantly, the exchanges between Rocco and Lucia form a tender backbone to the series. These characters share both a mutual respect and a non-sexual love as their similar experiences emphasize the unfair dynamic where women are shamed for sex and men are celebrated. Note: The sex in Supersex, is mostly work—be it in the Pigalle (a red-light district in Paris) where Lucia spends her nights earning money (until she gets pregnant), or on an adult film set where Rocco plies his trade.

Supersex features copious images of nudity and some passionate scenes in a sex club—a place where Rocco says his “power expands”—as well as an extended episode where Rocco and his girlfriend Tina (Linda Caridi) go on holiday and copulate until they fight. But few of these scenes are erotically charged. However, Supersex does not aim to arouse viewers; rather, it is showing how, even with wealth and power, Rocco was always “missing something:” which is love.

Borghi is certainly good-looking and magnetic as Rocco. When a young woman (and there are several) wants to be with him, it scans—he just exudes this magnetic quality that oozes sex appeal. Even Franco Caracciolo (Mario Pirrello), Rocco’s gay best friend, practically devours him with his eyes when they are together. (Their friendship is quite sweet, and a scene of them walking arm in arm is charming.)

Much of Supersex depicts the tensions between Rocco and the hotheaded Tommaso, who accuses Rocco of sleeping with Lucia (Rocco didn’t). Things are rocky between them for various reasons over the years, and yet their on-again/off-again relationship keeps both these men grounded. They are stubborn, toxic guys weakened by their machismo. Oddly, each wants what the other has. Rocco is all about selling the dream to desire, whereas Tommaso has a family that Rocco desires. Neither man has much in the way of boundaries, behaving recklessly in ways that become increasingly sadder. A scene where the friends bust up a restaurant Tommaso used to manage is more depressing than cathartic.

But these moments, as well as Rocco’s exchanges with Lucia, create the show’s emotional investment, and Supersex is more involving during the dramatic scenes, than the sexual ones. As Rocco wins awards, travels the world, and has the pick of any woman he wants, he also experiences some self-destructive moments—as when he voluntarily gets circumcised around the height of his career.

Rocco may feel insecure, but he is never really seen masking his pain with drugs. He does fear getting AIDS at one point. Curiously, he comes across as almost wholesome for a porn star in this glossy, not gritty, production. Rocco sends wads of money back home to his family, like a dutiful son. But is hard to believe he is really that squeaky clean, even if his mother once hoped he would become a priest.

As such, Supersex provides what may ultimately be a skin-deep portrait of Rocco, who is defined more by his words than his actions. He acknowledges, “You can’t take the power out of sex. Otherwise, it is nothing,” and he proclaims, “Love is so powerful, you have to destroy it before it destroys you.” These fortune-cookie philosophies fail to illuminate depth, even if he feels deeply, and expresses these thoughts with conviction. It may just be an attempt to seduce.

Supersex navigates the barriers between life and porn—breaking them down and building them up. Rocco’s story is one of aspiration, not inspiration, but Borghi’s full-bodied performance makes it irresistible.