Lawyer takes important first case

Well, unless you're Ben Ferencz, whose first court appearance was during the Nuremberg Trials, where the Nazis had to answer charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Holding a law degree, he served in an artillery unit during World War II and, at the end of hostilities was assigned the role of war crimes investigator.

While carrying out that job, he uncovered evidence of the mobile killing units of the Einsatzgruppen.

Due to a lack of staff and resources, he couldn't convince his bosses to add another trial to ensure these men faced justice.

Rather than see them escape punishment, Ferencz said he'd serve as the prosecutor himself in what would be his first ever case before a judge.

This documentary provides a fascinating look at a man who has been called "the titan of international criminal prosecution".

It is a bit slow to get started, but it really hits its straps when the war crimes trials begin.

This true-crime documentary looks at the 2021 murder of Caroline Crouch in Athens.

Her husband Babis Anagnostopoulos was eventually convicted of her murder, but not before spending almost a year hoodwinking everyone by playing the role of a grieving spouse.

It was a shocking case, but this documentary doesn't do it justice. At times, it feels like it was made on the cheap to get it out into the market quickly while the interest in the case was still high.

A hitman turning up at your front door and taking a few potshots at you is never a good thing.

That's what happens to title character Carlo Monterossi pretty early in the first episode. It's not really a spoiler because it's the spark that sets off the whole series as he tries to figure out why he was targeted.

It may have been related to the popular tabloid TV show he created called Crazy Love. It wasn't clear to me what that show was about, but Monterossi is thoroughly uncomfortable with the sleazy series and wants nothing more to do with it - much to the chagrin of his agent.

So, it's possible the hitman - who has an unusual MO related to severed fingers - may have been taking revenge over appearing on the show, or maybe they too felt it was a blight on society and he had to pay.

That's not a spoiler, by the way; early on in the series there is no hint about why someone wanted to put a bullet in him.

Monterossi is a surprisingly complex crime series, which also includes storylines about assassins for hire and a dodgy property deal.

At the early stage, it's hard to figure out how - or even if - those storylines tie into the attempted hit on Monterossi.

There's plenty of wry, deadpan humour here - especially from the two assassins, where it comes across as genuine conversation rather than some Quentin Tarantino super-cool dialogue that doesn't represent the way anyone really speaks.