Deceitful Love Review | Leisurebyte (2025)

In this Italian romantic-drama series, 60-year-old luxury hotel owner Gabriella meets the enigmatic and charming Elia and sparks instantly fly. Although Elia is the same age as her adult son, she can’t help but be fascinated by him, which eventually starts an affair between the two. The relationship gives Gabriella a new lease on life and she rediscovers herself through her new and exciting relationship. However, her children aren’t so sure about this mysterious and charming man and are of the opinion that he might be a gold digger who is only after their mother’s riches.

The mini-series is based on the 2019 British series Gold Digger starring Julia Ormond and Ben Barnes and has 6 episodes.

In Netflix’s newest Italian series, a threatening and mysterious vibe looms as Elias forcefully exerts himself into Gabriella’s life. There are clearly some skeletons in everyone’s closet, and the series doesn’t take too long to tell us that it’s really interested in showing this age-gap relationship up close and very personal.

The age-gap relationship is extremely trendy right now – everyone in the media apparently wants to jump on this hot new trend – from Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine’s The Idea of You to Zac Efron and Nicole Kidman’s A Family Affair. Interestingly, Kidman is coming up with another age-gap relationship film this year called Babygirl. All this to say, one can’t help but be fascinated by the salaciousness of an imbalance of power dynamics inherent in such relationships, although Deceitful Love‘s power dynamics might be just a little different than what we might expect.

From the get-go, it’s extremely creepy to watch just how persistent Elia is when it comes to starting a relationship with Gabriella. The latter is lonely and just a little sorrowful. With no one to share a life with and with adult children around her, her life in her Amalfi Coast hotel is clearly one that will invoke a sense of pity among viewers. Unfortunately, Elia’s presence is both mysterious and concerning but you do understand why Gabriella falls for his charms immediately. The creators made sure to let us know that Elia is hot – he constantly takes his clothes off to bask in the glory of his underwear and six packs, so much so that the frequency of it gets a tad bit uncomfortable for viewers.

Sex aside, one can’t help but wonder about this obsession that everyone in the family has with Elia. From the youngest son to the mother, everyone is taken with the mysterious and probably criminal Elia and we can only wonder what’s in Gabriella’s past that is making her ignore the red flags around her. Condescending and controlling sons aside, something’s clearly not right here with the visitor and the series makes us work to understand the mystery behind everyone’s odd behaviours.

I think the series brings forth an important point somewhere between Gabriella’s hysterics and her children’s apathy surrounding society’s view on older women dating younger men. We hardly ever blink an eye when the genders are reversed but things seem to always get unacceptable when a younger man falls for an older woman. Watching Gabriella find her liberation is freeing in a way, but the path to it is fraught with several hysterical breakdowns and a son who just can’t seem to mind his own business.

That being said, Deceitful Love doesn’t feel like it’s doing anything particularly new with its saucy relationship or its mysterious premise. The hot and cold relationship between Gabriella and Elia is just so annoying – we jump from her hating him to loving him and then back again over and over. It gets a little annoying and Elia’s mildly frustrated look into the distance gets old very fast. Personally, the problem is surrounding Gabriella. The Italian series isn’t like its British predecessor and hinges on an unhealthy amount of drama to be anything resembling serious or introspective. There are a ton of inconsistencies and the twists and turns feel frivolous and half-baked.

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I understand being lost in love after many years of loneliness, but the number of things Gabriella turns a blind eye to is insanely difficult to digest and you’d expect a 60-year-old business owner to know better, regardless of gender. The way their relationship starts to feel scammy and devoid of spark makes us uninvested in watching their relationship bloom. The series never really reaches that level of intrigue in the romantic or thriller aspects, leaving us with an odd watch that jumps from one plot to another at break-neck speeds.

It’s also a little insulting to watch Gabriella’s older son and her ex-husband trying to push her around as if they know better than her. The condescending tone in their voice is grating and although I understand that that was the entire point of it, it’s still really odd to watch, especially when random things just happen for the sake of drama. All the men in the series are written extremely shallowly, with no nuance or complexities and doing exactly what you’d expect them to do in a show such as this.

The last episode is the most egregious of them all, with us being taken to a court hearing where everyone decides that giving long speeches is what’s appropriate instead of having factual discussions. The judge is okay with this development as well and viewers are left to wonder why the family didn’t opt for family counselling instead of doing whatever attention-seeking behaviour this is.

Final Thoughts

At the end of this insane ride, the Italian series turns out to be a soapy, dramatic mess. Although it starts off with a thrilling vibe and a ton of sexual energy, it all quickly fizzles out in the end, leaving us searching for a ton of questions that remain unanswered.

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