It’s not the first time that Italian-style criminality has inspired spectacular artistic results. From “The Godfather” to “American Hustle,” filmmakers have long worked with Mafia-centered plots. Television came along later, but has shown equal enthusiasm. Six seasons and 86 episodes, running from 1999 to 2007, made “The Sopranos” an enviable success. That chronicle of an Italian-American family exemplified the mix of dishonesty and sympathy, love and cruelty, that allegedly runs through Italian organized crime, and it quickly won over millions of international viewers.

“Gomorrah” is more realistic. The criminals aren’t glorified; there are no lovable monsters like Tony Soprano. Its story lines are fictional, but they draw on current events. With stunning camerawork, fast-paced tempos and well-written dialogue that rolls out in accurately rendered Neapolitan Italian, it is proof, if proof were needed, that Italians can turn out first-rate television. Before shooting “Gomorrah,” the director Stefano Sollima had made the popular Rome-based TV series “Romanzo Criminale” (“Criminal Novel”). Before that, Mr. Sollima worked as a cameraman for global news networks like CNN, NBC and CBS, sometimes in war zones.

In short, Italy has created a popular, realistic, beautifully rendered TV series — which is what has so many people worried. The international success of “Gomorrah” could turn into bad publicity for Naples and Italy, just as the young government of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is trying so hard to restore confidence among foreigners. Italy has worked hard to move beyond the national stereotype of the unprincipled, untrustworthy wheeler-dealer toting a pistol in one hand and a plate of spaghetti (or, in “Gomorrah,” a fried fish) in the other. The very realism that critics and viewers love could easily backfire, reinforcing the idea that something is rotten in the state of Italy.

Similar charges were leveled at “The Sopranos,” which is set in New Jersey. The Italian-American community took umbrage, claiming the series fostered the worst clichés to the point of being defamatory. The National Italian American Foundation and Mario Cuomo, the former governor of New York, protested. The cast members were kept away from Columbus Day parades. In 2001, a PublicMind poll reported that viewers who watched “The Sopranos” tended to regard Italian-Americans and New Jersey negatively.

Will “Gomorrah” do the same for the city and people of Naples?

Many of my compatriots are wringing their hands over this question. But I think their concerns are, fortunately, misplaced, precisely because of the show’s realism. The Savastanos are not going to be the new Sopranos. Characters in “Gomorrah” compel — as they do in any good TV series — but they don’t charm. Empathy is absent. “Gomorrah” hasn’t got goodies and baddies; just baddies and worsies. Viewers observe and learn, but don’t identify with them.