The series mainly touches the 1970s and 1980s, when New York, and to a large extent also the whole country, was shaken by five great mafia families: Bonanno, Gambino, Colombo, Genovese and Lucchese. Law enforcement and the judiciary have long been completely helpless. In the end, however, it was decided to get down to the gangsters and use new ways to fight the mafia octopus.
City of Fear: New York vs. the Mafia (Netflix 2020 Review) – Octopus
Organized crime has long been one of my interests – at home I have a whole shelf of books devoted exclusively to this subject, I also love gangster films. My expectations for the show City of Fear: New York versus the Mafia so they were quite large. Let’s start with what I liked about this production. First, the story is interesting anyway. The creators explain well why the five mafia families were so successful, and how their organizations were organized, which to a large extent resembled efficient corporations. They also remind that gangsters are people who are able to see an opportunity to earn extra money everywhere, thanks to which they can infiltrate various industries: construction, garbage, hotel, etc. At the same time, it is known that they are not very nice people, so when you do business with them, it is usually the beginning of great trouble and loss of security. The series also contains a lot of interesting, sometimes quite funny anecdotes about how the FBI tried to deal with obtaining evidence that could be presented in court and then sentenced to prison terms for the biggest top officials. Because the problem with the mafia is that it is usually easiest to catch rank-and-file soldiers, and new soldiers do not appear in their place immediately: it is a bit of a hydra whose head is chopped off and grows back immediately. So you could consider the war waged by the mafia as a fight against windmills. Fortunately, an act of RICO (Criminal and Corrupt Organizations Act) appeared, which gave investigators completely new tools to hold gangsters to account. City of Fear: New York versus the Mafia it has one more advantage – it is full of archival photos and videos that show how this wonderful city used to be.
City of Fear: New York vs. the Mafia (Netflix series review 2020) – Too little and too little
But the time has come to complain. When I found out that City of Fear: New York versus the Mafia has only three episodes I was a little surprised. It seemed to me that much more time was needed to tell the story of the fight against the mafia in New York. As it turned out, I was right. The series basically focuses mainly on how individual families operated and how (mainly through wiretapping) the FBI managed to obtain evidence against the bosses. As if that were not enough, there are a lot of repetitions here, the next characters sometimes say boringly what the viewer just heard. There is also far too little history of ordinary people. In fact, it is not entirely clear why normal citizens could be afraid of gangsters, because the creators focus mainly on their big interests and scams. I also missed saying something more about the city itself, showing how it has changed. There is also no indication that there would be any continuation, and it would be worth mentioning what happened next, because the fact that the leaders of five families were captured did not immediately mean that the mafia ceased to exist. The time has come, for example, for John Gotti … City of Fear: New York versus the Mafia is a series that seems a bit underdeveloped, as if there was not enough time to dig deeper into the topic. However, this does not change the fact that it is still a decent production that is viewed well and which for many may be an opportunity to reach for other sources and expand knowledge about the American mafia.
–
