Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpiece, Puzo’s crown jewel, The Godfather celebrated its 50th anniversary recently and the new Paramount miniseries, The Offer made for the streaming service focuses on the behind the scenes drama that took place before the creation of the cult classic.
Art imitates life, but it’s a rare feat for life to imitate art, which the Godfather clearly achieved with the stories of real mob families embracing the film after it’s release and loved it to the core. It still remains as a major part of American pop culture, with the Corleone family’s power dynamics and drama resembling a Shakespearean tragedy, albeit still being a perfect take on American capitalism.
WARNING: The following article contains mild spoilers to the first four episodes of the show, The OFFER.
RATING: ★★★
THE OFFER REVIEW
The first four episodes of the Paramount+’s miniseries The Offer, relies on various threads that culminated into making the epic. There are the Paramount executives struggling to find a blockbuster after RoseMary’s Baby, Robert Evans, played by Matthew Goode is charismatic as the middle-aged studio executive, trying to keep his job, while battling the corporate politics trying to end his career.
There’s a mafia plot line spearheaded by Joe Columbo (GiovanniRibisi), the real life mob boss that created disruptions for the shooting of the film in NewYork, when the acclaimed singer and actor Frank Sinatra tried to stop the movie on the self-assumption that the character of Johnny Fontane is based on him. Navigating through these two threads is the protagonist Al Ruddy(Miles Teller), trying to climb the corporate ladder and testing his luck as a young producer nurtured by Evans. The filmmaker-writer duo of Coppola and Puzo churning out Godfather from the novel and their struggles of adapting the magnum opus novel is blended well into the Ruddy and Evans story line.
The show is extremely faithful in some parts while it’s a wild stretch in some others. The writers might have thought telling the story without any fillers is impossible, so certain comedic detours and scenes that pays homage and tributes to the original masterpiece were added to give the show a comic feel in some parts.
WHAT IS GOOD
The show is a nostalgic drive into the vintage 1970s Hollywood, with most of the scenes setup in the studio back lots and cabins of the executives. The plot builds slowly but seeps into the drama by the middle of the first episode with various story lines converging on the book of The Godfather. The story doesn’t waste much time from there as episode 3 ends with an interesting cliffhanger that wants you back for another round. The first 4 episodes of The OFFER has enough meat for the Godfather lovers to enjoy and cherish their beloved classic one more time. For others, this period drama might be a decent watch though often times less engaging.
WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER
The Mafia plot line could have been well presented and integrated into the story, or almost could have chopped down some scenes involving them, which are not relevant to the main story. The depiction of mob boss Joe Columbo is very cartoonish and not intimidating enough.
MY TAKE
I’m a big Godfather fanatic honestly. It’s the greatest piece of commercial cinema ever made in my opinion. I enjoyed The Offer for what it offers, that means more about Godfather’s history of creation and a trip into the old Hollywood. If you’re looking for a good funny lightweight miniseries to kill time, The OFFER does a commendable job at it.
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