Inside The American Mob

Starring: Salvatore Polisi

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Mob documentaries are a dime a dozen and are almost always the same. They feature guys who wrote books about the mafia, talking about Al Capone and John Gotti, until now. Inside The American Mob was a long time in the making and for the first time really does give an accurate history and inside look at organized crime. Two things made this mini-series different from the others, the first being, the people they interviewed. National Geographic sits down with actual detectives, informants, agents, and even current members, who live the mob life. They tell stories that haven't been told before and as it turns out a lot of things we've been told before weren't quite right. The second difference is that this documentary focuses on the timeline, going from the beginning of the five families, all the way up to today. Yes, they talk about Gotti and Donnie Brasco, but they also focus intently on the big names that came in between and weren't as infamous. I have an odd fascination with organized crime and I watch mob documentaries and films fairly often, and I usually don't learn too much or meet people I didn't already know about. Inside The American Mob was completely different, as each of the six episodes introduced me to thing I never would have imagined, told to me by the people who were actually there.  National Geographic set out to film the definitive insiders guide to the mob and they succeeded.