Mob Wives
Encyclopedia
Mob Wives is an American
reality television
series airing on VH1
. It follows four Staten Island
women after their husbands or fathers are arrested and imprisoned for crimes connected to the Mafia
. They have been described as "rats and stoolies" since discussing private family business on TV violates the mafia code. The idea for the show came from Jennifer "Jenn" Graziano, sister of Renee Graziano.
Season 2 will premiere Sunday, January 1, 2012 at 8 PM and with a new cast member, Ramona Rizzo, who is a good friend of cast member Karen Gravano and is the granddaughter of former well known mobster Benjamin “Lefty Guns” Ruggiero. There will be a spin off of the hit series called Mob Wives: Chicago
which is set to air in Spring 2012.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
reality television
Reality television
Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...
series airing on VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
. It follows four Staten Island
Staten Island
Staten Island is a borough of New York City, New York, United States, located in the southwest part of the city. Staten Island is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull, and from the rest of New York by New York Bay...
women after their husbands or fathers are arrested and imprisoned for crimes connected to the Mafia
American Mafia
The American Mafia , is an Italian-American criminal society. Much like the Sicilian Mafia, the American Mafia has no formal name and is a secret criminal society. Its members usually refer to it as Cosa Nostra or by its English translation "our thing"...
. They have been described as "rats and stoolies" since discussing private family business on TV violates the mafia code. The idea for the show came from Jennifer "Jenn" Graziano, sister of Renee Graziano.
Season 2 will premiere Sunday, January 1, 2012 at 8 PM and with a new cast member, Ramona Rizzo, who is a good friend of cast member Karen Gravano and is the granddaughter of former well known mobster Benjamin “Lefty Guns” Ruggiero. There will be a spin off of the hit series called Mob Wives: Chicago
Mob Wives: Chicago
Mob Wives: Chicago the franchise expands as VH1 announced the pickup of “Mob Wives: Chicago.” A spin-off from the original east coast-based series Mob Wives,Mob Wives: Chicago will introduce a new cast of women suffering the stronzi and agita of their Mafiosi connections. The series will air in...
which is set to air in Spring 2012.
Cast
- Renee Graziano is the daughter of Anthony GrazianoAnthony GrazianoAnthony "T.G." Graziano is a New York mobster and former consigliere of the Bonanno crime family.- Bonanno captain :...
, current consigliereConsigliereConsigliere is a position within the leadership structure of Sicilian and American Mafia crime families. The word was popularized by Mario Puzo's novel The Godfather , and its film adaptation...
of the Bonanno crime familyBonanno crime familyThe Bonanno crime family is one of the "Five Families" that dominates organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Mafia ....
, and ex-wife of Hector "Junior" Pagan, Jr., who has been charged with various crimes with the Mafia. She describes herself as a "loud, foul-mouthed drama queen". The New York Post reports that her father, Anthony GrazianoAnthony GrazianoAnthony "T.G." Graziano is a New York mobster and former consigliere of the Bonanno crime family.- Bonanno captain :...
, will no longer speak with her or her sister Jennifer (the creator of Mob Wives) as a result of their appearances on the show. Her son "A.J." has stated that he does not want to go into "the life", and wants to go to university and become an engineer.
- Drita D'Avanzo works as a freelance make-up artist and is of AlbanianAlbaniansAlbanians are a nation and ethnic group native to Albania and neighbouring countries. They speak the Albanian language. More than half of all Albanians live in Albania and Kosovo...
ancestry. She is married to Lee D'Avanzo, who has been in and out of prison for such crimes as drug dealing and numerous bank robberiesBank robberyBank robbery is the crime of stealing from a bank during opening hours. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reporting Program, robbery is "the taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody, or control of a person or persons by force or threat of...
and dated Karen Gravano before marrying Drita.
- Carla Facciolo husband is Joseph Ferragamo, who is also incarcerated at the time of the airing of the series in 2011. Carla and Joseph have two children together. According to the show, Carla wants a divorce from Joseph as soon as he gets out of prison. According to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons website, Ferragamo's expected release date is 24 September 2011.
- Karen Gravano is the daughter of Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, a former underbossUnderbossUnderboss is a position within the leadership structure of Sicilian and American Mafia crime families. The underboss is second in command to the boss...
of the Gambino crime familyGambino crime familyThe Gambino crime family is one of the "Five Families" that dominates organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Mafia . The group is named after Carlo Gambino, boss of the family at the time of the McClellan hearings in 1963...
, and federal informantInformantAn informant is a person who provides privileged information about a person or organization to an agency. The term is usually used within the law enforcement world, where they are officially known as confidential or criminal informants , and can often refer pejoratively to the supply of information...
. She is also the ex-girlfriend of Drita D'Avanzo's husband, Lee. While in the United States Federal Witness Protection ProgramUnited States Federal Witness Protection ProgramThe United States Federal Witness Protection Program is a witness protection program administered by the United States Department of Justice and operated by the United States Marshals Service that is designed to protect threatened witnesses before, during, and after a trial.A few states, including...
, she was implicated in a drug ring and served three years of probation. She states, on the show, that she has returned to Staten Island to write an autobiographical memoir, ultimately titled In the Shadow of the Bull. Discussions about the book and its first chapter, which Gravano shares with castmates D'Avanzo and Graziano, caused controversy within the show and outside it as well.
- Ramona Rizzo(season 2-present) is the granddaughter of former well known mobster Benjamin “Lefty Guns” Ruggiero, who was played by Al Pacino in the movie “Donne Brasco”. Ramona is a childhood friend of Karen Gravano, and as children they shared sleepovers, made their first communions together and consider themselves so close they refer to themselves as cousins.
Praise
- Entertainment WeeklyEntertainment WeeklyEntertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
's television critic Ken TuckerKen TuckerKen Tucker was an English footballer who played as a left winger....
praised the show in his review, stating, "As someone who’s watched at least a few episodes of every version of the Real HousewivesReal HousewivesThe Real Housewives... is a reality series which airs in the United States on the cable network Bravo, and various other broadcasters internationally...
franchise and feels a bit nauseous about it, I didn’t come to Mob Wives with high hopes. But this floridly funny, vicariously vicious reality series exerts a vulgar charm." He notes the fascination of watching excessively made-up people living in apparent luxury and the authenticity of the drama between the women. "By turns funny, appalling, and frightening, Mob Wives is swiftly paced, reality-TV at its most effusively dismaying."
- The Hollywood ReporterThe Hollywood ReporterFormerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
critic David Knowles felt the show was significantly better than typical reality TV. He finds the women's internal conflict between their mob past and their desire to break free from that lifestyle to be the underlying question of the series. Knowles notes that the women's story lines are so tense and engrossing that the surveillance-style effect used to introduce them seems unnecessarily cliché. "As we learned from The SopranosThe SopranosThe Sopranos is an American television drama series created by David Chase that revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the often conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads...
, the wives and children of mafiosos can be every bit as compelling as the gangsters themselves... As for those other real housewives franchises, their endless squabbles and social climbing antics are rendered rather trivial after you watch the first five minutes of Mob Wives."
Criticism
- Staten Island Borough President James MolinaroJames MolinaroJames Molinaro is the current Borough President of Staten Island. He was born in the Lower East Side of Manhattan of Italian immigrants. He was one of six children, four brothers and two sisters....
stated; "I've seen it — It's disgraceful. It paints Staten Island and Italian-Americans in a bad light. It's detrimental because people will think this is what Staten Island is made of. I'm Italian — and this is bad for our doctors, our lawyers, the people who came from Italy to build their lives".
- David Hinckley's New York Daily NewsNew York Daily NewsThe Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....
review called it a "tired concept, is so bad it should sleep with fishes". The review also said "these are unpleasant people in an unwatchable show". On the other hand, he wrote: "Now it could be added that if this is what you want on TV, Mob Wives is an all-you-can-eat buffet. Imagine the angriest of the "Real Housewives" ratcheted up into overdrive".
- UNICO National, an Italian advocacy group, said the show is tantamount to "trash TV like Jersey ShoreJersey Shore (TV series)Jersey Shore is an American reality television series that premiered on MTV on December 3, 2009 in the United States. The series follows the lives of eight housemates spending their summer at the Jersey Shore in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Season 2 followed the cast escaping the cold northeast...
. I hope it dies because no one watches it. We were mobsters and mafiosos with The SopranosThe SopranosThe Sopranos is an American television drama series created by David Chase that revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the often conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads...
, bimbos and buffoons with Jersey Shore, and now we're back where we started. It's a disgrace".
- Gawker.com said "This seems like a terrible idea for a reality show! Would anyone watch a show called Mass Murders' Wives?"
- Staten Island AdvanceStaten Island AdvanceThe Staten Island Advance is a daily newspaper published in the borough of Staten Island in New York City. The only daily newspaper published in the borough, and the only borough to have its own major daily paper, it covers news of local and community interest, including borough politics. As of...
s SILive.com "Entertainment Comment of the Day" April 25, 2011 was about the show. The comment was "Out of interest we only watched about twenty minutes of the first episode and couldn't stomach watching the second. We don't know what's so interesting about a bunch of low-life women (the one pictured is a real piece of work) who think that husbands that go off to prison is like spending a year at college. I bet their kids are real proud of them. Any glorification of a life of crime is pathetic. They all deserve whatever misery that comes along".
- They have been described as "rats and stoolies" since discussing private family business on TV violates the mafia code.
Victims' response
- Relatives of murder victims killed by the cast members relatives are not happy about the show. Jackie Colucci, whose brother Joseph was murdered by Salvatore Gravano in 1970, stated: "She should be ashamed that her father is a murderer and a drug dealer. I would be ashamed and crawling in a hole and staying out of the limelight".\
Cast History
| Season 1 | Season 2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Renee Graziano | ||
| Drita D'Avanzo | ||
| Carla Facciolo | ||
| Karen Gravano | ||
| Ramona Rizzo | ||
Series overview
| Season | Episodes | Season Premiere | Season Finale | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 11 | April 17, 2011 | June 26, 2011 | |
| 2 | 12 | January 1, 2012 | March 2012 | |
Season 1: 2011
| Ep # | Title | Airdate | US Viewers (million) |
|---|
Season 2: 2012
| Ep # | Title | Airdate | US Viewers (million) |
|---|