The Offer operates on the assumption you loved The Godfather. The episodes are suffused with a kind of reverence, as if the series starring Miles Teller, Matthew Goode and Juno Temple was documenting the first landing on the moon, not the making of a relatively low budget movie from Paramount in the early '70s.
It also strains credibility. In order to get the movie made in New York, producer Al Ruddy (Teller) needs the permission and support of the Italian American Citizens League (or something), headed by Joe Columbo (Giovanni Ribisi, sounding like he swallowed a frog). Columbo gets shot, just like Vito Corleone in the movie, and winds up barely clinging to life. It's an ominous parallel.
Then there are the outright embellishments. In The Godfather, the actor Gianni Russo portrays Connie Corleone's husband, Carlo Rizzi. In The Offer, actor Branden Williams plays Russo. Russo is portrayed as a woman-beating sleaze bag; according to The Offer, he beats up actress Talia Shire for real in the scene when his character (Carlo Rizzi) is supposed to beat up Connie. According to The Offer, this upsets director Francis Coppola (Dan Fogler), who is Shire's real-life brother. Coppola tells Ruddy. Ruddy then has actor James Caan, who plays Connie's brother in The Godfather, actually beat up the actor playing Connie's husband, Gianni Russo, in the scene where he kicks his butt for hurting her.
In short, we're to believe actor James Caan really beats up actor Gianni Russo in The Godfather. But when you watch The Godfather, as I just recently did, you see there's no way that's true. Caan's punches and kicks are clearly pulled; one punch misses Russo's face by a good six inches.
The Offer is full of embellishments and parallelism like these that strain belief. And the intense drama at times feels silly. Bob Evans, for instance (played by British actor Matthew Goode as if he has a perpetual cold and can't breathe through his nose), is deep in his cave of self-doubt near the end of the series, having lost his wife to his workaholism (and the dashing Steve McQueen). The rousing speech Ruddy gives Evans about the importance of movies (not the first time in the series) felt corny and overblown.
Despite all of this, The Offer held my interest for the full run. It was good. It relies on peoples' love of The Godfather to really sustain it, in the same way The Godfather movie relied on peoples' love of Puzo's book to sustain it. But maybe that's okay. People love to love things, even if that love obfuscates reality.
7/10.
It also strains credibility. In order to get the movie made in New York, producer Al Ruddy (Teller) needs the permission and support of the Italian American Citizens League (or something), headed by Joe Columbo (Giovanni Ribisi, sounding like he swallowed a frog). Columbo gets shot, just like Vito Corleone in the movie, and winds up barely clinging to life. It's an ominous parallel.
Then there are the outright embellishments. In The Godfather, the actor Gianni Russo portrays Connie Corleone's husband, Carlo Rizzi. In The Offer, actor Branden Williams plays Russo. Russo is portrayed as a woman-beating sleaze bag; according to The Offer, he beats up actress Talia Shire for real in the scene when his character (Carlo Rizzi) is supposed to beat up Connie. According to The Offer, this upsets director Francis Coppola (Dan Fogler), who is Shire's real-life brother. Coppola tells Ruddy. Ruddy then has actor James Caan, who plays Connie's brother in The Godfather, actually beat up the actor playing Connie's husband, Gianni Russo, in the scene where he kicks his butt for hurting her.
In short, we're to believe actor James Caan really beats up actor Gianni Russo in The Godfather. But when you watch The Godfather, as I just recently did, you see there's no way that's true. Caan's punches and kicks are clearly pulled; one punch misses Russo's face by a good six inches.
The Offer is full of embellishments and parallelism like these that strain belief. And the intense drama at times feels silly. Bob Evans, for instance (played by British actor Matthew Goode as if he has a perpetual cold and can't breathe through his nose), is deep in his cave of self-doubt near the end of the series, having lost his wife to his workaholism (and the dashing Steve McQueen). The rousing speech Ruddy gives Evans about the importance of movies (not the first time in the series) felt corny and overblown.
Despite all of this, The Offer held my interest for the full run. It was good. It relies on peoples' love of The Godfather to really sustain it, in the same way The Godfather movie relied on peoples' love of Puzo's book to sustain it. But maybe that's okay. People love to love things, even if that love obfuscates reality.
7/10.