I am not Italian, but apparently I could play one on television.  Look, if Drita and her 1000% Albanian self can be a moll, fuck it so can I.  We can just tell the guys I got a little too much spray tan on myself.

One of Nicole’s guilty pleasures in life is Mob Wives.  It is a VH1 “reality” show about a group of women from Staten Island, that have some tie to alleged organized crime figures.  3 of the 4 original characters of the show married a “mobster”, or a mob associate.  One is the daughter of what some would call the biggest rat in the history of the game.

 

 

These are the 4 women that we met in season one, and the show is now at season 2.

This year VH1 also added Ramona and Big Ang to the regular rotation, as we watch the women the feds left behind….the women left to hold onto the traditions and the honor while the men serve RICO time.

 

 

Last year the ‘drama’ was Karen Gravano, daughter of Sammy the Bull, was returning to Staten Island to write her tell all book, and golly by golly, there would be hell to pay for it.  When the Feds flipped Sammy the Bull apparently it made the entire Gravano family persona non grata to the club, and they were shunned like a non virgin non married Amish school teacher.

Karen the tough chick was coming home…fuck what the hood thought…and they would just have to deal with it.

The season turned into though….who fucked Lee, when they fucked him, why they fucked him, and how many arguments could VH1 film about the fucking.

Apparently Karen dated and lived with Lee, who is now married to Drita, even though he is in prison, and apparently that is relevant to something or the other. Karen and Drita fought all last season about the fucking of Lee, who is currently incarcerated, and we learned little to nothing about being a Mob Wife. #fail

Season Two began with a bang.  Ramona was the wing man for Karen, and Drita was still thinking about the fucking, and it culminated into a epic battle filmed at Renee’s birthday party weeks after she almost died from having a tummy tuck.

Are you still with me?  I haven’t yet gotten to the part that I want to bitch about.  No seriously …. I am not there yet.

When season 2 began you kind of thought it would be lots of fighting with Drita and Karen, yet…..there was something else the show would have to address that you were not sure how it would handle.

Hector “Junior” Pagan, mob associate, ex husband of Renee, and recurring cast member of the show got flipped by the Feds just before Thanksgiving 2011, while the show was filming.  I doubt that the camera was rolling the day the DEA came up to Junior and said we’ve got to get you the fuck outta dodge, you’re about to be exposed, but nothing surprises me these days.

Junior apparently wore a wire while frolicking with Renee’s father Anthony Graziano, and the conversations led to Anthony getting arrested as well.

Still here?  I’m getting to the point.

As season one kind of touched on when it was not filming girl fights, there is no greater sin in the Mafia than snitching.  Perhaps pedophilia, that might be debatable though.

So the husband, of one of the core characters, turning, and taking down the father of one of the main characters, WHILE taping for the new season was on going…..The producers of the show could not have written a better story….even though they do write the story.

I am unsure how many of my readers think that reality TV is ‘real’, but Mob Wives is not.  If there was ever a doubt, the episode where Renee finds out that Junior ‘flipped’ is all that you ever need to know.

One of the sub stories of the Mob Wives show was the possible reconciliation of Renee and Junior. It was a cute story line, the woman who loved the man, and the man who was flawed making one last go at happiness before he would be sent to prison for a year and a half for theft. Yes it was cute.

Then the newspapers started to tell the story of the betrayal, and you thought, I wonder how they will cover this.

The new season began, with America knowing that Junior had ripped the entire foundation of Renee’s life out from under her, yet, the show continued to operate as if there was still a possibility of reconciliation.  You could possibly suspend your disbelief, and think, well they are just showing what was in the can already and when the day actually arrives that the events we know of intersects with the show, well they will tell the truth…only

They did not.

The episodes covering the fall out of the Pagan snitching are quite possibly the absolute worst exploitation of reality ‘actors’ I’ve seen.  This is coming from the woman who watched all three seasons of Flavor of Love.

I don’t know if Pagan actually wrote Renee a letter, saying that he was leaving her, and frankly I don’t give a fuck.

I care that this show has lied, and manipulated this situation for ratings without consideration to the minor son of Renee & Junior or the other families that historically have been ruined when a criminal decides they can not do the time for the crime.

What this show first asks is that you disregard that rumors of Pagan’s betrayal happened before Anthony Graziano was actually arrested.  The show would have you believe that Pagan flipped at breakfast and Graziano was arrested by dinner.  The problem with that?  Pagan was in the rumor mill at Halloween.  There is a lot of time between Halloween and Thanksgiving.

What the show then asks you to disregard is that these women, who’ve all had fathers, or sons, or husbands, or boyfriends in the Mafia, these women – specifically Renee took days to figure out that Pagan was a rat.  Days is too much of a stretch to consider.  The show keeps using words like self surrender.  Get the fuck out of here.  No one is going to volunteer to miss Thanksgiving dinner right before they are going into prison.  Now its not unheard of for the Feds to pull their informant off the street in a moment’s notice, but there is no way that there would be a self surrender happening in this case.

What the show then asks you to disregard, is its own editing.  The show gives us two Renee Grazianos the ‘day’ that she finds out Junior ‘self surrendered’.

Renee #1 is wearing a black shirt and black tights.  She is 10 pounds heavier.  She has dark blue or black nail polish.

Renee #2 is wearing a brown shirt and pants.  She is 10 pounds lighter.  She has red nail polish.

We are supposed to suspend our disbelief and think that this woman went out and got a manicure in the middle of all this madness? ::: blink :::

It is beyond clear that this show recreated events, and a story for the viewers.

It is beyond clear that it is a disgusting sight to see.

In theory the show was about showing the strength of women who find the courage to stand in the face of adversity.  It was designed to show sisterhood, to show that crime does not pay, and that the Mafia is not The Godfather.

What we get instead?  A fabricated clusterfuck that simply teaches that sharing the most painful part of your life to VH1 will get you $7,500 per aired show.

Omerta is the term that the Mafia has used over time.  Loosely it is translated as the code of silence.  You don’t talk about it, it does not exist, if you are not ONE of us you don’t get the information.

It would be great if the producers of Mob Wives took the oath of silence.

I suspect it won’t happen though when you have Mob Wives: Chicago already taping and recruiting happening for Mob Wives: Philadelphia.