I don’t know why this show never stood out to me during the countless times I’ve viewed Milo Ventimiglia’s filmography, but here we are! Mob City might not be something that would usually catch my interest, but I can watch a noir about gangsters here and there. It might help that these are real gangsters and that the cast is out of this world! Anyways, let’s dive in to this short-lived series.
It’s the 1940s in Los Angeles, and the mob is everywhere! You’ve Bugsy Segal, his right-hand men, Mickey Cohen and Sid Rothman, keeping the fear alive and just killing people for practically saying the wrong thing. We get this and some background information in a narration by policeman, Joe Teague. Now, Teague is an interesting character because you can see that he is morally good at his core, but he does managed to get himself tangled up in the affairs of the mob. And all for a lost love! See, Joe’s ex-wife, Jasmine is with comedian Hecky Nash, who’s got some blackmail on the mob. Before he can hand it over, Joe shoots him dead even though he’s supposed to be his protection.
Joe very clearly does this to protect Jasmine, but I think she’d be a target no matter what ended up happening in this series. Regardless, Joe made that choice, so now Jasmine’s got to cover her own ass by hiding her camera equipment and duplicate prints of the blackmail. Word of that blackmail gets out though, and it ends up sending Bugsy Segal to jail for a short time. Really, Joe’s involvement with the killing of Hecky and trying to be a good policeman to stop the mob only ends up complicating matters. It’s honestly a shock that Joe doesn’t get killed right away. It’s clear more people in the mob have a hunch Joe was the one who killed their blackmailer, but they just didn’t know the motivation.
It’s a shame that Joe couldn’t let his fellow officers know that he had an in with the mob through his old wartime compatriot, lawyer Ned Stax. I do think that relationship managed to save his skin a number of times though. But there’s only so much smooth-talking a lawyer can do, and it’s only a matter of time before Sid gets his hands on Joe…and then Bugsy. As I said, he never ends up dead, but that doesn’t mean he never got the occasional beat-down. In the end though, it’s the threat to Jasmine’s life that provokes Joe enough to put a lot of bullets into Bugsy Segal. In real life, this is how Segal died, but probably not by the hand of a fictional Joe Teague.
While this show could have been a work of fiction, and in some ways it was, it was largely based off of true stories told by police officers from that time. That means the captain of the LAPD, William Parker, and his desire to take down the mob and corrupt policemen was true. Obviously, the real-life gangsters featured in the show were fairly accurate, along with some of the deaths. When I learned that this six-episode series was meant to have other seasons, I was a little surprised. It seemed to me that the story was pretty well contained. Although I’m sure a second season would have consisted of a man-hunt for Joe. I imagine Ned wouldn’t come out clean in a second season either. Regardless, I’ll think of it like a miniseries and say that I was well entertained by it all. Most importantly though, I was beyond thrilled to see Heroes‘ alums Milo Ventimiglia and Robert Knepper team up again. And not so long after the show ended either! Overall though, not the best noir crime thriller I’ve seen, but certainly not the worst (here’s looking at you Gangster Squad!).