A new Italian-British series on Hulu tells the “based on true events” story of how the wives and mothers of the ‘Ndrangheta crime families were targeted by an aggressive prosecutor and eventually brought that mafia organization down. As we’re introduced to these wives and mothers, though, we see just how desperate their situations are and why they might want to flip on their dangerous families.
Opening Shot: Clouds gather as we pan down on a building. “Public Prosecutor’s Office of Reggio Calabria. January 3, 2010.”
The Gist: A woman looks through archived files, and carefully pins pictures and names to a bulletin board. In the meantime, someone on a motorcycle picks up a homemade explosive device. As the prosecutor sorts through the files and connects pictures on the board, she gets a coffee from the vending machine. The device, placed in front of the door, goes off; it does minor damage, but it’s definitely a warning.
Lea Garofolo (Micaela Ramazzotti) and her 17-year-old daughter Denise Cosco (Gaia Girace) are on a train from Calabria to Milan. They’re going there to meet with Carlo Cosco (Francesco Colella), Denise’s father. They haven’t seen Carlo in 7 years, since Lea and Denise went into witness protection after Lea attempted to turn in Carlo, a high-up member of the ‘Ndrangheta mafia. She’s decided that they need to stop running so Carlo can get to know Denise and help her with college and beyond, though the idea of being back in Carlo’s presence is distasteful.
Denise is dropped off with her aunt, uncle, and cousins she barely knows while her parents go to dinner alone. She tries to text and call Lea but gets no answers. Some hours later, Carlo comes back by himself, claiming that Lea wanted to get cigarettes. When she’s not where she said she’d be, Denise panics. The next day, she reports her missing mother to the police, and calls her aunt Marisa (Alessandra Roca), who tells Denise that Carlo and his family almost certainly had something to do with Lea’s disappearance; she’ll be next if she’s not careful.
In the meantime, Anna Colace (Barbara Chichiarelli), a prosecutor in Calabria, is the woman who was spending those late nights looking into 100 boxes of ‘Ndrangheta case files in order to come up with a strategy. She gets word that Lea Garofolo, one of the names on her board, has gone missing.
Still in Calabria, Giuseppina Pesce (Valentina Bellè) is doing a lot of grunt work for her mafia boss father. She has definite opinions on how to deal with their customers, but her father doesn’t want to hear it; she’s merely there to do the work of her husband, who is rotting in prison. Her main job is to cook for her children, and her father tells her, “Never forget that you’re a wife.” He smashes her face into a dinner plate later that night when she talks too loudly to her own daughter.
When the police come to question Denise, Carlo insists he be there in the room, but the police insist she be there alone. There she tells the cops that her mother wouldn’t just disappear on her. When the police offer her a place to stay, Denise refuses, saying, “He’ll find me. He always does.” She tries to sneak out of her aunt’s apartment the next morning, but Carlo is there waiting for her, looking to drive her back to Calabria.
Colace meets with her bosses and proposes a new tactic: follow and recruit the wives of the ‘Ndrangheta, for so long living lives that they hate, to turn on their husbands.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The Good Mothers feels like a bit of a cross between The Good Wife and Mob Wives.
Our Take: The Good Mothers, as well as the Alex Perry novel it’s been adapted from, are based on true events. How much of those true events made it into the series has yet to be seen. But writer Stephen Butchard has done an effective job of showing just how desperate the lives of the wives and mothers of ‘Ndrangheta mob kingpins can be, and by showing the disappearance of Lea Garafolo before setting up how Colace was going to go about bringing her mafia targes down, he sets up just how effective that strategy is going to be.
In the first episode, you’re not sure where Carlo is in the mafia food chain, but you do know something is off about the reunion between Carlo, Lea, and Denise. When Denise is at her aunt’s flat, she’s uneasy the entire time. And when Carlo comes back to get Denise, his rushed manner tells you that Lea isn’t likely at some store looking for cigarettes.
That uneasiness is palpable, and you know that when Denise is screaming up and down the street in that sketchy neighborhood, just wanting her mother to respond, something really bad has happened to Lea.
The plot where Guisy, who seems to be doing critical work for her father’s family despite being treated like every other family wife, feels a bit more on the nose. But it does point out the desperation that Colace wants to take advantage of. These women are married off young, treated like crap, and have no voice. Most are physically abused. The fact that no one ever thought of going this route before is amazing, but it also points out the blind spots of a male-dominated law enforcement organization — one of Colace’s colleagues says going after the wives would make them look “weak,” for instance.
As we’re introduced to more of the wives and mothers Colace will target, it’ll be interesting to see how ready they’ll be to spill and bring down the ‘Ndrangheta, especially knowing what likely happened to Lea for doing it first.
Sex and Skin: None.
Parting Shot: A defeated Denise gets in her father’s minivan and is driven back to Calabria.
Sleeper Star: We’ll give this to Valentina Bellè for being able to show the simmering rage Guisy feels whenever her father or one of her brothers treats her like a lesser person.
Most Pilot-y Line: When Denise’s aunt tells her uncle that Lea is missing, the aunt proceeds to run down the history of how Lea left Carlo rotting in prison. She does this right in front of Denise. Wow; we wouldn’t want to be around these people, either.
Our Call: STREAM IT. The first episode of The Good Mothers sets up a powerful story of an unheard faction of the ‘Ndrangheta families that stood up and helped to bring them down.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.