Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Mob Wives’ on Paramount+, A Housewives Show Where All The Women Are Affiliated With The Mafia

When VH1’s Mob Wives first premiered in 2011, it was set up to be a more dangerous version of a Real Housewives show, the women were all wives or daughters of legit mafiosos and they were every bit as hard as the men in their lives; they lived by a code of silence and violence. But with so much silence about the most fascinating thing about them, would the show be any good? Well, it lasted six seasons, and you can watch them all on Paramount+ now, so you can see for yourself.

MOB WIVES: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: The show opens on establishing shots of Staten Island, iconic images of the Verrazano Bridge and the Staten Island Ferry, and then we see our first mob wife, Renee Graziano, exiting her house in a fur as she says in voiceover, “According to the federal government, my father is an extremely high-ranking mobster.” You can literally hear the air quotes in her voice as she says those words, she doesn’t seem to care much for the federal government’s opinions.

The Gist: Like all shows that purport to be about “wives,” not all the characters on Mob Wives are actually married to criminals, it would probably be more apt to call the show Mob Daughters, as the two most prominent characters in the first season are just that. In the pilot episode, we’re introduced to Renee Graziano, the daughter of Anthony Graziano, a member of the Bonanno crime family and incarcerated at the time of the show. (It should be noted that Renee’s sister Jenn is the creator of Mob Wives, though she never really appears on the show herself.) We also meet Karen Gravano, whose father, Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, is probably the most famous mobster affiliated with Mob Wives. A member of the Gambino crime family, Sammy worked for John Gotti, was involved in the murder of rival mobster Paul Castellano, and ultimately, he testified against Gotti. To put it bluntly, he was a snitch.

If there is one thing to know about Renee Graziano, it’s that she doesn’t tolerate snitches. She grew up around Karen and had a friendship with her, but Renee is the type of mob princess who believes everyone is guilty by association, making Karen rat-adjacent and underiable. Karen plans to return to Staten Island after years in Arizona where her father lived in witness protection before he went back to prison, and she hopes to make a new life for herself with her daughter. Renee is none too pleased at the news. Rounding out the cast are Carla Facciolo, whose husband Joe is in prison for stock fraud (“Stock fraud, to me, isn’t bad. I don’t think of it like ‘wow, that’s a bad crime,'” she says) and Drita D’Avanzo, who is, unlike the rest of her Italian friends, 100% Albanian, and comes from a family with no ties to crime. Drita was disowned by her family after she married a bank robber named Lee D’Avanzo who is currently in prison. (One of the great recurring aspects of Mob Wives are Drita and Lee’s phone conversations which range from Lee requesting a mile-long grocery list of items like soppressata and Vanilla Coke, to brutal screaming matches peppered with the most incredible, foul-mouthed insults.)

The real meat of this episode and the whole season in general, has to do with Karen’s return to Staten Island. Renee thinks Karen, the daughter of a rat, has some nerve showing her face back in Shaolin, but Drita and Carla think Karen shouldn’t be punished for the sins of her father. (Ironically, not to jump ahead too far, Drita is the one most excited for Karen’s return, but by the end of this season, they will become the series’ most toxic enemies, partially due to the fact that Drita married Lee, who was Karen’s ex-boyfriend.) So when Carla throws a birthday party for herself and invites Karen, everyone is on edge, especially since Renee is drunk and volatile that night. When Renee sees Karen enter, she gets upset. Very upset. “These bitches set me up,” she declares. When it’s suggested she actually try to resolve her issues with Karen by talking, Renee tries it, but she immediately goes on the offensive and Karen tells her, “Bitch, I’m not leaving,” and wags her finger in front of Renee’s face, committing two of reality TV’s cardinal sins. You don’t call another woman a bitch, and you definitely don’t put your finger or hands in anyone’s face unless you’re ready to throw down.

But will these two fight? That’s the beauty of Mob Wives, most of the juiciest fights happen over the course of multiple episodes, so you’ll have to wait to see what happens next (and who else piles on and joins in on the action).

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Of all of the Real Housewives shows out there, Mob Wives shares the most DNA with The Real Housewives of New Jersey, thanks to the actual, physical proximity between Staten Island and Jersey, and some of the similar backgrounds of the cast. Having said that, Mob Wives probably has more in common with shows that were (and still are) popular on VH1, including Basketball Wives and Love & Hip Hop, which were hyped, at least in their early seasons, for the physical fighting between cast members that was part of their draw.

Our Take: Mob Wives is not a show for everyone. These are women who have been around crime and violence for their whole lives and who aren’t afraid to fuck people up. Do you want to watch a woman in heels and fur kick the shit out of her friend in one scene and then talk about it the next day while drinking white wine with ice cubes out of glasses that say things like “Corks are for quitters” in brush script font? If so, Mob Wives is the show for you.

The thing about Mob Wives though, is that the cast members really do have a history, they have known one another for many years and their connections to one another are real, which makes the show feel a little more authentic than if they had been cast as total strangers. Staten Island is a small universe and, judging from Mob Wives alone, one where everyone is a part of organized crime and knows one another, making it feel dangerous, and anyone who dares to talk trash about someone will eventually get called out… or worse. But in the vein of reality shows based around volatile groups of women, Mob Wives stands out for characters that bring humor to the show that would otherwise feel too hard, too real, too harsh.

One last thing: The most famous cast member on Mob Wives was Big Ang (also known as Angela Raiola), who does not appear in season one of the show, so if you’re looking for her, she won’t show up until season two. Known as a mediator who stayed out the drama, Ang was beloved by pretty much every one of her co-stars and the audience and she helped give the show a much-needed softer edge.

Sex and Skin: None, just some low-cut tank tops emblazoned with sequins.

Parting Shot: Karen and Renee are up in each other’s faces, neither one backing down. Karen walks away relatively calmly, telling Renee she has no plans to leave (meaning the party, but also the small mafia universe they all inhabit), as Renee mutter “F—ing jerkoff,” under her breath. And then, in the “This season on Mob Wives” clips that immediately follow, we see Drita, a woman who has thus far been cool with everyone, choking Renee as Renee’s eyes bug out of her head at the very same party where they’re celebrating Carla’s birthday.

Sleeper Star: Drita. She’s the only member of the Mob Wives‘ inner circle who’s not actually affiliated with the actual mob (her husband, Lee, is incarcerated for bank robbery), but she’s easily one of the most vicious – and hilarious – characters in reality TV history. I mean, it’s bittersweet being a fan of a woman who has bloodied half of Staten Island, but she’s got a certain charm, you know?

Most Pilot-y Line: “If you’re a rat, you’re not in my circle. As a matter of fact, I’ll make your life so miserable you won’t be able to hang out in anybody’s circle.”

Our Call: Full disclosure, I have seen every episode of Mob Wives. The quality of the series ebbs and flows, often as a result of the real-life criminal behavior going on in the show’s periphery. (As an example, in season two – SPOILER ALERT – Renee’s ex-husband Junior snitches on her father just as he’s buttering up Renee to reconcile and get back with her. It’s tragic and truly wild, especially considering we all know how Renee feels about snitching.) The addition of comedic foil Big Ang in season two is crucial to offset the harshness of the rest of the show, but even she can’t save the show from itself in its final seasons. My recommendation: STREAM IT, but only the first couple seasons, when the action is at its peak.

Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.