Fear City: New York vs The Mafia
Fear City: New York vs The Mafia is an American true crime docuseries about New York City's Five Families: the Gambino, Colombo, Bonanno, Lucchese, and Genovese crime organizations.[1]
This article is about the Netflix documentary series. For the 1984 film, see Fear City.Fear City: New York vs The Mafia
Sam Hobkinson
Paul Moessl
"Hard Times" by Baby Huey & the Babysitters
United States
English
1
3
- Dimitri Doganis
- Bart Layton
- Adam Hawkins
- Jon Liebman
Bernadette Higgins
Tim Cragg
- Julian Hart
- Tom Parsons
44–62 minutes
- Raw Television
- Brillstein Entertainment Partners
July 22, 2020
Premise[edit]
The series is told from the point of view of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, detailing how the implementation of wiretaps were able to bring down the mob in the Mafia Commission Trial.[1] The series, released on Netflix on July 22, 2020, also featured appearances from Donald Trump (in archival footage), Rudy Giuliani, Michael Franzese and John Alite.[1][2]
Reception[edit]
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds an approval rating of 71% based on 17 reviews, with an average rating of 7.25/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Compelling interviews and a slick style help Fear City entertain, but those already familiar with the case will find few new insights."[4] On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 61 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[5]
Reviewing the series for The Hollywood Reporter, Daniel Fienberg said it featured "by-the-numbers storytelling with a law enforcement perspective" and wrote: "I wish there were more consistency to when and how the reenactment device is used, but there are general potholes of sloppiness throughout Fear City."[2] John Anderson of The Wall Street Journal said the series "offers a skewed history of the investigations into organized crime in 1970s-80s New York".[6]