Crime story is often considered a predecessor to more well-known but lower quality shows like the Sopranos which is essentially a soap opera with a minstrel show with Italian- Americans caricatures. Crime Story is a top 5 candidate for best crime drama of in TV history. It is the story of two men, one a smart, ambitious hoodlum determined to rise from small- time thievery to international kingpin, even if he has to kill his own mother to get there. The other is an old-fashioned, volatile policeman whose sole mission in life is to destroy the organized crime syndicate. There are both men on a quest that feels destined from day one to collide with the others quest. It is always clear to the audience that the reason for torellos hatred of luca and other criminals is his fundamental respect for human life and his adversary's lack of it. Mike Torello is the kind of cop who believes people are responsible for there actions and should be held accountable. This is the reason the show was set in the early 60s to begin with and the reason why torello is rapidly becoming a dinosaur. The Vietnam war begins late in the second season and you can feel torellos obsolesence coming on. Soon Americans will enter an era where public opinion leans toward blaming society for the criminals crimes and not the criminal. I Feel that if the series had gone on for 5-7 years instead of 2, we would have seen the locales and general feel of the show vary from season to season, with much character development. In the end assuming the shows final season was set around 1970 i think torello would have been considered a raving fascist lunatic in an asylum somewhere and ray luca would be running for office. I think crime story was as much about an important decade in American history as it was about these two men.
Review of Crime Story
