Paramount Plus’ The Offer sleeps with the fishes
Miles Teller gets lost in the sauce in this overstretched series about making The Godfather
TV Reviews The Offer
You can’t remake The Godfather. This much Paramount knows. But while The Offer—a ten-part limited series set behind the scenes of Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 triumph—doesn’t strictly speaking break that rule, its opportunistic premise and poor execution disrespect what some have called a “perfect film” at almost laughable levels. If The Godfather was masterful and precise despite its famously harrowed production, The Offer is amateurish and messy because of the way it uses its sure-fire assets. They’re well-produced, yes, but bungled by clumsy presentation, unceasing pandering, and an otherwise underbaked plot that’s insulting when you ask yourself, “This is a legacy for The Godfather?”
Based on executive producer “Albert S. Ruddy’s experience” making the film (so how one guy remembers one very complicated thing, to be clear), this hourlong drama stars Miles Teller as the maverick Godfather producer among the film’s biggest champions. Ruddy broke into Hollywood with the World War II-set sitcom Hogan’s Heroes, co-created by Bernard Fein (Kyle S. More) in 1965. Then, when Mario Puzo (Patrick Gallo) debuted his 1969 hit novel about a mob boss and his heir apparent, Ruddy made his case to helm the screen adaptation under Paramount boss Robert Evans (Matthew Goode)—and won.
But with a tight budget and the actual mafia to contend with (turns out, real mobsters don’t like stories that make the mob seem…well, real), the street-smart producer faced an uphill battle steeper than most. It’s an interesting true story with various versions known to hardcore fans that could have been dramatized well, albeit always at a shorter length. But instead of rising to its own lofty challenge, The Offer breaks The Godfather’s making-of saga into chunky disconnected parts that never add up to compelling television.
With assistant Bettye McCartt (Juno Temple) as his right hand, Ruddy spends much of the series brokering for The Godfather’s always squabbling creative team with its untrusting Gulf+Western exec Charles Bluhdorn (Burn Gorman). Bluhdorn, who serves as a secondary antagonist in the show, really did oversee Paramount during The Godfather’s production. But as the series tells it, the only “bad guy” who worked for Paramount was “Barry Lapidus,” a fictional character played by a seriously bored-looking Colin Hanks. (Yeah, okay.)
Between managing the divisive Marlon Brando (Justin Chambers), breaking up a fight between Coppola (Dan Fogler) and Frank Sinatra (Frank John Hughes), and plenty of other A-lister shenanigans, Ruddy is transformed into a Winston Wolf-type with Vito Corleone flair by the iconic production. He’s the series’ anchor, heart, and hero, which might seem distastefully self-serving coming from Ruddy as the show’s executive producer if he weren’t 92.
Another storyline features Ruddy fending off crime boss Joe Colombo (Giovanni Ribisi) and the American Italian Defamation League, which initially opposed The Godfather but later came to play a key role in its success. This material ought to be the more interesting half of The Offer, but creator Michael Tolkin, known for Escape At Dannemora, sees his show struggle most when its off the Paramount backlot. The story isn’t presented in a consolidated way (little of The Offer’s chronology adds up, actually), but there’s at least a feature-length’s worth of a shitty crime thriller in this thing no one wants or needs.
Despite a stellar cast, equally good performances, and the rights to one of cinema’s greatest achievements (conveniently celebrating its 50th anniversary this year), The Offer mishandles its embarrassment of riches by rolling out a generic carousel of flat anecdotes that feel first and foremost like a Godfather-themed ad for Paramount+.With the snow capped mountain logo splashed across studio walls and craft service coffee cups, this series’ old Hollywood navel-gazing feels less like a wink or nudge than an ad-supported bullet between the eyes: “Sure, HBO Max might have the Friends and Harry Potter reunions. But Paramount+ has this ten-hour The Godfather bonus feature thing… and that’s something!”
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So, I watched the first episode last night, and while it wasn’t that bad, the pacing and the time jumps were so disorienting. One second he’s getting Redford for his movie, the next he’s outside of opening night and it’s a flop with little to no explanation. I love the cast, and will probably watch the whole series because I like them enough to put up with the shit coming out of their mouths sometimes.
(so how one guy remembers one very complicated thing, to be clear)Wait till someone tells you about memoirs.
All the criticism is warranted, but honestly I’m quite enjoying it. If you just like the idea of hanging out in old Hollywood and seeing The Godfather get made, it’s an enjoyable way to spend your time. I love the Puzo and Coppola buddy comedy aspect of it. One of those shows where you really have to be interested enough in the world it takes place in to overlook all the flaws.
I’ve watched the three episodes that are out, and it’s not great, but it’s worth watching just for Matthew Goode as Robert Evans. He steals every scene he’s in. And I was hoping for a scene where Coppola and Puzo are adapting the book and fight over keeping the subplot about how Sonny and Lucy’s giant genitalia were a perfect match for each other.
Between that and the subplot about how Johnny Fontaine’s girlfriend (wife?) prefers oral to PIV sex and so he has to beat her up to get laid, fair to say Puzo had some odd thematic hangups.And obviously Coppola won that battle, though we do get the brief shot of the women sitting around gossiping and Sonny’s wife is holding her hands gradually farther apart to demonstrate Sonny’s huge wang size.
Yeah, I’ve said it many times before over the years, but the godfather book is a weird weird book. And frankly, a bad book. It’s the 50 Shades of Gray of the 60s, got massively popular as a trashy risqué novel that was quickly adapted to film just like 50 shades, and also like 50 shades it’s full of absolutely disgusting gross sex scenes (maybe the point WAS to disgust you, in order to thematically link it to all the disgusting murders, I dunno, but that’s giving it more credit than it’s probably due), and the main plot of the book is about a woman who’s sad because her vagina is too big and so she needs surgery to ensmallen her vagina. She’s sad because only Sonny had a big enough dick to satisfy her grand canyon vagina, but now he’s dead, and her new boyfriend Fontaine has only got a regular sized one, hence the need for vagina surgery. She and sonny are the parents of Vincent Corleone from Godfather part 3, for those who don’t know, so theoretically his genitals must be enormous, considering his parents. If you think I’m going on about genitals for too long, then yeah, you probably won’t like the book, because it never shuts up about giant genitals throughout the whole thing, so I’m just giving you a taste of what the book is like. That’s not hyperbole by the way. And the rest of the book reads like a Godfather fan wiki. Like every new chapter is just the article of a certain character. You start the chapter, a character who’s never been mentioned before is brought up, their entire history leading up to that point is told, and then they do the one thing in the plot they’re meant to do (e.g. when the ex-cop kills one of the other mafia dons), and then the chapter ends and that character is never mentioned again. It’s so poorly structured. It’s like a first draft that never had a 2nd or 3rd pass over it, let alone dozens of drafts like most books go through in order to perfect them. And yes, much more time is dedicated to revolting repulsive sounding sex scenes and the plot about a woman who’s sad her vagina is too big, than is dedicated to the actual plot of the book following Michael (and Vito, since all the young Vito stuff that was in Godfather 2 is in the original godfather book as well; all the Michael stuff in the godfather 2 film was new, written specifically for the film, it wasn’t in a book first). That Copolla managed to make a masterpiece out of such a terribly written book is frankly stunning. And he did that by basically ignoring 70% of it, cutting all that awfulness out completely. And doing things like have characters actually be there the whole time, throughout the film, instead of popping into existence as the plot requires and then disappearing in a cloud of smoke the second they do their one job in the plot. Like that ex-cop is one of Michael’s closest guys, he’s a bodyguard mainly but he’s also in every big meeting Michael has, he’s standing in the back somewhere always in every scene, in both the 1st and 2nd films. Mario Puzo was a terrible author but he was good at general broad themes, so Copolla kept those themes and refined them and refined every aspect of the storytelling, and dispensed with everything that wasn’t necessary. Johnny Fontaine is barely in the movie, when arguably he’s the main character of the book, not Michael. We have to hear so much about Fontaine being cuckolded by his wife, which has nothing to do with anything, and again I don’t think Puzo was good enough of an author to have done those scenes deliberately to disgust you and remind you of the murder scenes, again I think that’s giving him too much credit. For people who haven’t read the book, when you actually read those sex scenes, you’ll see what I mean. But thanks to death of the author, we can retroactively make the book better by reinterpreting it in that way, that the sex and the murder are thematically linked, even if Puzo never consciously intended that link to be there. And also because of death of the author, Copolla could radically change the story in the process of adapting it for film, and I’m so glad he could. The movie is and always will be a masterpiece. And the 2nd one is still the best film ever made.
Hollywood superstar Miles Teller in a lukewarm series that adds nothing to the genre? That can’t be possible!
I binged the first three last night. My intention had been to watch two, then save the third to watch with the fourth, but I was enjoying myself enough to go all the way to the plot point you knew would be where the teaser release ends.Sure, it isn’t high camp like the first season of The Great or as twisty as the latter seasons of Ozark, but it’s better than a lot of crap and while some of it was known, like who were in the actual cast and the whole anti-defamation league thing, it’s still interesting to see it dramatized and lot of it wasn’t known — like how they got the aforementioned Pacino and Brando. (I thought Pacino asking about Coppola was sweet and the whole Coppola/Puzo bit from the first three was something I didn’t know.)I’m definitely going to finish it and will probably stream each ep on the day it’s released.
So Ozark gets better I’m at the second episode and it hasn’t hold my interest.
I’d say the second season is when the women become much more prominent and the talented actresses are given much meatier roles. Without giving any spoilers, I’d say season three is better than the second and though I have today’s episodes yet to go, season four is when they tie it all together.I’d describe the series as a beach novel. I don’t think history will remember it as one of the greatest shows of all time, but it will make some top lists for the genre and it’s a great reminder of why Laura Linney has been celebrated for her talent and when the world discovered Julia Garner can act.Oh, and of course, I’ve been a fan of Jason Bateman since the original run of Silver Spoons. He’s reliably good and like pretty much everything he’s done, you know it’s him, but you see him as the character and he inhabits the role. I thinks it’s also pretty laudable that though he’s producing and directing a lot of Ozark, he’s so willing to share the show.
Yes it gets better. It’s a great show.
Definitely stick with Ozark. It’s amazing. It’s a bit of a slow burner but it doesn’t take that long to get hooked. It’s an even better show than Breaking Bad, no hyperbole. And Julia Garner puts on one of the best acting performances I’ve EVER seen before. She should win all the emmys, every single emmy, even ones from irrelevant categories. Just give her every emmy. She’s just so absolutely brilliant. It’s the kind of performance that’d easily net her a best actress Oscar if it was a film and not a TV show. Watch it for her performance, if nothing else Once it gets good, it is just incredible. It’s one of the only good modern Netflix shows. And the fact they didn’t cancel it before it was over but actually let them finish the story, is great. You can watch it while knowing that you’ll get to see all of the story, and won’t be left with a missing final season like with most Netflix shows.
The only thing is, it’s SOOOO good at creating genuine tension, it can be a bit exhausting to watch sometimes. You really really feel the fear the characters do. They make it so real. No show has ever done that to me in quite the same way. It’s just a wonderful wonderful show. A masterpiece. Please do keep watching it. And although I compared it to breaking bad because it does have a similar initial premise, it does very very quickly deviate wildly from those tropes. It’s not just a Netflix repeat of breaking bad. It’s its own unique story, honestly a story I’ve never seen told before. It’s new. It actually subverts some expectations really quickly just to let you know that it isn’t gonna be breaking bad. Like there’s no long seasons full of the main guy hiding his criminality from his family. No he tells them all everything in like the 4th episode lol. But yeah just keep watching. Force yourself. I know some shows can be really hard to get into initially, but they’re SO worth it once you do. Shows like the Wire for example. It took me an entire season to get hooked on that. I’d tried to watch the wire dozens of times but always gave up out of boredom. But then an episode near the end of the 1st season changes everything and then you’re hooked for life. And the Wire is still probably the best TV show ever made. Ozark isn’t nearly as hard to get into as the Wire. But it is similarly very worth it if you do decide to invest your time into it. It’s a great great show.
Miles Teller looks like he was drawn by a very good artist who just can’t get the eyes right.
He could star in the Dean Martin biography.
I was kind of surprised how he grew up from a kind of potato-faced youngster into a cross between Dino and Rock Hudson.
This post is about the book, which I read over thirty years ago and loved. Decided to revisit it and was deeply disappointed. Its a terrible book (much better than I could ever come up with, but still). It was such a slog that I quit it halfway through and I was on an airplane at the time with nothing better to read. Just watch the movies (not III, whose existence I will not acknowledge). As for this miniseries, watch the movies (not III, whose existence I will not acknowledge).
Yah. The book truly sucks. Desperately needs editing or something. All of Puzo’s other books are even worse, though.
Miles Teller looks like Barsanti writes.
Enough with the fucking limited series. Make a fucking movie or get the fuck out.
There’s a lesson to be learned from the actual The Godfather. Requiring a focus makes a stronger product. If The Godfather had come out in a time like now, it would be a miniseries with way too much Johnny Fontane and a Rocco Lampone plot that was bogged things down.
Every episode dealing with a subplot about Sonny’s painfully large, impossibly girthy wiener!
You’re better off just reading the section in The Kid Stays in The Picture about the making of The Godfather. Or just Google it.
“Bluhdorn, who serves as a secondary antagonist in the show, really did oversee Paramount during The Godfather’s production. But as the series tells it, the only “bad guy” who worked for Paramount was “Barry Lapidus,” a fictional character played by a seriously bored-looking Colin Hanks.”I was interested how Paramount would navigate the whole “Here’s a limited series about how we tried to fuck up one of cinema’s greatest achievements at every turn” thing.
Well, it’s NOT Paramount, according to the tale, it’s those money grubbing corporate suits at Engulf and Devour that were the real villians!
We have our fingers in everyones pies!
The critic is so off – I don’t think he has watched but skimmed over the Offer – that he identifies Bluhdorn as an executive of Gulf+Western when it was clearly stated in the series that he was the founder and CEO, as it was in real life then. And did not oversee just Paramount but the whole Gulf+Western corporation.And he also states that Barry Lapidus worked for Paramount when in the series worked for Gulf+Western, probably as CFO. It’s very easy to catch a critic that has skimmed over and hasn’t prepared.
The critic is so off – I don’t think she has watched but skimmed over the Offer – that he identifies Bluhdorn as an executive of Gulf+Western when it was clearly stated in the series that he was the founder and CEO, as it was in real life then. And did not just oversee Paramount but the whole Gulf+Western corporation.And he also states that Barry Lapidus worked for Paramount when in the series worked for Gulf+Western, probably as CFO. A he is the antagonist not Bluhdorn as she said in her critic. It’s very easy to catch a critic that has skimmed over and hasn’t prepared.
They should have just made a show about Robert Evans.
Matthew Goode is terrific in this! More than makes up for his boring take on Ozymandias in “Watchmen”
Assuming you’ve seen “The kid stays in the picture”?
Meh. Pretty cynical review with not much substance. Then again this is expected if you want to avoid spoilers and maybe you’re warning us of something dreadful without giving the details, but the things you complain about are puzzling. The viewers don’t need a crime thriller? Dude, this is about the making of The Godfather, and it’s been common knowledge for some time that the mob had a heavy influence on the production of this film. Did you think this wouldn’t play a role in the story? I know the post-Sopranos mob genre has become convoluted and laughable (do any of you have your own mob themed youtube podcast yet? What are you waiting for?), but this story is a little off the beaten path at least (as was The Sopranos when it first aired). Joe Colombo is a fascinating individual. He was a boss of one of New York’s “5 families”, who were part of this country’s power structure from the 1930’s to the 1980’s with their control of so many unions and the leverage it gave them, and he went off on this bizarre political tangent that to this day many on the inside don’t know if it was a legal strategy or genuine. Whatever the case, when he was warned by other mob bosses to back off of it, he refused. I hope the story focuses on Colombo more than anything because he is the story here. BTW, his blessing to Bludhorn, Evans and Paramount to make the film after tense negotiations to say the least resulted in Colombo goons hanging around the set and teaching the actors how to walk the walk, giving the film its authenticity. Just watch Godfather 3 to see the alternative.
turned this off during the scene where miles teller was explaining why movies were better than tv.
Episode 3 brings in Al Pacino, but they don’t bring up the fact that Puzo, in his published writing, said that he really didn’t think Pacino was the actor for the part. Michael was actually the least “ethnic” looking, more “American” of the three sons (in the book), and he envisioned a blonde athletic type for the role.
Oh, well.
OK, here’s the cast in The Offer’s favour, from someone who watched the first four eps and likes it, a lot:- A Matthew Goode performance which is in the stratosphere.- Uniformly strong performances from the rest of the cast.- A script which rarely does just what you expect with its characters.- Some nice casting decisions beyond Goode (the actor playing Pacino – a horrendous challenge – is doing a quietly great job).- The Coppola/Buzo bromance, a lovely dynamic you don’t see enough on film.- The complete absence of cattiness in the three key female roles – they are all just smart, interesting and effective people behaving in believable ways.- The thoroughly non-hysterical vibe of the script (they just let the events speak for themselves) and indeed the entire production.- The script genuinely seems to like most of the people it’s portraying, even the mobsters (yes, there are obvious reasons, but it’s still endearing).- If you’ve been involved with high-performance teams, the whole thing rings true in a way that’s rarely depicted well on the screen.- Four eps in and it has never dragged for a moment, in marked contrast to most of this year’s TV.It’s maybe not great cinema, but it is fine storytelling in an unusually affectionate key. I’m kind of startled that it hasn’t gotten more love.
I’m enjoying this, whether some of the portrayed relationships are true or false. Coppola is portrayed perfectly – a humble film maker who really wants to be a winemaker and now realizes he has a masterpiece on his hands. The relationship with Mario may not be true but it’s delightful. Yes, the Ruddy character is a bit overarching but this miniseries is a gift to fans of The Godfather…a bit of welcome nostalgia. My only complaint so far: The one reference to Robert Duvall as Tom Hayden, the adopted son. I would have appreciated more story about how he got the part.
It’s not great, but as an exercise in Celebrity Dress-up, it’s cool, and I did enjoy the performances.