Critic Reviews

Director Sam Hobkinson does a masterful job of weaving previously unheard recordings, new interviews with mob insiders and former investigators, and well-filmed dramatic re-creations to tell a story that never glamorizes these infamous thugs while painting a shocking picture of a crime-infested, corrupt and grimy New York that at times seemed to be teetering on the brink of complete chaos.

Where Fear City truly shines is in its finer details, be it the revelation that Lucchese boss Tony “Ducks” Corallo got his nickname from his skill at evading subpoenas and arresting officers, or the way in which the FBI tailed bugged vehicles not only with a monitoring van, but with four separate cars equipped with repeaters that boosted the wiretap’s transmission signal. The result is a real-life cat-and-mouse saga of duplicity, treachery and murder that put an end to the golden age of the New York City mafia

It can be a little dry at times, but it’s an easy watch, a reminder of how dedicated professionals and breakthroughs in technology can change law and order. ... Unlike a lot of Netflix mini-series, I almost felt like “Fear City” could have used another chapter.

Fear City: New York Vs. The Mafia may not be the most revealing docuseries, but the interview subjects and the subject matter are still fascinating enough to give this well-worn topic a revisit.

A slick, engaging, well put-together documentary series that neatly skims the surface of Federal efforts to bring down the Five Families who made up The Commission — the organizers who made “organized crime” a phrase all of America was all too familiar with.

The series works best as a clinical dissection of how this happened both from a conceptual standpoint in terms of formulating the case and piecing the puzzle together, and from a practical one. ... The documentary feels perilously thin for such a rich subject. "Fear City" would benefit from being longer and more in depth than just three episodes.

With two episodes clocking in at less than 45 minutes and one running longer than an hour, you probably should have done four installments with more depth or a feature-length doc with tighter editing and fewer by-the-numbers talking head segments from Alite and Franzese. Fans of mobster programming probably won't complain.

For those enamored with tales of the mob, Fear City weaves in enough previously unheard audio to marginally justify the three-hour binge. Beyond that, even from someone fascinated by the subject matter, it's tough to deliver a favorable judgment.

The series is edited with such impatience that it never lets a moment breathe or makes room for the details that might enliven this umpteenth telling of the tale. The interviews are so chopped that at times it sounds like every word was taken from a different sentence. It’s the rare Netflix series that could actually have benefitted from stretching out over another hour or two. Paring the story down to its cops-and-mobsters essentials robs it of its soul.

Something as pulpy and cinematic as cops chasing criminals should be loaded with juicy stories. Fear City somehow manages to both be far too simplistic and utterly lost in its own weeds. ... There’s a place in the world for uncomplicated nostalgia for the old days. But it should never be as vapid, or dull, as Fear City.