Gravesend

I was interested in watching this for a few reasons. I'm from Brooklyn, I grew up around guys like this, it was filmed in my neighborhood, and I remember Brooklyn in the 80s. Just two episodes in, and I'm already frustrated.

1. If you are going to do a period piece, make it accurate. Punk was not immensely popular in 1986. Hairbands had taken over and grunge was ready to kick it's ass. Coney Island DID NOT look like that in the 80s, and neither did the bus stops.

2. The acting is TERRIBLE. I feel like I'm watching an AU Sopranos, where James Gandolfini looks like Quagmire, and it's a bad high school production of Goodfellas.

3. It makes Brooklyn Italians look like a bunch of thugs.

The only thing accurate about it is the racism that constantly spews out of the mouths of these "gangsters". Garbage like this makes me ashamed to be Italian.

Gravesend Season 2 is worst than season 1. First I can see that the review written by Victor C is inflated and fake because actor Victoe Colicchio worked with William Demeo on a movie called Sarah Q. Victor also worked with Joe D'Onofrio and Paul Borghese who appeared in Sarah Q and Gravesend. Let's start with Amazon Prime. The reviews on Amazon can easily be inflated by friends and family. Gravesend season one receives so many bad reviews that the people who gave it a one star rating refuse to watch season two. Gravesend season two specifically charges for each episode so let's think about it for a second if people did not like season one, then the only people who are going to watch season two are family and friends. Second actor Victor Colicchio brags about having 30 years of experience but fails to disclose that he Victor Colicchio has 30 years of Bad experience since he never won an award, and none of his projects are known. Next Actor Victor Colicchio criticizes people who have one liners in their reviews not realizing that the reason they gave one-liners in there, one star reviews is because there's nothing much to say about Gravesend. Now for my review. Gravesend season 1 and 2 is a compilation of plagiarism because it's a vanity project that copies, both script, lines and scenes from shows such as the soprano and for movies like Scarface, Donnie Brasco, good fellas and more. The acting was horrible by William Demeo Who is also the screen, writer, producer and Director. One can only imagine that he holds onto all these roles so he can itemize a payment in the movies budget and pay himself for every role that he holds in these projects that he self produces. Next Gravesend does not capture how mobsters behaved in the 1980's. Having grown up in that area, I could tell you that there were a lot of hard-working people who are not connected with the mob and stayed away from all the neighborhood drama. With this in mind, the only positive reviews are coming from friends, family people connected with the show or people like Victor Colicchio, who worked with all those actors in the film Sarah Q. Just saying.

A low budget mafia series based in the 80's. I'm good with that. You do not need expensive props to make a series that based upon the drama of mafia families with a couple of shootings and stabbings every once in a while.

What you do need?

Acting. The ability to make the characters seem believable. Here the actors come across like high school students practicing for a school play about the mafia. Everything is exaggerated to the cliched stereotype of New York Italians. Having some of that is fine, having the majority of the cast acting that way is grating.

Writing. Maybe is not the actors fault, they may be doing the best they can with the material that they are working with. The dialogue does not have a 'natural flow', instead it is a collection of complete sentenced-statements (Jimmy, why don't you go to the refrigerator and get the butter and put it on the table for dinner at 7pm). No one talks that way.

Direction. N/A. You are jumped from scene to scene without correlation, background, or even knowing who the parties are.

Skip.

As an Italian -American from South Brooklyn who is the same age as William DeMeo, I really want to support a local guy and wish him success, but this is not it. I also know how hard it is to conceive, write, direst, raise funds, cast, and get a movie produced -- so I give him a lot of credit. But everything here is really unwatchable: from the opening credits (the low-budget value is cringy) to the acting to the story line. Well directed in my opinion, so I give him credit for that, but really not much else of value here. I wish William luck in his future endeavors, but this is not the one to break his career.

I see the posters for this show all around Staten Island. These guys are a laughing stock - an embarrassment to the Italians. It's people like this that give all Italians a bad name. Ones who believe they are celebrities, but naturally, only in their minds. They are uneducated, narcissistic nincompoops who would rather keep pretending that they are actors rather than taking the time to invest in any sort of creative education.

This show is unwatchable. It should've been canceled after the first season, along with the rest of the cast, from ever acting again.

Willie DeMeo would be better off writing a letter of condolence to his audience, than another screen or teleplay. To call this guy an artist is an insult to real artists who actually know what they're doing. Total poser.

This is what you get when a bunch of guys with little education get in a room and BS an investor into putting any sort of money into awful writing like this. Give it to the poor next time fellas - it'll be put to better use!