Gravesend

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.

Who is paying to invest in this. I want their numbers, i can use free money. I want to start a company and use their money to invest because obviously they are mentally ill. Horrible only word sums up everything. Heaven help anyone who turn this on.

Being from Brooklyn, being around show business and acting I have to be honest. It's all bad. Where do I start? I looked at the movies credits and it shows Chelsey Vento did the music. Chelsey Vento is a terrible music producer. The music was form the 1990's and they say the show sis from the the 1980's. The overall arc is confusing and the though line is non-existent to the point that you could transpose most of the scenes, and it wouldn't really matter. The dialogue is heavy handed, forced, and devoid of any wit. Story lines start and go nowhere. It's like "The Room " of Mafia shows. Terrible acting by (especially) the main character who I understand wrote and produced it as well. Clichés abound. No storyline or running/theme/plot to speak of. I'm sure the viewers who are intimate and know the streets in Brooklyn will be happy to see their old haunts but for those of us that have never been there, it won't make up for what feels like an amateur production put on by first year cinema students. Who ever invested in this show must need a tax loss. From what I see none of willie demeo's movies ever make any money and they are all horrible. I would give william demeo a Golden Raspberry Award.

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.

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.