Omertà, la loi du silence

The Omerta trilogy is the best series I have ever seen on television. It centers around the RCMP's attempts to take down the head of the Montreal mafia. It is hard-hitting, violent, realistic, and incredibly intense. It is one of the rare shows where I had to keep watching each episode in the DVD set one after the other, hoping I could keep fitting one more in before I had to go to bed.

There are 3 stories in the Omerta series; Omerta 1, 2, and 3. Omerta 1 and 2 are sequential in terms of the story, and should be watched in order. Omerta 3 introduces a new character, and follows his rise in the mafia. What is interesting is that the time-line in Omerta 3 covers both before and after the action in the first two, characters which had been killed off earlier can make appearances without causing plot holes. It was an effective way of creating a full series using many of the same actors.

I would have to say that of the 3 series, each became more polished until you arrive at Omerta 3, which is truly fantastic. There are 11 episodes in series 1, 14 in series 2, and 13 in series 3. I would highly recommend you watch them in order, although you can watch series 3 independently of the first 2 and still follow the storyline. All 3 are in French, and a very heavily accented Montreal French at that. Also, in the DVD sets that I watched, there was no English audio track nor any subtitles. If you can understand the language, I strongly urge you to check out this unique series which preceded the Sopranos by a number of years. You will not be disappointed.

R.