Just ask anyone who's seen John Travolta's Battlefield Earth, Will Smith's After Earth, or Jerry Lewis' The Day the Clown Cried, where he plays a clown in the Nazi death camps who leads children into the gas chambers. And those have a history of going horribly, horribly wrong, even with experienced actors at the helm. The whole thing has sounded like a vanity project from the beginning. That no one in the planning stage suggested, say, Melissa McCarthy and Tina Fay, instead of a Grumpy Old Ladies pastiche, with a collection of elegant but aging Hollywood royalty cracking wise about how much they'd like to let Tom Brady get into their end zones or whatever. I am just absolutely mesmerized by the idea this project made it past the pitch meeting and into production. And yet that same studio wasted no time greenlighting one of the goofiest sounding concepts in recent memory:
And it's astonishing to witness how little regard the bosses had for The Godfather, how much they tried to change it, and how close this great piece of American art came to being ruined or never being brought into existence. I bring this up because the aforementioned studio in The Offer was Paramount. And am currently seven episodes into The Offer, a limited series about how The Godfather went from bestseller to the most celebrated film of all time, despite opposition from the actual Mafia, a mob boss's subsequent cooperation, budget restrictions, the studio almost getting sold in as filming began, the producer's disdain for an unknown actor named Al Pacino, and real gangland killings surrounding the production. I recently caught a documentary about the brilliant Galaxy Quest. Countless behind-the-scenes DVD extras on everything from Lord of the Rings to Master and Commander. But once he has infiltrated the club, there is no turning back.So I've read books on the making of Jaws. It will not be easy for Falco to pull this off. While a few aren't too bright, others are actually quite clever and street smart. You will also notice that each member has a distinct personality and mentality, and are not all friends. This is the kind of show you could easily watch several times and keep seeing something new that you didn't catch before. There's no wasted time in Episode One as each scene moves the story forward at a quick pace. He also has to keep his girlfriend Suzanna (Melanie Srofano) happy as she suspects Charlie is hiding something.
He keeps his thoughts closely in check, and plays up being a loyal, no-nonsense Vagos member. Although Damon Runyan looks way too clean cut to be a biker, I think he does pull it off with his low-key temperament and gritty resolve. Falco must walk a fine line between fitting in with the Vagos, yet not committing any crimes – at least any serious crimes. At the same time he must secretly report his activities to Koz (Ari Cohen), who is the ATF agent running the undercover investigation.
Falco's appearance gradually becomes more hard-edged as he adapts to the biker culture. And he also has to learn how to ride a motorcycle, which amazingly, he has no experience. He has to learn the motorcycle club's language, unwritten rules, and distinct culture very quickly. As the episode progresses Falco makes contact with a Vagos chapter. Falco is portrayed by Damon Runyan, who is in just about every scene, and also narrates from time to time. From this point onward the show is built around Charles Falco's account of what happened back in 2003-06 when he was nabbed for being a crystal method dealer, and eventually infiltrated the Vagos as a special agent of the ATF instead of serving a long prison sentence. The viewer will eventually come to know all the characters in that scene. The show starts with some brief words from Falco, whose appearance is hidden, then switches to a tense scene where an undercover informant is being executed by a motorcycle gang. Gangland Uncover has a strong debut in Episode One of this mini-series about Charles Falco, who infiltrated the infamous Vagos Motorcycle Club to gather evidence of criminal activity.