Mob Wives: Recap Ep 102 “The Bitch Is Back”

Okay, we are off to a bad start. The recap from last week is 10 minutes long, no exaggeration. It was so long that I thought I was watching a rerun, not a new show. This tells me they do not have enough new footage, and it’s only the second week of the series. After watching the whole episode, which I will review in a minute, I found it to be uneventful and boring compared to last week’s show. I will be curious to see what other fans think, but I found it a big let down.

Renee goes to Carla’s for dinner and they chat about the party. Carla makes up a lame excuse for not telling Renee that Karen was coming. She claims she didn’t want Renee to come with a chip on her shoulder, she wanted her to get there, have fun and then be blindsided by Karen’s appearance. Renee is quick to forgive Carla, they have a long friendship of 20 years, but she is pissed at Drita for the way she acted. Renee is also pissed at Karen, but then admits she is confused by what Karen said about her father, Sammy. She seems to think Karen has a point when she says everyone liked Sammy as long as he was killing people, but when he cooperated with the Feds they hated him; which is worse? Carla interprets this as Renee really wants to be friends with Karen and only broke ties with her because her father told her to years ago. Boring!

Back at Renee’s house, AJ shows up with his father, Junior. Renee has to discuss AJ’s report card with Junior. She is very upset because AJ broke the rule of getting an 80 in every subject. “He got a 75 in English!,” Renee yells in her loud, raspy voice. AJ corrects her, “It was art, I’m not Van Gogh.” Renee seems caught off guard by AJ’s reasonable remark. However, there has to be a punishment regardless, because he broke the all 80’s rule. Two weekends of punishment and they will see what the next report card brings. If he gets all 80’s next time he will get a new car. A new car for 80‘s on a report card? Give me a break! Can it get more boring? You decide.

Karen is moving into her new apartment. She is talking to Rina, whose father was a member of Graziano’s crew. They laugh about the party and how Renee left. They discuss Karen’s new six figure book deal. Karen says it’s about life as the child of a mobster and how she felt bad for her father’s victims. She neglects to mention that while in Arizona she allegedly participated in his huge ecstasy trafficking ring, for which she pleaded guilty and was sentenced to probation, but maybe she forgot her legal troubles already. So far the episode is a snooze fest.

Carla’s husband Joe calls from prison. He has a request. He wants her to pick up one of those collage picture frames so he can put the kids pictures in it from when they were 3, 4, 5 , 6 and 7 years old in it. This way he can look at it all the time and stop doing stupid things…like stock fraud. The kids still don’t know he is in jail, they think he has been away working. Let’s hope they don’t get wind of it from their friends at school, whose mothers may be watching the show and gossiping about it. Ok, this was another totally lack luster segment. Now, I am kicking myself for complaining about the 10 minute recap because, so far, that was the best part.

Off to Drita’s house. She is talking to Gizma about her life. She tells her how her dad disowned her for marrying Lee, saying “don’t even come to my grave!” She is the only one in the family who didn’t marry an Albanian, and to top it off, not only didn’t she marry an Albanian, but she married a wise guy. She claims she still loves Lee. Excuse me while I take a minute to splash some cold water on my face so I can stay awake for the rest of this episode.

Back at Renee’s house AJ comes home and doesn’t make eye contact with his mother. According to Renee, this can only mean one thing, “trouble.” She confronts AJ telling him she knows it’s report card day. Report card day??? I find it hard to believe it’s report card day so soon. That would mean that at least six or more weeks have passed since the last report card and it only seems like a day or two. But, in any case, there is trouble. The all 80 rule has been broken again. AJ says they made a mistake on the report card. Renee grabs the report card and sees a 46 in gym! Or maybe it’s a 55. Either way she starts yelling at him to call his father and go upstairs because he has an attitude. I doubt AJ really failed gym, he works out at a gym with his dad. It’s been my experience that kids that are getting above 80 in major subjects do not fail gym. Besides being boring, they must think we have stupid written on our foreheads.

Lee calls Drita from prison, they talk about putting six pears in the next box. Drita hasn’t visited him in six months, and it’s a six hour drive to the prison. That’s three 6’s…the sign of the devil. Lee meets with the parole board this month to see if he can get out early. However, if they deny his request, he may have 4 or 5 years more to serve. Drita cannot believe her ears. She thought he was coming home in in a few months and now she feels sick. She decides she needs to go out for a drink with Carla and tell her what happened. They discuss the waiting game and how long is too long to wait? They even ask the bartender. No one asked me, but I think she waited too long already. She is wasting the best years of her life waiting for Lee, 10 out of the last 12 years he has been locked up. When he comes out who is to say he won’t leave her for someone else? How long is too long Drita? Do you really have to ask? This segment was irritating; stupidity always makes me irritated.

Renee takes AJ to go meet his father at the gym. Junior doesn’t show up and doesn’t answer his phone. He has stood AJ up. AJ is used to it and not upset. Renee gets all choked up as she leaves numerous messages on Junior’s phone. She pops in to see her therapist. She says she wants to kill Junior, but then she takes it back because the therapist would have to report it. The therapist asks her, “Where do you come in?” Renee breaks down in a watershed of tears. She says she doesn’t matter, she never mattered. She just wants AJ to be happy and in college and Junior to be far away. I wish they could have gotten Billy Crystal, from “Analyze This,” to play the part of the therapist. But they didn’t, so this segment was boring and annoying.

The concluding segment, as if they saved the best for last, is back at Drita’s house. She is so furious with Lee she decides she needs a night of drinking and dancing. She goes to the club with Karen and they are “jumpin’ jumpin’” I got the impression that Karen was secretly happy that Drita is having issues with Lee. She claims she can’t tell her to leave him because that would make her look like a “crazy ex-girlfriend.” The next day, Lee calls to ask about his box. He never got it. Drita tells him she is cleaning and needs to know when he is coming home. She must feel stupid for waiting so long. He tells her he doesn’t know. She yells that she is done waiting for him. As for his box, she tells him she ate it. They throw a few profanities back and forth at each other and then Drita takes her phone and slams it on the floor. Nice touch of drama at the very end, but not enough to sustain my interest or keep me awake.

The title of this episode is misleading. If it refers to Karen, she didn’t agitate anyone this week. What we saw was a lot of uninteresting communication with the three husbands: Hector, Joe, and Lee. I would rename this segment, “The Bastards Can Go To Hell.” I think Jenn should hire me as a consultant since I have so much constructive criticism to offer. However, since she calls her production company “JustJenn” I don’t see that happening any time soon.

Mob Wives: Recap Ep 101 Made in Staten Island

I watched the first episode of VH1’s new show, which was an introduction of the four Mob Wives. I found it very choppy and fragmented. They switch from one woman to another and from one scene to another and I didn’t think it had “flow” which made it hard to follow. I did the best I could trying to make sense of it all without having to watch it again.

Renee Graziano seems very proud of the mob lifestyle and boasts of the mob’s “code of ethics of honor, respect and loyalty.” And she sums it up with, “Loyalty is everything.” She goes on to explain that when Sammy Gravano ratted out John Gotti, her father, Anthony Graziano, told her she had to cut all ties and communication with Karen, his daughter. Renee is very firm on this point regarding Karen. “Her father is a rat and she is his daughter.” My problem with Renee is that she is a hypocrite. She picks and chooses which of her father’s beliefs and wishes she needs to follow. She says she cut off ties with Karen because Daddy said so, but she will not respect his wishes not to do this VH1 show with her sister. In fact, by agreeing to the show, she is disrespecting both of her father’s wishes because she knows full well that communication with Karen would be required. So, that leaves me to question, what is her idea of loyalty and respect? Renee’s father and ex-husband, Hector “Junior” Pagan are both in prison, so there is little they can do about the show.

Karen Gravano returns to Staten Island for two reasons: one, to be on the show and two, to write an autobiography of her life. She has left her daughter in Arizona with family, just in case her participation in the show is not “safe.” I’m not sure what makes her think that if the “mob” feels she is being disloyal, that Arizona is safe. Karen knows her return to S.I. is not going to go over big with everyone because of what her father did. Karen’s father, Sammy, is also in prison. Karen likes to “act” tough and talk tough, but the whole hour seemed scripted, like she was acting the whole time, and not very well I might add. The first order of business is for Karen to meet with Drita. They have some unfinished business from the past to take care of. I found them surprisingly cordial to one another considering that Karen lived with Drita’s husband for 7 years prior to Drita marrying him. Drita seems to play down her husband’s past with Karen, while Karen seems to harbor some burning resentment just under the surface. When Karen sees a painting at Drita’s house, that she bought with Lee for their apartment, and had hanging in their bedroom, she makes a nasty remark into the camera. That tells me that Karen has not quite gotten past this issue.

Carla Facciolo has been friends with Renee since she was 16. When her husband Joe was arrested for stock fraud, her reaction was, “Uh, there goes another one!” She more or less expected it because she has lived her whole life watching family go to prison and visiting them there. She almost brags that when she visited relatives in jail it was like a big reunion. She has twin boys, Joseph and Carmen, who still do not know that their father, Joe Ferragamo, is in prison.

Drita D’avanzo is Albanian. She is married to Lee D’avanzo, who is also in prison. Lee calls Drita 5 times a week to place orders for all of his favorite things. During the show, Drita gets a call where he orders, among other things, a variety of cold cuts, sausages, ring dings, and vanilla coke. Drita boxes it up for him. I have never heard of an inmate being able to order take out and have it delivered to prison. Drita also likes to work out at the gym. She talks tough and brags about all the fights she has been in. She is muscular and overall, from her language and voice, manner of speech and attitude, she is not very feminine.

Drita and Carla seem to like Karen and don’t hold what her father did against her. So when Carla is planning her “35^th” birthday party, she and Drita decide it would be a good idea to invite Karen and not mention it to Renee. When the big night arrives, they manage to make sure Renee, who is in “party mode,” has several shots of Patron (tequila). Renee is having quite a good time drinking and being the “center of attention,” as she refers to herself. When she is good and drunk, Karen makes her entrance to the party, which is well underway. Immediately, there is a confrontation between Renee and Karen. Renee is not happy and wants Karen to leave. Karen refuses. After all, she didn’t come all the way from Arizona to S.I. and sign a contract to be in the show, just to turn around and go back home. The party showdown ends with neither of the two women leaving.

Come to think of it, there is no way Renee didn’t know that Karen was going to be on the show, at the party and involved in all the drama. Wasn’t that the whole point? There has to be conflict to get ratings and keep viewers coming back. Renee’s sister, Jenn, is producing the show and everyone stands to make a lot of money only if the show is a hit and remains on the air. So is Renee really mad or glad to see Karen? Karen’s father has the most well known reputation for being the mob rat, and his crimes are a matter of record and documented in his tell all book, Underboss. Her presence is sure to draw viewers.

Oh, by the way, I could have sworn Carla said this was her 35^th birthday. I thought I remembered her being older than that, so I checked online. Sources say that Carla did in fact have a birthday in January, but she was allegedly born in 1967 which would make her 44 years old. That is much more credible to me. Since only photos can be airbrushed, maybe she is better off sticking to her true age rather than trying to shave 9 years off of it?

The show seems to be trying to illicit some sympathy and compassion for these women, who have been left high and dry while the men in their lives are serving time for their alleged crimes. They are trying to put the pieces of their lives back together as they struggle as single mothers. Sniff, sniff. Please pass the Kleenex! Yet, from what I saw, none of the women appear to work, but they all have lovely homes and plenty of money. Renee had a fistful of cash as she ordered drinks at the bar the night of the party. Seems to me like they are still reaping plenty of the benefits of being connected to the mob.

Frankly, considering all the mobsters these women are connected to are in prison, dead, or in hiding, I would have renamed the episode, “While The Cat’s Away.” These women all look like they are enjoying “play” acting in the spotlight and having a damn good time spending money.