Netflix’s new OTT series titled “How to Become a Mob Boss” released on 14 November, becoming the third iteration in the “How to Become” series, which includes “How to Become a Tyrant” (released 9 July 2021) and “How to Become a Cult Leader” (released 28 July 2023).
The official synopsis describes the series: “In this series, narrator Peter Dinklage takes you through this darkly satirical how-to guide that explores the rise and fall of history’s most notorious mob bosses – from Al Capone to Pablo Escobar – and their tactics for success.”
On 2 November, Netflix released a trailer for “How to Become a Mob Boss,” which provided a taste of the Game of Thrones actor’s narrative excellence, accompanied by visuals of real-life accounts vividly depicted animations of certain incidents.
The series has six episodes, which are titled as the steps one needs to follow in the guide: “Land Your Dream Job,” “Build a Better Operation,” “Dominate Through Terror,” “Don’t Go, Rogue,” “Play the Long Game” and “Break the Mold.” Each episode focuses on 1 of 6 notorious mob bosses and their journey to immense power and wealth, which has left a mark on the functioning of the entire world even to this day.
The team behind this project also provided their reason for creating such a dark yet satirical series: “At a time when organized crime generates over $1 trillion worldwide, when CEOs bend the rules to their liking, and when our politicians act increasingly like mafia kingpins, we couldn’t be more excited to share How to Become a Mob Boss.
The series pulls back the curtain on the shadowy world of organized crime and offers a provocative, cautionary tale about the dangers of seeking power at all costs.”
“How to Become a Mob Boss” is developed by the film production companies Citizen Jones and Estuary Films, and it is executive produced by Jonas Bell Pasht, Jonah Bekhor, Peter Dinklage, David Ginsberg, and Jake Laufer, along with co-executive producer Brad Saunders.
Who is Peter Dinklage?
Peter Hayden Dinklage is a famous American actor who gained international fame for his role as Tyrion Lannister in the HBO series Game of Thrones. Just for this role alone, he has won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series a record four times, as well as a Golden Globe Award in 2011 and a Screen Actors Guild Award in 2020.
Dinklage has a common form of dwarfism known as achondroplasia, and he uses his celebrity status to raise social awareness concerning this condition. His other works include Elf (2003), The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008), and the famous Marvel film Avengers: Infinity War (2018) as the weapons forger Eitri.
Organized Crime in Media
“How to Become a Mob Boss” is based around some of the most famous kingpins of organized crime, each of whom has gained such popularity in popular culture that their stories have been portrayed in multiple movies and television series:
Al Capone: The stereotypical image of “Scarface” wearing a pinstriped suit and tilted fedora is featured in a lot of films like The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre (1967) and Capone (2020).
Frank Lucas: Denzel Washington played the American drug lord in Ridley Scott’s American Gangster (2007), and Lucas himself tells his own story in the Netflix docuseries Drug Lords (2018).
Salvatore “Totò” Riina: The chief of the Sicilian Mafia has been fictionalized in several movies and TV series over the years, such as Marco Bellocchio’s Italian film The Traitor (2019).
John Gotti: Netflix’s own three-part docuseries Get Gotti (2023) shows the two sides of an investigation conducted by the FBI to catch the boss of the Gambino crime family.
Whitey Bulger: Famous for having fled the law for sixteen years, actor Johnny Depp portrayed Bulger in the crime drama Black Mass (2015).
Pablo Escobar, The founder of Medellín Cartel and famous for being the wealthiest criminal in history, is portrayed in several films and TV shows, most notably by Wagner Moura in the Netflix series Narcos (2015).
