# The Octopus (1984)

> An epic Italian crime saga following investigators who take on a mafia that reaches into every corner of power, money and corruption.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/11960

## Facts

- Seasons: 10
- Episodes: 48
- Episode runtime: 120 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: crime, drama
- Created by: Nicola Badalucco, Lucio Battistrada
- Network: Rai 1, Rai 2
- Cast: Vittorio Mezzogiorno, Raoul Bova, Anja Kling, Fabrizio Contri, Patricia Millardet, Laura Marinoni, Stefan Danailov, Remo Girone
- TMDB rating: 8.4/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086779/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: dense
- Violence: brutal
- Tone: grim, tense, morally weighty, sprawling

## What critics say

Audience reception is acclaimed, with the series regarded as a sprawling and serious crime saga about the mafia's reach into politics and finance.

## Synopsis

The Octopus (1984-2001) is an Italian national-television crime drama series created by Nicola Badalucco and Lucio Battistrada for Rai 1 and Rai 2. Its engine is a long war between investigators and a mafia that spreads its tentacles through local and international networks, controlling money, politicians and officials alike. Commissario Corrado Cattani (Michele Placido) and Capitano Carlo Arcuti (Raoul Bova) pursue the criminal organization across the seasons, while Davide Licata (Vittorio Mezzogiorno) and Tano Cariddi (Remo Girone) embody the shifting alliances, betrayals and compromises that surround them. Silvia Conti (Patricia Millardet) and Olga Camastra (Florinda Bolkan) add personal stakes to the investigations. The series unfolds as a ten-season serialized saga of roughly forty-eight episodes, with each season building on the last through murders, political maneuvering and the human cost of standing against the mafia. Its tone is grim, tense and morally weighty, a sprawling procedural epic in which violence arrives suddenly and justice comes slowly. Fans of The Sopranos, The Wire and Gomorra will find resonance in its portrait of organized crime as a system rather than a set of individuals.

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