Common Sense Media Review
By Melissa Camacho
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Violence, curses, smoking, drugs in gritty docuseries.
Parents Need to Know
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Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
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Mob War: Philadelphia vs. the Mafia
What's the Story?
MOB WAR: PHILADELPHIA VS. THE MAFIA is a docuseries about the feud between two mobsters in the City of Brotherly Love. After La Costa Nostra's ruthless Philadelphia mob boss Nicky Scarfo, Sr., was convicted in 1988, New York's five mafia families handpicked Sicilian-born John Stanfa to lead the city's crime family. But Joey Merlino, the son of a mafia underboss and leader of a flashy street gang known as the "Young Turks," regarded Stanfa as an outsider. As Merlino sought to take over the entire operation from La Cosa Nostra, which spanned across all of Philadelphia and southern New Jersey (including Atlantic City), a bloody mafia war between the two factions was brazenly fought in broad daylight, putting innocent bystanders at risk. FBI Supervisor Charlotte Lang and federal prosecutor Barry Gross share what they did to infiltrate both factions to gather enough evidence to build legal cases against them and get them off the streets for good. Meanwhile, interviews with former mobsters and associates share inside information about the activities that took place within each faction, and the codes of behavior by which they lived by. Rounding out their stories is archive audio and video footage of events, and conversations with additional law enforcement agents and journalists who followed the high-profile gangster war, including former Philadelphia Inquirer reporter George Anastasia.
Is It Any Good?
The docuseries delivers a gritty, relatively unsensational account of what is known as the Third Philadelphia Mafia War, which took place between 1990 and 1996. Mob War: Philadelphia vs. the Mafia discusses the leadership void created by Nicky Scarfo's arrest, and how the fight for power between two mobsters from different generations played out in public. Some of what is featured here is expected: the conversations about the successful and failed hits carried out against rival gangsters and their associates, FBI surveillance recordings, and news footage of cars with bullet holes, bloody car seats, and on occasion partial images of the dead. But it also offers some unusual details, such as the note about the Ciancaglini brothers who became enemies thanks to their divided loyalties, and the fact that despite his criminal history and multiple convictions, Joey Merlino has never admitted to or been convicted of mafia-related crimes. It's a little hard to keep track of all the gangsters and their associates featured throughout the series. Nonetheless, the overall narrative is a compelling true crime review of what led to the historic violence in 1990s Philadelphia, and how it resulted in the takedown of the organization.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about famous TV series and movies about the mob. How do they affect the way people think and feel about the mafia?
How does Mob War: Philadelphia vs. The Mafia attempt to stay away from being sensational? Is it successful?
TV Details
- Premiere date : October 22, 2025
- Cast : Charlotte Lang , Barry Gross , George Anastasia
- Network : Netflix
- Genre : Reality TV
- Topics : History
- Character Strengths : Perseverance
- TV rating :
- Last updated : October 27, 2025
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