Nothing lets you know a movie is going to be a classic quite like seeing the flying stars skip across the screen and appear above a mountain with the word Paramount appearing out of nowhere. The classic intro and the media company that goes with it birthed the cult classic “The Godfather.” While being completely fiction, it still portrayed some real world issues.

“The Offer” is a Paramount+ exclusive that mixes both fact and fiction over the making of the film “The Godfather.” The drama portrays producer Al Ruddy and his many struggles during the making of the iconic film, such as personal drama, casting, budgets, writing, and even the Italian Mafia. 

Paramount’s production wasn’t small in the slightest and the attention to detail is absolutely insane. For example, during one scene, characters are seen riding on a golf cart at a filming location which had so many background details that you could easily miss them. Another great part of Paramount’s production is just the overall looks, like one scene where the Italian Mafia was harassing someone and the mood was set by a lot of ambient fog. One easy example to show how well the attention to detail was is just comparing Al Pacino and who played him in the show. Back to the attention to detail, it hits all of the “historical” marks as everyone’s dressed and everyone, and I mean absolutely everyone, is smoking or has a cigar.

The actual plot and storyline (so far) is very interesting and to know some of this is true is absolutely crazy. Just the absurd amount of name dropping which are all of real people. However, one name drop didn’t go the way I imagined. I’ve always heard of Frank Sinatra being this amazing wonderful singer, but in the show they paint him as a stuck up celebrity, which I found hilarious. Something that I never thought I’d admit is how much of a sucker I am for the romance aspect of the show; it’s just something you have to watch and find out because it’s breaking my heart.

The evolution of Al Ruddy’s character is impeccable as he starts as some low-level desk jockey and evolves into a stone-cold playmaker, as he makes everything happen. His evolution and character arc starts from his boss telling him to do whatever it takes. Al Ruddy does whatever it takes, but slowly falls into a more corrupt and sketchy “type” as success requires back-stabbing, blackmail, and even conspiring with the Italian Mafia despite his desire to stay away from the Mafia. I found the part about making a movie about the Mafia and the actual Mafia harassing you ironic and slightly funny.

Paramount+ offers a game changing pre- and post-episode analysis, with the actors explaining what their character was thinking and feeling as well as snippets of past episodes and new ones while occasionally working in the director  to help further explain.

My rating of “The Offer” can best be described from my favorite quote from “The Godfather,” as said by Michael Corleone (Al Pacino): “It’s not personal sonny, it’s strictly business.”  I give it a eight out of 10 as it’s a good production, but it wasn’t as good as “The Godfather.” I’d say that there wasn’t anything necessarily wrong with “The Offer,” but I could predict much of what was gonna happen. Despite the predictability, it was an amazing drama and I’d consider it binge-worthy. I believe that it should 100% be on your watch list, especially if you liked “The Godfather.”