Television
MY NEWFOUND love affair with the joys fast uncapped internet access at home brings continues unabated.
With the news that Showmax was launching season two of Gangland Undercover, I set about watching season one – a nearly non-stop six-episode binge.
It’s a History Channel drama series based on the true story of (and written by) Charles Falco. It is he who introduces each episode, in disguise.
“When I first took a deal to become an undercover informant of a biker gang, I did it to save my own skin. But over the next three years, putting bad guys away became my personal mission.
“I saw it as a chance to make amends for my past mistakes. But I paid a heavy price. I’m Charles Falco, and this is my story.”
Falco is never quite sure whether he is a good guy or a bad guy, but the facts of the matter are that he was a meth cook/dealer/user. After being arrested, he turned in his business partner and, to save himself a minimum jail sentence of 20 years, agreed to go undercover as a CI (confidential informant) for the ATF. His job was to infiltrate one of the most notorious biker gangs in the US, the Vagos.
These guys make the Hell’s Angels look like exactly that – angels – and run their outlaw businesses much like any big corporation.
If you watched Sons Of Anarchy, you’d have an idea about this. However, being a true story – in which Falco is played by Damon Runyan, who also narrates the story – makes it all the more chilling.
Falco began as a “hang around”, moving up to prospect, and then full patch all in quick succession. While he made a close friend and ally in the form of Vagos VP Kid (Stephen Eric McIntyre), his meteoric rise through the ranks of the brotherhood earned him suspicion and distrust from some of the other members.
The style of the series is intensely dark and moody, and full of tension. Once I began watching I couldn’t stop, although I had to take a break to watch the inane Dirty Grandpa with Robert De Niro and Zac Ephron on linear television, just to calm my nerves. Even thinking about it now makes me want to reach for the Valium.
If you have not yet watched season one, I will allow no spoilers, but highly recommend it.
In season two, which premiered in the US in March, Falco is learning to live in witness protection, until he is contacted by his former ATF handler. This one is eight episodes and I will have watched them all by tomorrow.