When first introduced to Buddy Cianci in the podcast \u201cCrime Town\u201d, he seems like the perfect man. He has an agenda to drag the mob out of Providence politics and make the city safer by driving out the mob all together. Then he decides he wants to run for mayor and the tables completely turn. One incidence of asking for the mob\u2019s help in getting enough votes to become mayor turns into a landslide of mob involvement. Cianci comes into power and finds himself doing exactly what he originally wanted to bring to an end. As Cianci becomes more and more involved in mob violence, his image as the savior of Providence quickly deteriorates and he lands himself in prison, sharing a cell with one of his former adversaries. It would be reasonable to assume that his political career would be over, but Cianci is a smart man and gains more and more power while in prison. He finds ways to slowly redeem his reputation and becomes a radio host upon being released from jail. Against all odds, he remarkably lands himself another term as mayor.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The final episode of the season doesn\u2019t stray far from the formatting of the previous episodes. It continues to feature many interviews and sound clips dispersed throughout the narration. The most significant change in this episode is its tone. It not as black and white as the previous episodes. The narrators seem to struggle to make a conclusion on the situation just as much as the listener does. The narrator describes actually meeting Cianci in person and not being able to reconcile what he knows about Buddy\u2019s criminal history with the sweet old man in front of him. The narrator gets Buddy to agree to talk through his life history with him, but just a few days before this planned meeting Buddy passes away from cancer. Thousands of people gather at the funeral only seeming to remember the good Cianci did for the city, not the infamous amount of crime he was involved in. The funeral brings together a strange assortment people Cianci was involved with. Police officers sit side by side with mob members at a formal church funeral to celebrate Cianci\u2019s life.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The final episode left me far more confused than any of the other ones. It didn\u2019t give me the resolution I expected in the final episode of the series. In the first few episodes Cianci is painted as a city hero, and in the second half of the season he is shown to be a hardened criminal. I wanted this last episode to give me a clear direction again, but it was intentionally curated to lack such clarity. This is how the creators communicate the difficulty of separating the good and evil in a city that is so intertwined with mob violence. Good people get pulled in just by proximity. Cianci wasn\u2019t a poorly intentioned person, but a victim of an inescapable network of crime. This episode does give some resolution because it speaks to the theme of crime not always being black and white. It can be difficult to distinguish people with the intent to do bad things and other people that get caught in bad situations. While I don\u2019t believe that the podcast is trying to convince you that the circumstantial criminals are innocent, I do believe that it sets those two categories of criminals apart.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Word Count: 568<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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