I was intrigued by the first couple of episodes of Godfather of Harlem, but eventually I realized that the entire show is a pastiche of previous masterpieces in a bizarre alternate history production which is likely to mislead anyone who does not read books. Nearly every major character appears to have closely studied and emulated his/her analogue in either The Sopranos, The Wire, American Gangster or some related previous production. (Adam Clayton Powell is very similar to Clay Davis, to offer only one of many examples.) If this were a stand-alone, premiere series of black organized crime, then I would give it a higher rating. But it just seems like a multi-dimensional copycat collage of classic films and series about organized crime, most of the interest of which derives from the completely false narratives holding the production together.
Update: Now that I have watched all of season 1, I will say that the uniqueness in Godfather of Harlem inheres entirely in the alternate-reality history portrayed. Bumpy is best buddies with Malcolm X and also friends with Cassius Clay, both devout Muslims. In fact, fully half of the series focuses on Malcolm X, which strikes me as somewhat odd, especially if the relationship depicted is completely fictional. It seems implausible that religious persons would not shun Bumpy for his insistence on holding on to his Harlem heroin business, even though his very own daughter was an addict for more than twelve years. How could this be true? I presume that it is not. Another wild implausibility is that mafia boss Chin's daughter fell in love with Teddy despite being raised in a manifestly racist family. I mean it is possible, but very, very unlikely.
As usual, some of the gangsters are glamorized--in this case it's the black ones. The Italians are depicted as morally inferior, but let's be honest: they are all a bunch of murderers. Bumpy is made to seem a likable family man, but, again, it requires a serious degree of cluelessness to not recognize that all of his wealth derives not from uplifting the poor people in Harlem by in turning them into addicts. Heroin is very, very addictive and by providing the white powder to his neighbors, Bumpy is destroying many of their lives.
Unlike many other reviewers, I am not troubled by the use of modern rap music as the score. But the writing is in places very amateur, with characters saying things for the sole purpose of info dumping on the viewers. Accomplished screenwriters avoid dialogue that does not advance the story and never put ridiculous words such as "So sorry!" in the mouths of people who would never say them.
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