Mafia, on Viaplay

Radovan Jakovic was sort of the Swedish Whitey Bulger. Det. Gunn Thorngren rather ill-advisedly facilitated his criminal ascension by arresting the rivals he informed on. At least she realized the extent of her mishandled informant-handling earlier than the FBI. Arguably, Jakovic was also a Serbian government employee, because they supplied the contraband he smuggled into Sweden. Balkan wars complicate Swedish organized crime in lead writer Axel Stjarne’s six-episode Mafia, which premiers today on Viaplay.

Before the fall of Communism, the Yugoslav government offered its criminals a choice, domestic prison or immigration to Sweden (where many Iron Curtain defectors re-settled), to work for the Yugoslav mob. In exchange for carry out assassinations at the request of the UDBA secret police, the state supplied contraband cigarettes, which were very profitable on the Swedish black and gray markets.

Jakovic correctly identified an opportunity to move into this lucrative business. However, Valter Sokol, an ardent Croation nationalist, controls the distribution. “Boris,” the local UDBA station chief, would like to cut him out of the business, but he needs someone with sufficient standing, like Jakovic’s reckless boss Drago. However, if Drago gets caught red-handed, Jakovic’s childhood friend Goran would naturally succeed him.

Unfolding over the course of the 1990s, Mafia compounds the organized crime intrigue with the unfolding power struggle and tragedy in the Balkans. Ironically, it also exposes the folly of the sin taxes passed by Sweden’s failing socialist government, which raised the price of cigarettes exponentially (and passed with behind-the-scenes lobbying support from Jakovic’s organization).

The Yugoslavian UDBA angle definitely differentiates Mafia from other mob dramas. However, the portrayal of Jakovic searching and failing to find family through his mafia ties evokes familiar Godfather-esque themes, but Stjarne and lead actor Peshang Rad execute them with intelligence and conviction.

Rad’s slow-burning, power-brooding performance truly elevates Jakovic above most garden variety gangster-on-the-rise. He is smarter than everyone in the series, but he never really shakes that inferiority complex. Conversely, Cedomir Djordjevic captures the unstable violence of Drago, which makes him such an unpredictable foil. Katia Winter’s Thorngren is a familiarly edgy cop, but she also fully commits to her angst. Happily, Mafia boasts a further wealth of colorful supporting turns, such as Max Lapitskij as the sinister, serpent-like Sokol and Dragomir Mrsic as the grotesquely corrupt Boris.

There are a lot organized crime dramas, but Mafia is different in ways that are smart and intriguing, but similar, in the ways it delivers the juicy betrayals and ruthless skullduggery viewers expect from the genre. Very highly recommended, Mafia starts streaming today (6/19) on Viaplay.