The following contains spoilers for The Offer, now streaming on Paramount+.

The Godfather is always in the conversation when discussing the best movies of all time. However, The Offer on Paramount+ will enhance viewers' enjoyment of the film even further. The limited series follows the making of this iconic film, featuring dramatic portrayals of real-life figures like Francis Ford Coppola, Mario Puzo and the notorious Hollywood producer Robert Evans.

While most folks accept that The Godfather is a well-made film, it’s not a universally beloved story. Some Italian-Americans genuinely believe that “mob stories” perpetuate harmful stereotypes. Others think the mythic nature of the film elevates craven criminals to a status of honor and respect that doesn’t adequately reflect reality. The Offer explores those very questions. While produced by Paramount, which is itself a ‘character’ of sorts in the show, The Offer doesn’t gloss over some ugly truths behind the making of the movie. For example, producer Albert S. Ruddy did become genuine friends with mobster Joe Colombo... even though Colombo was a vicious killer.

Ruddy, played by Miles Teller -- currently enjoying the success of Top Gun: Maverick -- is shown needing to win over Colombo, played gloriously by Giovanni Ribisi. Colombo is an interesting figure in mobster history, who ended up sparing the lives of Mafia bosses to ascend to the head of his family. He also started the Italian-American Civil Rights League, which at first protested The Godfather but, through the friendship he developed with Ruddy, came to openly support the film. Ruddy arranged a special screening for the mobsters and their families in advance of the film’s premiere, which is hinted at in The Offer when Juno Temple’s Betty McCartt steals the film from the lot to fly it to New York City without the studio’s blessing.

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The Offer cast resized

The Godfather tells a story about the mob set in an America that was not as welcoming to its immigrants as was promised. Dan Fogler (best known as Jacob Kowalski from the plot hole-laden Fantastic Beasts 3) plays Francis Coppola and articulates how The Godfather is “about capitalism.” The Offer not only lays out the problems the production faced with the mob, but also the trouble they got into with the lawyers at Paramount's corporate parent Gulf & Western. Colin Hanks plays Barry Lapidus, an amalgam of everyone who objected to taking the risk to make the film. Because, at the time, The Godfather was a big risk.

Matthew Goode plays a spot-on Robert Evans that makes viewers yearn for a second season just to get more of Kid Notorious. Under his leadership, Paramount went from being the lowest-earning studio to the highest-grossing one in just a few years. Evans was an executive who cared about the art of moviemaking, believing that quality would translate into box office success. The struggles between him, Ruddy and Gulf & Western make up the majority of the tension and drama in The Offer. Someone watching this show might catch themselves hoping that the film gets made. It’s easy to forget that this is a dramatization of movie history, because The Offer does such a good job with its story and characters -- despite not being a documentary.

The Offer takes some liberties with the facts in order to tell its story. In the finale, Ruddy's meeting with a young man mirrors how he got his job at Paramount. While the young man's character is fictional, the scene is cinematic representation of how Ruddy went on to mentor other young producers. Dates and times don't always align perfectly because things are juxtaposed for drama. And the perspective in the series is almost wholly Ruddy’s. For example, Evans claims he was the one who championed the longer cut of the film, whereas The Offer shows that it was all the filmmakers against the fictional character of Lapidus.

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Pictured: Justin Chambers as Marlon Brando of the Paramount+ original series THE OFFER. Photo Cr: Nicole Wilder/Paramount+ ©2022 Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.

But The Offer contains all the hits of Godfather lore. Fans get to see the camera test Marlon Brando did in order to become Vito Corleone. The series depicts how the filmmakers got the real horse’s head for the iconic scene (while earlier in the series Evans finds a bloody rat left in his bed). It dramatizes how Colombo’s men shook down the production and how these vicious men charmed their way into the hearts of the producers. The Offer's story of how this movie was made mirrors the story told in The Godfather, but nobody the audience cares about dies in the show.

Whether people think The Godfather is a classic or overrated dreck that lionizes criminals and perpetuates stereotypes, there’s something in The Offer to like. It tells how a group of weird artists got together to make the biggest film of its day. Watching this series reframes The Godfather as a project that had everything working against it and succeeded where it shouldn’t have. It paints making a motion picture as an act of revolution -- and it's more than worth binge-watching now that it's completed.

Both The Offer and The Godfather are currently available on Paramount+.