The Octopus

An epic crime saga of power, money, violence and corruption. The mafia controls everything through local and international networks like an octopus, and anyone who tries to bring them down pays the ultimate price.

Genre: Drama, Crime

Director: Nicola Badalucco , Lucio Battistrada

Cast:Patricia Millardet , Remo Girone , Michele Placido , François Périer , Florinda Bolkan , Bruno Cremer , Nicole Jamet , Luigi Diberti , Tony Sperandeo

1Season 2

The Octopus: Season 2 (1986): Episode 1 - Paola

January 12, 1986

Police Inspector Cattani fights a losing battle to save his loved daughter's sanity, after what she suffered (see "La Piovra", original mini-series). He loses her, and his only trusted magistrate in the fight against The Octopus.

2Season 2

The Octopus: Season 2 (1986): Episode 2 - Friends in Common

January 13, 1986

Cattani is approached by the Number 2 of his best friend in Rome to conspire against him, and ends up fighting for his life in prison, against thugs who are friends of his worst enemy. Cattani must swallow his pride, and recurs to the lustful Contessa who has other friends in common.

3Season 2

The Octopus: Season 2 (1986): Episode 3 - Return to Rome

January 19, 1986

Cattani's love life is as confused as his behaviour; he sleeps with the enemy, and is recruited to ITALA, the cultural association for the study of the ancestral popular traditions of Italy, The Octopus by another name.

4Season 2

The Octopus: Season 2 (1986): Episode 4 - Vengeance

January 20, 1986

It leaves an acrid taste in Cattani's mouth, as he loses yet another important ally, and severes his ties with the beautiful Contessa, when he wakes up fire in enemy ground.

5Season 2

The Octopus: Season 2 (1986): Episode 5 - Criminal Ambition

January 26, 1986

Cattani's major achievement so far leaves him without friends in Rome; his former teacher explains between whiskeys how easy it is for an intelligent man to fall into criminal ambition.

6Season 2

The Octopus: Season 2 (1986): Episode 6 - Destiny

January 27, 1986

Cattani's takes one year leave without pay from his desk job at the Intelligence Services, and then destiny presents him with a couple of revenge opportunities against the tandem of corrupt politicians and mafia expatriates, again at heavy personal cost.

1Season 3

The Octopus: Season 3 (1987): Episode 1 - Good and Evil

April 5, 1987

After the mafia killed his family, and a number of people who trusted him, Cattani sees a couple of criminals condemned to light sentences only. A DEA team brings him back from the mountain retreat with good monks, to the evil world of a drugs-for-arms deal. Solace comes in the form of new affections for a banker's daughters, who look like his lost wife and daughter.

2Season 3

The Octopus: Season 3 (1987): Episode 2 - No Escape

April 6, 1987

Cattani uses a TV interview to reveal he found out about one of The Octopus telephone numbers. That is enough to spread havoc in the criminal rang, but the mafia leaves the American investigators no escape.

3Season 3

The Octopus: Season 3 (1987): Episode 3 - Thirsting for Vengeance

April 12, 1987

Cattani falls in love with Giulia, but his inquest does not go far, until Giulia's father dies, and her grandfather takes hold of the family bank again.

4Season 3

The Octopus: Season 3 (1987): Episode 4 - Refuge

April 13, 1987

The Antinari bank is backing the illegal arms deal, trusted friends and servants may not be what they seem, and Cattani is undecided between personal vendetta and life in a monastery.

5Season 3

The Octopus: Season 3 (1987): Episode 5 - Massacre

April 19, 1987

Anna Antinari gets hold of documents that are essential for the arms deal, and trusts her life and that of her child daughter Greta to the good monks who were already hosting Cattani. For the mafia in liaison with a member of parliament, monastery walls are no protection against a new massacre.

6Season 3

The Octopus: Season 3 (1987): Episode 6 - To the South Again

April 20, 1987

Cattani meets Giulia again at her mother's funeral, and research and luck bring him up North to Rome, in order to discover the way to the South again, from where a ship will depart with an illegal arms cargo.

7Season 3

The Octopus: Season 3 (1987): Episode 7 - Episode 7

April 13, 1987

Giulia reconciles with her grandfather Nicola, and her second meeting with chief inspector Corrado Cattani is yet a probe for his loyalty to duty. One man ends a life of power tragically; the other hangs desperately to life because, as Giulia says, "He lost; and quite a lot!"

1Season 4

The Octopus: Season 4 (1989): Episode 1 - Episode 1

March 5, 1989