An ode to Big Ang, the heart of the ridiculous reality series Mob Wives

(Image credit: Jeff Schear/Getty Images for The Weinstein Company)

last updated 18 February 2016

On Thursday morning, Angela "Big Ang" Raiola died at the age of 55 after a year-long battle with cancer.

If you don't know who Big Ang is, you haven't seen the VH1 reality series Mob Wives, which follows a tight-knit group of women in Staten Island, New York, with alleged mob ties.

I was skeptical of the show, which in the first season seemed to be mostly quick-tempered and distrusting women screaming and clawing at each other. And while that drama doesn't let up, the second season saw a light in the catty darkness. Granted that light was this big-breasted, pinched-nosed, orange-hued, crushed-gravel-voiced hot mess named Big Ang, but there was no looking away. While the rest of the women plotted and fought, Big Ang just wanted to have fun. She would brush off tension with a mimosa, try to unite quarreling women with a house party, often act as the optimistic negotiator, and offer a surprisingly patient ear to any enraged mob wife who needed it.

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Big Ang was the best part of this ridiculous reality series (so popular, in fact, that after appearing in the second season, she became a regular cast member through season six and even got her own breakout reality series, Big Ang) because she was fun to watch, sure, but also because she was surprisingly down to earth, warm, friendly, and open in a community that thrived on fortifying its walls. She embodied the "you do you" ethos and taught us all, if you've got it flaunt it.

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Lauren Hansen produces The Weekâ€™s podcasts and videos and edits the photo blog, Captured. She also manages the production of the magazine's iPad app. A graduate of Kenyon College and Northwestern University, she previously worked at the BBC and Frontline. She knows a thing or two about pretty pictures and cute puppies, both of which she tweets about @mylaurenhansen.