La Piovra (Italian pronunciation: [la ˈpjɔːvra]; English: The Octopus, referring to the Mafia) is an Italian television drama series about the Mafia. The series was directed by various directors who each worked on different seasons, including Damiano Damiani (first season), Florestano Vancini (second season), Luigi Perelli (from the third to the seventh season and again on the tenth season), and Giacomo Battiato (from the eighth to the ninth seasons). The music was written by Riz Ortolani (first season), Ennio Morricone (from the second to the seventh season and again on the tenth season), and by Paolo Buonvino (from the eighth to the ninth season).

The show was successfully exported to over eighty countries during and after its sixteen-year run. All ten seasons were released in Australia on DVD with English subtitles by Aztec International Entertainment, having originally aired on the Special Broadcasting Service television channel. It was also broadcast on MHz Networks in the United States. The first three seasons were shown in the UK on Channel 4. The TV drama was successful in the Eastern Bloc, where it appeared on state TV in 1986 and in Albania, Romania, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Bulgaria, where it appeared in the end of the 1980s (in its seventh season, the show featured Bulgarian actor Stefan Danailov). In Portugal, it was re-broadcast by RTP Memória.

La Piovra is still considered to be the most famous Italian television series in the world, and all seasons received widespread public approval, with an average of 10 million and a peak of 15 million viewers. The show presents an extremely realistic portrayal of the violence and heartlessness of members of organized crime, and this remains the most distinctive feature of the production to this day.

Particularly important to the show is the narrative evolution with which the multiple tentacles of organized crime spread through local and international networks, and this is also the basis of the show's title. The first season moves from localized drug trafficking rings in Sicily to the palaces of power in Rome in the second. The third season tells the story of the Mafia's financial dealings through international banks and the illegal trafficking of weapons and nuclear waste. The plot intensifies in the fourth season, at the end of which the main protagonist, Commissioner Corrado Cattani (played by Michele Placido), is killed due to the increasing knowledge he acquires about the Mafia's vast dealings and criminal operations.

The intricate stories of politics, finance, Freemasonry, corruption, and organized crime which are told in seasons 5 to 7 (1990–1995) were inspired by the political and news stories of those years, and attempted to present the notion that the Mafia was not based on concepts of honour and valour but was rather a harmful societal phenomenon replete with fraud, cold-blooded killers, and a cause of social decay. This fact generated several political controversies as well as strong pressure to put an end to the series. Despite this, the show continued to have great success with the public and with critics, even at the international level.

It was partly due to these political pressures that the 8th and 9th seasons deviated from telling a story set in contemporary times and shifted to the earlier era of the landowner-and-peasant mafia of the 1950s and 1960s, mainly focusing on the private affairs of the protagonists rather than on the business of Cosa Nostra, and the plot was almost entirely detached from the other chapters of the saga.

Finally, with "La piovra 10", the show strived to tie up any loose ends which were previously left pending and to present an updated perspective of the Mafia of the early 2000s.

The first season of 6 episodes of 60 minutes each, released in 1984, was directed by Damiano Damiani and scored by Riz Ortolani. The episodes were filmed at locations in Rome and the Sicilian city of Trapani, and the scenes in the mountains and on the lake were shot in Horgen and Lake Geneva, Switzerland.
The main theme of the plot revolves around local arms and drug trafficking, which is investigated by Commissioner Corrado Cattani, played by Michele Placido. Cattani has been transferred from Rome and appointed deputy police chief in a small town in Sicily, after his predecessor, Commissioner Marineo, is killed by the mafia. The commissioner moves with his wife Else (Nicole Jamet), with whom he often has arguments, and his teenage daughter Paola (Cariddi Nardulli). Cattani's investigation interferes with local mafia groups, who try to influence him. A whole range of measures are used to make the commissioner compliant, to no avail. Eventually, Cattani's subordinate, Vice-Commissioner Leo De Maria (Massimo Bonetti), is shot and killed by a mafia henchman in a café. This proves to be one of the most brutal scenes in the whole series. Following this, Corrado continues his investigation, and an unsuccessful attempt is made to assassinate him. Finally, the mafia decides to kidnap his daughter Paola, and this proves to be Cattani's breaking point. Panicked about his daughter's safety, he follows all of the mafia's demands and revokes his previous statements. Paola is later raped by one of the mobsters before being released, and suffers severe trauma. Corrado begins an affair with the young heroin-addicted Raffaella "Titti" Pecci Scialoia (Barbara De Rossi), whose mother was shot together with former police commissioner Marineo. He attempts to help her go clean and get away from her drug dealer Sante Cirinnà (Angelo Infanti), but she also ends up getting killed. Cattani resigns from the police and leaves Sicily, joining his wife Else in a small lakeside town in Switzerland, where Paola is being treated at a psychiatric facility. The season additionally features the powerful architect Olga Camastra (Florinda Bolkan) and the commissioner's primary antagonist, attorney Terrasini (François Périer).
The success of the first season was exceptional, with ratings rising with each successive episode - the first being watched by 8 million Italians and the sixth by 15 million.