The Sopranos is looked back on today as one of the most important TV shows of the last 50 years, and with good reason. The HBO series about New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) ushered in the age of the TV antihero, where characters who could do horrible, violent, objectionable things and yet still be sympathetic, because the show took the time to understand them rather than painting them as villains and calling it a day. The show also helped close the gap between movies and TV, bringing cinema-level cinematography to the small screen and leading to series like Game of Thrones and beyond.
There may never be another crime drama like The Sopranos, but the shows that came in its wake are still more than worth watching.
8 detective shows that never became mainstream — but deserve to
You’ve seen mainstream hits like True Detective, Sherlock, and Mare of Easttown, but these lesser-known detective series are just as worth your time.
The Wire
Because obviously
The Wire started its five-season run a few years after The Sopranos. The two shows ran concurrently, and remain better than a lot of new releases.
There are also several criminal characters on The Wire, but this show expands things to also cover police officers, politicians, union members, teachers, journalists, and more. If The Sopranos changed the way TV could work by choosing to highlight the complexity of people we would normally consider “bad,” The Wire’s innovation was to focus on systems. The characters are drawn with as much specificity as characters on The Sopranos, but many of them are trapped within bureaucracies that make it very hard to be their best selves, no matter which side of the law they’re on.
What emerges is a very human portrait of life in Baltimore, MD, where we see that, in some ways, the criminals and the police officers who work to stop them aren’t very different. Along the way, we can get introduced to unforgettable characters like the vigilante Omar Little (Michael Kenneth Williams), who makes a living stealing from drug dealers; or the homeless heroin addict Bubbles (Andre Royo), who manages to hold onto his sense of decency despite the direst of circumstances.
- Release Date
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2002 – 2008-00-00
- Network
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HBO
- Showrunner
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David Simon
- Directors
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Ernest R. Dickerson, Ed Bianchi, Steve Shill, Clark Johnson, Daniel Attias, Agnieszka Holland, Tim Van Patten, Alex Zakrzewski, Anthony Hemingway, Brad Anderson, Clement Virgo, Elodie Keene, Peter Medak, Rob Bailey, Seith Mann, Christine Moore, David Platt, Dominic West, Gloria Muzio, Jim McKay, Leslie Libman, Milcho Manchevski, Robert F. Colesberry, Thomas J. Wright
- Writers
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Richard Price, Joy Lusco, Rafael Alvarez, Dennis Lehane, David Mills, William F. Zorzi, Kia Corthron
Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul
Two for the price of one
Breaking Bad, the story of how mild-mannered chemistry teacher Walter White (Bryan Cranston) becomes a drug kingpin, is often brought up when discussing the best crime shows of all time. It definitely deserves a place among the greats. It’s propulsively plotted, run through with great performances, and written with an attention to detail you don’t normally see in these kinds of shows. On this show, every plot twist is earned.
If The Sopranos is a psychological drama, than Breaking Bad is a thriller, although it digs incredibly deep into characters like Walter and his partner-in-crime/long-suffered victim Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul). Arguably, the spinoff show Better Call Saul is more in line with what fans of The Sopranos want. This prequel show is about Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk), who’s already a fully corrupt lawyer when we meet him in Breaking Bad. Better Call Saul shows us how he got that way, starting when he was still a somewhat idealistic attorney going by Jimmy McGill, his original name.
The stakes on Better Call Saul are smaller than they are on Breaking Bad, but the intimacy allows us to get to sit with characters like Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks) and Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn), who emerges as every bit as fascinating as the title character. Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul creator Vince Gilligan was so impressed with her that he put her at the center of his new sci-fi show Pluribus, which may be set in the same universe.
Both of these series are available to watch on AMC+ as well as on Netflix, where you can watch and decide for yourself which is better.
- Release Date
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2008 – 2013-00-00
- Network
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AMC
- Showrunner
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Vince Gilligan
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Bryan Cranston
Walter White
-
-
Dean Norris
Hank Schrader
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Betsy Brandt
Marie Schrader
Gomorrah
The underdog
Set and filmed in modern-day Naples, Gomorrah is an Italian series that follows Ciro Di Marzio (Marco D’Amore) as he tries to survive as a member of the Savastano mob family. When family patriarch Don Pietro Savastano (Fortunato Cerlino) is arrested, it precipitates a civil war between Savastano loyalists and a reckless young guard eager to take over. Meanwhile, rival clans try to take advantage of the family’s vulnerability, leading to five seasons of turf wars, betrayals, and bloody conflict.
Gomorrah is a heavy show where there are no “good guys.” Like The Wire, it does its utmost to be realistic (it’s based on the work of journalist Roberto Saviano) and doesn’t skimp in showing the devastating effect that organized crime has on Italian communities.
All five seasons of Gomorrah are available to watch on HBO Max, as is the follow-up movie The Immortal. There’s also a prequel series called Gomorrah: The Origins you can seek out if you become a superfan. This may be the least well-known show on this list, but it’s every bit as compelling as its fellows.
Peaky Blinders
The best show on Netflix
Peaky Blinders is another widely celebrated crime series, and the most recent of all the selections on this list. Beginning directly after World War I in Shelby, England, the show traces the rise of the Shelby crime family, which builds an empire through illegal bookmaking, smuggling, and political maneuvering.
Like The Sopranos, this show has a captivating figure at its center: this time, it’s Tommy Shelby, a calculating war veteran played with mesmerizing intensity by Cillian Murphy. Many of the characters on the show, including Tommy, have been traumatized by their experiences in World War I, but instead of dealing with it in healthy ways they channel it into crime. This sociological angle recalls The Wire, and the breakneck pacing reminds me of Breaking Bad.
Peaky Blinders brings in a little of everything, and with six seasons of TV plus a movie to enjoy, it will last you a long while.
- Release Date
-
2013 – 2022-00-00
- Network
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BBC One, BBC Two
- Showrunner
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Steven Knight
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Cillian Murphy
Thomas Shelby
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Paul Anderson
Arthur Shelby
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On the other side
There are some excellent shows about criminals out there, but also many about people on the other side of the law. The Netflix show Mindhunter, about early attempts by the FBI to profile serial killers, is terrific. Dark Winds, about tribal police detectives in the American southwest, is an underrated gem.
Whatever side of the law the show is on, criminal behavior will likely continue to inspire great TV for many years to come. Enjoy.
