12 Best TV Shows Like The Sopranos

Placing "The Sopranos" at No.3 on our rankings of the best TV shows ever might have prompted as much debate as consensus, but we're not the only ones who hold the six-season organized crime drama in such high regard. It's in IMDB's top 10 audience-rated shows, with an average episode score of 9.2 out of 10, and the twin indices at Rotten Tomatoes are that kind or more so with critics and audiences scoring it at 92% and 98%, respectively. James Gandolfini earned six Emmy nominations as best lead actor in a drama for his portrayal of Tony Soprano, winning in 2000, 2001, and 2003. Edie Falco, who played Tony's wife Carmela, matched Gandolfini's Emmy wins with three of her own as best lead actress in a drama in 1999, 2001, and 2003, picking up three more nominations in the category.

It took us years to fully understand the jarring ending of "The Sopranos," and that shocking cut to black on our screens in June of 2007 would surely have been processed much differently had it aired after the explosion of social media. Law enforcement has been the subject of an estimated 20-30% of TV shows over the past 50 years or so, but "The Sopranos" helped turn the focus of TV cameras from the cops to the criminals. Plenty more series have since come along featuring criminal groups of various levels of sophistication and organization; and while only a few of them earned the level of acclaim "The Sopranos" did, some of the dozen shows below truly belong in that rarefied air. The other series included here will intrigue fans of "The Sopranos" with similar themes of family drama, tales of intricate criminal enterprises, academy-honored performances by the lead actors, or some combination of the three.

For our first entry, let's cross the Atlantic from where "The Sopranos" was set and wind the clock back 80 years or so. The BBC drama "Peaky Blinders" aired 36 episodes between 2013 and 2022. It starred Cillian Murphy as boss Thomas Shelby, who shared Tony Soprano's position atop a crime family along with a tendency to sustain panic attacks. While Tony's anxiety was primarily a product of his stressful current life circumstances, Tommy was a World War I veteran with a severe case of post-traumatic stress disorder. Aside from the obvious similarities between the protagonists, fans of "The Sopranos" should latch on to the crime family dynamics in "Peaky Blinders," and the hardscrabble scofflaws of 1920s Old Birmingham are remarkably similar to the blue-collar criminals of 1990s New Jersey. 

Tommy is as ruthless or more so than Tony Soprano, and the uplifting yet melancholy ending of "Peaky Blinders" is more definitive than that of "The Sopranos." "Peaky Blinders" has an average episode rating of 8.7 out of 10 stars from viewers at IMDB, and ratings of 93% and 94% from critics and fans at Rotten Tomatoes. The complex timeline of "Peaky Blinders" adds depth to the series, and Murphy and Paul Anderson shine as Tommy Shelby and his older brother Arthur. Murphy was nominated for the 2023 BAFTA award as best lead actor, following an Irish Film and Television Award nod in the same category in 2020.

"Boardwalk Empire" debuted three years after "The Sopranos" ended and ran until a year after "Peaky Blinders" premiered, and shares major thematic elements with both shows. It takes place in the 1920s like "Peaky Blinders," and is set in New Jersey like "The Sopranos." But instead of focusing on the northeast part of the state closest to New York, "Boardwalk Empire" brings audiences to Prohibition-era Atlantic City.

Steve Buscemi and Kelly Macdonald star as Nucky Thompson and Margaret Schroeder. He is a corrupt politician who falls in with gangsters, and she is the girlfriend he later marries to shield her from testifying against him. Interesting facts about "Boardwalk Empire" include the use of meticulously crafted sets and period-correct props, and fans of "The Sopranos" should appreciate the character-driven narratives and love-him-while-you-hate-him protagonist. Viewers give it an average episode rating of 8.6/10 on IMDB, and Rotten Tomatoes scores come in at 92% from critics and 95% from audiences.

Buscemi was nominated for the Emmy as best lead actor in a drama in 2011 and 2012, and Macdonald got a nod as best supporting actress in 2011. They were among the show's staggering 57 nominations, which was one more than its total episode count over five seasons. Its 20 Emmy wins came for cinematography, production design, art direction, sound and picture editing, directing, visual effects, makeup, and casting.

We're headed back to Europe and the 21st century for our next series, the Netflix drama known as "Money Heist" in the United States and "La Casa de Papel" ("The House of Paper") in its native Spain. It was released in those two locations along with Indonesia and South Africa in May 2017 and more than two dozen other countries by year's end. The series ran for 41 episodes, following a gang of eight criminals through their bold attempt to infiltrate Madrid's Royal Mint to produce and steal 2.4 billion Euro. It's packed with action, suspense, interpersonal drama, and tragedy, and was a huge hit with critics and awards organizations. 

The first three seasons have perfect Tomatometer ratings from professional reviewers, and the series cleaned up at the Spanish Actor's Union and Fotogramas de Plata ("Silver Frames") awards; the latter are industry honors voted on by the Spanish viewing public. It won the Silver Frame for best Spanish series in 2022, the same year Najwa Nimri won for best TV actress and Alvaro Morte was nominated as best TV actor. Five of the show's cast members were nominated for honors by the Actor's Union, with Fernando Cayo winning for best supporting actor in 2020 and 2022. The twists come steadily throughout the five seasons, and most viewers will find themselves rooting for the criminals for at least some of that time.

"The Wire" is frequently mentioned as one of the best shows ever made, and a BBC poll of over 200 critics ranked it as the "greatest TV series of the 21st century." It's set a few hours south of "The Sopranos" in Baltimore, and swaps the backdrop of Italian-American organized crime organizations for a close, nuanced look at how criminal and law enforcement communities interact in the nation's largely Black city neighborhoods. Creator David Simon, who brought "Miami Vice" to the small screen in the 1980s, wanted to show the damage that aggressive anti-drug policies from that earlier era had done to America's urban centers in the decades that followed. "The drug war basically destroyed policing," Simon told NPR in 2021. "They look upon the neighborhoods not as places they're supposed to protect and serve, but as places where they hunt prey and their avarice is rewarded."

Shockingly, "The Wire" was only nominated for two Emmy awards in five seasons, for best writing in a drama series in 2005 and 2008. The binocular view of crime in Baltimore has 95% and 96% approval ratings from critics and audiences at Rotten Tomatoes and a stellar average episode rating of 9.3 out of 10 from viewers at IMDB. That ranks it sixth all-time by that index, and second among series longer than 10 episodes.

While plenty of the folks in "The Sopranos" ran afoul of the law on a regular basis, "Orange is the New Black" centers around a bunch who have already been incarcerated. It lasted 91 episodes over seven seasons from 2013 through 2019, and started with a focus on Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling), who is sent to prison for a crime she committed years ago. The scope quickly broadens as she settles in, and at various points throughout the series she bonds and conflicts with the women she is locked up with.

Uzo Aduba won Emmys for best guest actress in a comedy in 2014 and best supporting actress in 2015 for her amazing performance as Suzanne "Crazy Eyes" Warren. Her two wins came along with two others for the series for casting and editing, and those four trophies came with 17 other nominations for the show. Its Tomatometer rating of 90% and average IMDB episode score of 8.0/10 seem low considering the complex storytelling and compelling performances that "Orange is the New Black" delivers. There are plenty of sympathetic criminal characters like in "The Sopranos," and the series is worth watching for Aduba's performance alone.

The criminal band at the center of "Good Girls" isn't as large or menacing as most of the ones from the shows on this list, but the NBC sitcom had plenty of dramatic and hilarious moments in its four-season, 50-episode run from 2018 through 2021. It follows Beth (Christina Hendricks), Ruby (Rhetta), and Annie (Mae Whitman); a trio of ordinary moms who start with a supermarket robbery before moving on to counterfeiting and other more serious crimes. Reno Wilson plays Ruby's husband Stan, and Lidya Jewett shines as their daughter Sara. Beth is the group's leader, and organizes the small gang after her car dealer husband Dean (Matthew Lillard) gets their family in financial trouble. The show's only major honor was a 2019 Satellite award nomination as best lead actress for Hendricks, but it features a strong supporting performance by Isaiah Stannard, whose audition for the part of Annie's (Whitman) child was so impressive that writers re-engineered the character to be transgender like Stannard.

Stannard's character begins the series as a girl named Sadie, but comes out as trans in Season 2, Episode 8 and later starts going by Ben. Friends at his new school and the people in Annie's community welcome and support his transition as gracefully as they are able, and the show gives as realistic a portrayal of a teenager's transition as we've seen on screen to date. "Good Girls" doesn't have the critical acclaim or high audience approval scores (7.7/10 from IMDB viewers)  as the other shows on this list, but the small gang's exploits are complex and entertaining. Sisters Beth and Annie bring a family element to "Good Girls," and Manny Montana's Rio joins them, Ruby, and Stan as a fifth questionable decision-maker.

Sitting atop our previous rankings of the best shows of all time is "Mad Men," the advertising industry drama set in the '60s and '70s that ran for seven seasons and 92 episodes from 2007 through 2015. At the top of the "Mad Men" pyramid sits agency exec Don Draper (Jon Hamm), who was the closest "legitimate businessman" analog we had to Tony Soprano until Brian Cox brought Logan Roy to life in "Succession" in 2018. Draper leads the fictional agency Sterling Cooper with unhealthy doses of '60s sexism and ample quantities of liquor and tobacco, and the people who lived through the era portrayed on "Mad Men" testify that it's an accurate picture of the way things worked back then. 

"I spoke to a number of ad executives from that era about the show and 70% of them said I'd got it dead right," creator Matt Weiner told the Telegraph, "but 100% of the women said it reflected their experiences exactly." The accolades for "Mad Men" extend far beyond Looper's placement of it atop our list. It won 16 Emmy awards among 116 nominations, and its four wins as best drama series from 2008 through 2011 tie it with four other shows for the most all-time: "L.A. Law," "Hill Street Blues," "Game of Thrones," and "The West Wing." Hamm won his only statuette in 2015 as best actor, and the show picked up additional trophies for writing, directing, and in other various production-related categories. Draper commits more than his share of crimes and although his business is legal at its core, it has as many perils as Tony Soprano's.

"Ozark" took audiences by storm when it debuted in 2017, and ran for 44 episodes over four seasons from 2017 through 2022. The themes of dangerous criminal undertakings and fraught family dynamics will certainly feel familiar to fans of "The Sopranos," though the southeastern U.S. mountain resort setting may not. The cast is top-notch across the board, with Jason Bateman and Laura Linney starring as Marty and Wendy Byrde, who move their family from Chicago to the shores of the Osage River in Missouri to launder money for a drug cartel. 

Sofia Hublitz and Skylar Gaertner play their children Charlotte and Jonah, who dance precariously on the edge of their parents' criminal enterprises. But the most compelling performance on "Ozark" comes from Julia Garner as local ne'er-do-well Ruth Langmore, who parlays her savvy and familiarity with the territory into a lucrative but dangerous job with the Byrdes. The series picked up 45 Emmy nominations and four wins: three for Garner as best supporting actress and one for Bateman for directing the Season 2 premiere, "Reparations." It has an average episode rating of 8.5 out of 10 from IMDB viewers, and the "Ozark" series finale wraps up some major plot threads while leaving others hanging.

No discussion of great TV shows — let alone crime-centered shows with acclaimed male leads — would be complete without mentioning "Breaking Bad." Its average episode's viewer score of 9.5/10 makes it the most highly-rated show on IMDB, and "Breaking Bad" earned an astonishing 58 Emmy nominations and 16 wins in 62 episodes over five seasons from 2005 through 2013. It won for best drama series, editing, and cinematography, and Anna Gunn, Aaron Paul, and Bryan Cranston all won Emmys for their performances. Mark Margolis, Jonathan Banks, and Giancarlo Esposito were also nominated for supporting or guest performances.

High school chemistry teacher Walter White (Cranston) famously turns to making methamphetamine after being diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.  Throughout the series, Walt becomes responsible for the decimation of his nuclear and extended family as he builds his drug empire as a kind of alter ego he calls Heisenberg. Walt could have had a far different path from Tony Soprano had he chosen so, but "Breaking Bad" is as much a Heisenberg origin story as it is a chronicle of crime syndicate operations. There is still an abundance of dastardly deeds, and Gilligan knows exactly how tightly to wound the tension and when to release it over the course of the series.

Rarely does a follow-up show approach or eclipse the original, and "Better Call Saul" had mighty big shoes to fill as a prequel to "Breaking Bad." It debuted two years after "Breaking Bad" ended, and tells the complete story of Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk), who we first meet in "Breaking Bad" Season 2, Episode 8. That chapter is called "Better Call Saul," and Gilligan flipped that format by giving "Better Call Saul" Season 6, Episode 11 the title "Breaking Bad." The "Better Call Saul" series finale that aired two weeks later has an average rating of 9.8/10 from IMDB viewers, while the series' 63 episodes enjoy an average score of 9.0 stars.

"Better Call Saul" racked up an impressive 53 Emmy nominations in nearly every category, including seven for best drama series and six for Odenkirk as best actor. Jonathan Banks was nominated four times and Rhea Seehorn thrice in the best supporting actor and actress category, but shockingly, "Better Call Saul" earned zero Emmy wins. Odenkirk, Seehorn, and Banks deliver as captivating a mix of comedic and dramatic performance as we've ever seen, and its 0-for-53 performance on Emmy night makes "Better Call Saul" the most frequently-snubbed show in history.

"Fargo" was a 1996 best-picture nominated Coen Brothers film before coming to FX as a Noah Hawley-led series in 2014. The five seasons that aired over the next 10 years each have their own settings, characters, and narratives, although they share a geographic location near the Mississippi River that marks the Minnesota-North Dakota border near the titular city. The characters are Minnesota nice but there's enough tension, blood, and betrayal to satisfy any fan of "The Sopranos." The first season stars Billy Bob Thornton, Martin Freeman, Colin Hanks, and Allison Tolman, and has a 97% Tomatometer score. 

Season 2 brings us Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, and Ted Danson, and is rated a rare 100% by critics. Season 4 takes a detour to 1950s Kansas City and stars Chris Rock and Jason Schwartzman, but we're especially huge fans of Season 5 with Juno Temple, Jon Hamm, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Lamorne Morris. The series has collected 70 Emmy nominations and 7 wins in 51 episodes, with Morris winning in 2024 for best supporting actor in a limited series and Temple and Hamm earning nominations for best actress and actor. There' also a captivating performance from Sam Spruell as the terrifying and maybe undead Ole Munch, for which he earned a Gold Derby award as best supporting actor.

The Bill Hader/Alec Berg HBO series "Barry" defies categorization with its masterful mix of funny, dark, and heartfelt moments. It stars Hader as Barry Berkman, a Marine turned hitman who finds himself in an acting class taught by narcissistic faded star Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler). Sarah Goldberg and Anthony Carrigan have breakout roles as Barry's girlfriend and eventual wife Sally and gangster-with-a-heart-of-mush NoHo Hank, respectively; Carrigan was nominated for three Emmys as best supporting actor and Goldberg got a nod in 2019 as best supporting actress. 

That same year, Stephen Root was nominated for best supporting actor as Monroe Fuches, giving "Barry" an astonishing 17 Emmy nominations for Season 2. "Barry" ended after five seasons without leaving viewers puzzled like "The Sopranos" did, wrapping up the stories of most of the main characters in a neat yet somewhat bloody package. The most stark similarity between the two shows is the main character adjusting to mental illness (for Tony Soprano anxiety, for Barry Berkman PTSD) while facing threats to life, limb, and livelihood while trying to keep up a "just another guy" facade.