The Sopranos
What can you say that hasn’t been said about The Sopranos? It is one of the greatest television shows ever, if not the greatest. It broke TV ground by featuring an anti-hero protagonist who was both charming and a murderer. The Sopranos made many other groundbreaking series possible. Unfortunately it ended over 25 years ago and there is no reboot or spinoff coming. So here are a few other shows like The Sopranos you may have missed that we think you may like.
Shows Like The Sopranos – Brotherhood
Brotherhood ran for three seasons on Showtime from 2006 to 2008. It is an Irish version of The Sopranos set in Rhode Island. The main difference is that the show focuses on two brothers, the “good brother” who is a politician and the “bad brother” involved with the Irish mob. Jason Clarke and Jason Isaacs play the Caffee brothers, who are loosely based real life Massachusetts politician Billy Bulger and his brother, the notorious Whitey Bulger. The show also features several supporting actors who were also in The Sopranos, including John Fiore (Gigi Cestone in The Sopranos), Al Sapienza (Mikey Palmice in The Sopranos) and Matt Servitto (Special Agent Dwight Harris in The Sopranos). We liked this show a lot and believe you will too if you liked The Sopranos.
See streaming options at Brotherhood.
Shows Like The Sopranos – Sons of Anarchy
Sons of Anarchy ran for seven seasons on FX from 2008 to 2014. This show is “The Sopranos on motorcycles.” The show centers around a fictional motorcycle club “Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club Redwood Original” based in the fictional California town “Charming” which is anything but. The club is involved in running drugs, guns and pretty much any illegal activity you can name. Central characters are Jax Teller, played by Charlie Hunnam, his mother, played by Katey Sagal and his step-father, Clay Morrow, played by Ron Perlman. Sagal’s real life husband, Kurt Sutter, is executive producer and a minor character. Taylor Sheridan also plays a minor character, and will later use his experience on the show to help develop his television empire.
Sons of Anarchy is simultaneously entertaining and violent, much like The Sopranos. It did appear to run out of novel stories near the end, and probably should ended earlier. It spawned a spinoff, Mayans M.C., which we have not watched.
See streaming options at Sons of Anarchy.
Shows Like The Sopranos – Tulsa King
Tulsa King has had one season on Paramount+ in 2022 with another one in production as of this writing. It stars Sylvester Stallone as a lower level mobster who just got out of prison after 25 years and is exiled from New York to Tulsa, Oklahoma. Taylor Sheridan created Tulsa King and Terrence Winter (of The Sopranos and Boardwalk Empire fame), was the showrunner for season one. The show has had a fair amount of behind the scenes drama.
Stallone is excellent in his first leading television role as Dwight “The General” Manfredi. The show is both a comedy and drama, and like others we are recommending is both entertaining and violent. Max Casella (Benny in The Sopranos) has a supporting role.
See streaming options at Tulsa King.
Show (too much?) Like The Sopranos – Lilyhammer
Lilyhammer ran for three seasons on Netflix from 2012 to 2014. It was Netflix’s first exclusive content show, although it did premiere earlier in the year in Norway. Lilyhammer stars Steven Van Zandt (Silvio in The Sopranos) as Frank Tagliano, a New York based mobster who relocates to Lillehammer, Norway under the witness protection program. His real life wife, Maureen Van Zandt, plays an ex much like she played his wife in The Sopranos. Bruce Springsteen has a cameo.
The first two seasons of Lilyhammer are excellent with the “fish out of water” story of a New York mobster trying to adapt to rural Norwegian life. The premise changes slightly in season three (no spoilers here). In effect it becomes a show like The Sopranos a little too much.
See streaming options at Lilyhammer.
These are four shows like The Sopranos we think you will like.
Want to see shows like Seinfeld? See our post at Seinfeld.
