Best Mafia, Gangsters and Organized Crime TV Shows

Gangsters and organized crime continue to be a favorite among movie and television fans thanks to iconic series such as The Sopranos and Peaky Blinders. Whether it’s a gang of loyal vigilante bikers like in Sons of Anarchy or the rise and fall of notorious drug kingpin, Pablo Escobar from Narcos, the gangster genre has evolved and expanded into various new territories with both fictional and historical tales of real-life mobsters that seem to have something for every television fan.

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30 McMafia, 2018

Alex Godman has spent his life trying to escape the shadow of his family’s past. But when a murder unearths their past, Alex is drawn into the criminal underworld where he must confront his values to protect those he loves.

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29 El Chapo, 2017-2018

A look at the life of notorious drug kingpin, El Chapo, from his early days in the 1980s working for the Guadalajara Cartel, to his rise to power during the ’90s as the head of the Sinaloa Cartel and his ultimate downfall in 2016.

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28 Mocro maffia, 2018

Mocro Mafia is a fictional crime series about the three best friends Romano, Pencil and The Pope. Together they made the transition from petty crime to serious crime. Before they know it they own the entire cocaine trade in Amsterdam. By jealousy, the group of friends falls apart, which causes them to be diametrically opposed.

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27 Gangland Undercover, 2015-2016

A gritty fact based drama series that tells the astonishing story of a drug dealer who was arrested then given a desperate ultimatum: serve over 20 years in jail, or go undercover inside one of America’s most notorious biker gangs. Charles Falco opted to go undercover and for the next three years he led a crazy and dangerous life infiltrating the Vagos motorcycle gang, collecting evidence while faced with the constant risk that he might be discovered and become one of the gang’s victims. Each episode unfolds a different step in Falco’s covert investigation into their illegal activities, while across the series, the drama builds as carefully constructed character arcs unfold bitter personal rivalries.

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26 Gangs of London, 2020

Tells the story of London being torn apart by the turbulent power struggles of its international gangs and the sudden power vacuum that’s created when the head of London’s most powerful crime family is assassinated.

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25 Tulsa King, 2022-…

Follows New York Mafia capo Dwight “The General” Manfredi, just after he is released from prison after 25 years and unceremoniously exiled by his boss to set up shop in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Realizing that his mob family might not have his best interests in mind, Dwight slowly builds a “crew” from a group of unlikely characters, to help him establish a new criminal empire in a place that to him might as well be another planet.

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24 The Black Donnellys, 2007

Four very different Irish-American brothers – Kevin, Jimmy, Tommy and Sean – have sworn to live by the code of “family first.” But as they become increasingly involved in the ruthless world of New York organized crime, their loyalties to their friends, to their loved ones, and especially to each other will be put to the ultimate test.

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23 Power, 2014-2020

“Power” is a visionary drama that straddles the glamorous Manhattan lifestyles of the rich and famous and the underworld of the international drug trade. The cast is led by Omari Hardwick as James “Ghost” St. Patrick, a man trying to escape his role as a drug kingpin for a legitimized life in the elite of NYC; Joseph Sikora as his brother in arms in the drug business, Tommy Egan; Naturi Naughton plays Ghost’s fierce wife Tasha St. Patrick; and Lela Loren is his first love, Assistant U.S. Attorney Angela Valdes.

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22 Lilyhammer, 2012-2014

Frank Tagliano is a former New York mobster who, after testifying in a trial in the United States, joins the witness-protection program. Intrigued by the place after watching the Winter Olympics in 1994, he is relocated to Lillehammer in Norway. The transition from being a feared and respected gangster in New York to becoming an unemployed immigrant in Norway, is not simple. Frank soon discovers that in order to succeed in this rural Norwegian society, he must resort to his old ways.

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21 Il cacciatore, 2018

Palermo, 1993. After decades of bloodshed and government officials mostly treading the water with street-level arrests, it is time to go after the bosses. Palermo’s streets are soaked in blood as a war between the mafia and the state claims the life of criminals as well as the innocent. Two rivaling bosses are fighting for dominance while facing the now rising pressure of the law. In the eye of this storm is Saverio Barone, a young and ambitious provincial prosecutor who has the guts to stand up for what’s right. When he dares to report his own boss, most of his colleagues disapprove. The chief of Palermo’s Antimafia Pool though takes notice and appoints him to his unit. Barone is uniquely equipped for the job, with a distinct set of skills that will make him go down in history as “The Hunter;” and thanks to a succession of brilliant hunches, spectacular raids and front-page arrests, three hundred Mafiosi will be taken into custody. This is the incredible and untold story of the “hunting season” of the 1990s.

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20 The Deuce, 2017-2019

Based in 1970s New York, this show gives a raw, gritty portrayal of the prostitution business that was so publicly executed at that time. As a result of police crack-down, the characters are forced to venture towards relatively safer and more discreet forms of the same work.

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19 La mafia uccide solo d’estate, 2016-2018

A TV series following the story of the movie by the same title. Also in this case Pif tells the story of a young boy in the city of Palermo during the roaring seventies, when the mafia was not around, officially…

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18 Narcos: México, 2018-2021

Narcos: Mexico exploring the origins of the modern drug war by going back to its roots, beginning at a time when the Mexican trafficking world was a loose and disorganized confederation of independent growers and dealers. Witness the rise of the Guadalajara Cartel in the 1980s as Félix Gallardo takes the helm, unifying traffickers in order to build an empire. When DEA agent Kiki Camarena moves his wife and young son from California to Guadalajara to take on a new post, he quickly learns that his assignment will be more challenging than he ever could have imagined. As Kiki garners intelligence on Félix and becomes more entangled in his mission, a tragic chain of events unfold, affecting the drug trade and the war against it for years to come.

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17 Ozark, 2017-2022

The Byrdes and their teenage kids Charlotte and Jonah look like, and mostly are, an ordinary family with ordinary lives. Except that husband/father Marty, a Chicago financial advisor, also serves as the top money-launderer for Mexico’s second-largest drug cartel. When things go awry, he must uproot his family from the skyscrapers of Chicago and relocate to the lazy lake region of the Missouri Ozarks.

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16 Il capo dei capi (Corleone), 2007

Il Capo dei Capi (The Boss of the Bosses) is a six-part Italian miniseries which debuted on Canale 5 between October and November 2007. It tells the story of Salvatore Riina, alias Totò u Curtu, a mafioso boss from Corleone, Sicily. Riina is played by Palermo-born actor, Claudio Gioè, and the series was directed by Alexis Sweet and Enzo Monteleone. The film is inspired from the eponymous book-inquiry of Giuseppe D’Avanzo and Attilio Bolzoni.

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15 Warrior, 2019-2023

In the late 1800s, a martial arts prodigy travels from China to San Francisco in hopes of reuniting his family. However, once he arrives in America, he soon finds himself working as an assassin for the most respected gang in Chinatown amidst a violent turf war.

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14 Crime Story, 1986-1988

In 1963 Chicago, Lieutenant Michael Torello, as head of the police department’s Major Crime Unit, must deal with the city’s most dangerous criminals, and possibly the most dangerous of all is Ray Luca, an ambitious young street hood who’s out to gain power and wealth by any means–including theft, threats, extortion, and murder. As Luca begins his ruthless climb up the ladder of organized crime, leaving a growing number of victims in his wake, Torello becomes more and more determined to bring him down.

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13 Animal Kingdom, 2016-2022

The series centers on 17-year-old Joshua “J” Cody, who moves in with his freewheeling relatives in their Southern California beach town after his mother dies of a heroin overdose. Headed by boot-tough matriarch Janine “Smurf” Cody and her right-hand Baz, who runs the business and calls the shots, the clan also consists of Pope, the oldest and most dangerous of the Cody boys; Craig, the tough and fearless middle son; and Deran, the troubled, suspicious “baby” of the family.

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12 Godfather of Harlem, 2019-…

A gangster named Bumpy Johnson makes his way in Harlem during the 1960s. A TV prequel to the 2007 film, ‘American Gangster’, which centered on the criminal enterprise of Frank Lucas.

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11 Gomorrah (Gomorra: La serie), 2014-2021

Organised crime clans fight wars and make fleeting alliances in the dynamic and ever-shifting underworld of the poverty-stricken Naples, Italy. Gennaro, the son and heir of the Savastano clan, and Ciro Di Marzio, one of this clan’s officers, have great ambition to advance to ever-greater heights. The path ahead is bloody and cruel, and their families will be put at risk.

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10 Better Call Saul, 2015-2022

The trials and tribulations of criminal lawyer Jimmy McGill in the years leading up to his fateful run-in with Walter White and Jesse Pinkman.

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9 ZeroZeroZero, 2019

A cocaine shipment makes its way to Europe, starting from the moment a powerful cartel of Italian criminals decides to buy it, to its journeys through Mexico, to its shipment across the Atlantic Ocean.

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8 Snowfall, 2017-2023

A look at the early days of the crack cocaine epidemic in Los Angeles during the beginning of the 1980s.

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7 Boardwalk Empire, 2010-2014

Set in the Prohibition era of the 1920s Boardwalk Empire is the story of Enoch “Nucky” Thompson, the treasurer of Atlantic County, Atlantic City, New Jersey. Due to his relationships with mobsters as well as political contacts, the Federal Government start to take an interest in him. His lavish lifestyle seems at odds with his position, and as well as his connections, there is prolific bootlegging in the area.

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6 The Wire, 2002-2008

The streets of Baltimore as a microcosm of the US’s war on drugs, and of US urban decay in general. Seen not only through the eyes of a few policemen and drug gang members but also the people who influence and inhabit their world – politicians, the media, drug addicts and everyday citizens.

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5 Breaking Bad, 2008-2013

A once loyal father and chemistry teacher named Walter White turns to a life of crime due to developing Stage 3 terminal lung cancer. He is told he has two years to live. Teaming up with one of his former students, Jesse Pinkman, he grows in power, battles anyone in his way, and raises a family – all while hiding from his brother-in-law, Hank, who works for the DEA.

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4 Narcos, 2015-2017

A chronicled look at the criminal exploits of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, as well as the many other drug kingpins who plagued the country through the years.

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3 Sons of Anarchy, 2008-2014

Sons of Anarchy, aka SAMCRO, is a motorcycle club that operates both illegal and legal businesses in the small town of Charming. They combine gun-running and a garage, plus involvement in porn film. Clay, the president, likes it old school and violent; while Jax, his stepson and the club’s VP, has thoughts about changing the way things are, based on his dead father’s journal. Their conflict has effects on both the club and their personal relationships.

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2 Peaky Blinders, 2013-2022

Thomas Shelby and his brothers return to Birmingham after serving in the British Army during WWI. Shelby and his gang, the Peaky Blinders, control the city of Birmingham. However, Shelby’s ambitions extend beyond Birmingham, as he plans to build on the business empire he’s created, and dispatch anyone who gets in his way.

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1 The Sopranos, 1999-2007

An innovative look at the life of fictional Mafia Capo Tony Soprano, this serial is presented largely first person, but additional perspective is conveyed by the intimate conversations Tony has with his psychotherapist. We see Tony at work, at home, and in therapy. Moments of black comedy intersperse this aggressive, adult drama, with adult language, and extreme violence.

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