TV Shows Like Boardwalk Empire
If you like Boardwalk Empire, here are 11 similar TV shows — each with its current AI renewal verdict, so you can see which are still going and which have been cancelled.
HBO · Crime · Boardwalk Empire is ended
Boardwalk Empire works because it refuses to make its central character simple. Nucky Thompson is a treasurer, a fixer, a killer, and occasionally a grieving man, and the show holds all of those things at once. The period detail, the politics, and the violence all serve that core tension: what does it cost a person to run a corrupt world, and what does he tell himself at night? The Atlantic City setting gives the show a particular flavor, salt air and dirty money, where Prohibition doesn't so much create crime as just redirect it into sharper, more profitable channels.
The best shows like Boardwalk Empire
1. Peaky Blinders
Tommy Shelby, like Nucky Thompson, is a man who operates through a combination of political maneuvering and brute force, in a world still shaking from a recent catastrophe. The 1919 Birmingham setting gives Peaky Blinders a gritty period atmosphere that Boardwalk Empire fans will recognize immediately. If you liked watching Nucky build alliances and enemies in equal measure, Tommy's climb through postwar England hits very similar notes.
Stream on Netflix
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2. The Sopranos
If Boardwalk Empire appealed to you, The Sopranos is the show you owe yourself if you haven't already seen it, and worth a rewatch if you have. Tony Soprano runs his organization with the same mix of charm and menace that Nucky brings to Atlantic City, but The Sopranos adds a sustained psychological dimension through Tony's sessions with his psychiatrist that makes the self-deception at the heart of the crime boss figure explicit. The family dynamics are richer and more uncomfortable than almost anything else in the genre.
Stream on HBO Max, HBO Max Amazon Channel
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3. Power
Power updates the Boardwalk Empire premise to contemporary New York: a man who has built real power and real money, and who cannot cleanly separate the legitimate side of his life from the criminal side no matter how hard he tries. The show moves quickly and doesn't linger on period detail, but the central tension of managing a public face while running an empire underneath is exactly the same. It's a good pick if you want that double-life dynamic without the historical setting.
Stream on Hulu, Starz Apple TV Channel, Starz Roku Premium Channel, Starz
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4. Godfather of Harlem
Godfather of Harlem shares Boardwalk Empire's interest in a crime boss who is also a political actor, someone who has to negotiate with power as much as seize it. Bumpy Johnson's return to a Harlem controlled by the Italian mob gives the show a clear structural conflict, territory and legitimacy, that fans of Nucky's maneuvering will find familiar. The 1960s setting adds a layer of civil rights politics that makes it more than just a standard gangster story.
Stream on Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, fuboTV, MGM+ Amazon Channel
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5. Power Book II: Ghost
Power Book II: Ghost picks up directly from where Power ends, following Tariq as he tries to escape his father's shadow while being pulled deeper into the same world. It works best as a continuation for viewers already invested in the Power universe, and it carries forward the same theme of legacy and entrapment that runs through Boardwalk Empire's later seasons. If you found the father-son and inheritance dynamics in Boardwalk compelling, this series explores similar territory from the next generation's point of view.
Stream on Starz Apple TV Channel, Starz Roku Premium Channel, Starz, Philo
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More on shows like Boardwalk Empire
Fans of Boardwalk Empire tend to want the same things in their next show. They want a protagonist who runs something, who sits at the intersection of legitimate power and criminal muscle. They want period texture or at least a strong sense of place. They want the show to take its world seriously, to follow money and loyalty and betrayal with the same patience that Boardwalk brought to its long game. They are generally not looking for procedural cops-and-robbers; they want the inside view, the person giving the orders.
The recommendations here cover a good range of that territory. Peaky Blinders is the closest aesthetic cousin, a post-WWI crime family drama with a boss, Tommy Shelby, who is as politically calculating as Nucky and just as dangerous. The Sopranos is the obvious elder statesman of the genre and remains genuinely worth watching or rewatching; it adds a layer of psychological self-examination that Boardwalk only gestures toward. Godfather of Harlem moves the timeline forward to the 1960s and into New York, centering on Bumpy Johnson's attempt to reclaim Harlem from the Italian mob, which gives it a sharper racial and political dimension. Power trades the period setting for contemporary New York but keeps the core dynamic of a powerful man managing two lives, one public and respectable, one very much not. Power Book II: Ghost is the sequel to Power and follows the next generation dealing with the consequences of that empire, which works best if you've already spent time with the original.
None of these are perfect substitutes, and that's fine. The Sopranos is richer and stranger than Boardwalk Empire; Peaky Blinders is more stylized and operatic; Power is leaner and faster. What they share is a belief that crime, at a certain level, is really about control, and that the people at the top of these organizations are worth watching precisely because they can never fully escape what they've built.
More shows like Boardwalk Empire
Frequently asked
- What is the most popular show like Boardwalk Empire?
- Peaky Blinders is the most popular show similar to Boardwalk Empire in the IsItRenewed catalogue.
- Are shows like Boardwalk Empire still on the air?
- Of the 11 shows similar to Boardwalk Empire listed here, 0 currently carry a renewed verdict — the rest are cancelled, ended, or awaiting a decision.
- How does IsItRenewed pick shows like Boardwalk Empire?
- The recommendations come from TMDB's similar-titles data, and each is shown with its current AI renewal verdict so you know which are still going.