The Sopranos finds itself in a rare pop culture place right now. Most people know what the show is, whether you’re a younger TV fan just getting into the HBO series or a veteran who is on their ninth rewatch in the last 25 years. It’s a pioneering classic that is fresh and a relic of its time simultaneously. David Chase’s crime drama about a mobster who goes to therapy during the day and kills capos at night brought an entirely new dimension to television that didn’t exist before. The show broke barriers that other programs have tried to imitate, but very few have ever accomplished. On the other hand, the shows that have gone shot-for-shot with The Sopranos have improved upon some of the older, more outdated parts of the series.
Because The Sopranos was the original crime drama of the Golden Age of Television, it’s not hard to compile a list of copycats. Simply boiling these successors down to their similarities to The Sopranos would be disrespectful, though. These shows like The Sopranos are some of the best TV series of all time and have won Emmys for Outstanding Drama Series, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, and more. Time to wake up this morning and get yourself a Sopranos-adjecent binge-watch.
Breaking Bad (2008)
Breaking Bad benefited the most from The Sopranos. Even star Bryan Cranston admitted that Walter White wouldn’t exist without Tony Soprano. I like to think about the two shows as a Pokémon evolution, though. Charmander may be first in the fire-type evolution, but Charizard is the ultimate version of the same character. Breaking Bad’s jaw-dropping tale of a science teacher who turns into a drug demon is the most enthralling crime story ever put on TV. Cranston’s four-time Emmy-winning performance as Walter forces us to love a horrific person even as he deteriorates into the genuinely evil version of himself that was always hiding under the khakis and the tight white underwear. Aaron Paul, Anna Gunn, and Jonathan Banks are nearly as good as Cranston in supporting roles.
Dexter (2006)
Dexter is a little like The Walking Dead now in that the studio behind the franchise is extracting more than exists in the story, but the original series is an all-timer from the late 2000s. Michael C. Hall plays everyone’s favorite serial killer, Dexter Morgan. Dexter is a criminal with a code, a cold-hearted assassin whose blood lust is justified by his father’s rulebook for homicide. Hall’s legendary portrayal of Dexter reveals so much more than meets the eye when we first see him in season one. Dexter is a family man, a husband, a father, and a murderer with more morals than he’s willing to admit.
Lilyhammer (2012)
Lilyhammer is for anyone who enjoyed the mafia aspects of The Sopranos over everything else in the show. Starring Steven Van Zandt (who plays Silvio in The Sopranos), the show is an intentional spiritual successor to David Chase’s show, right down to the directing and character work. It was also one of the first Netflix originals to gain steam on the streamer back in 2012.
Ray Donovan (2013)
Ray Donovan takes right from The Sopranos’ playbook because it’s about a man who tussles with criminals while trying to be the best father and husband he can possibly be. Liev Schreiber doesn’t match James Gandolfini’s performance, but he sure looks cool as an antiheroic fixer who takes on just about any dirty, immoral job he can find. This series was a tremendous asset for the Showtime network a decade ago.
The White Lotus (2021)
Oz (1997)
Oz is actually the forgotten set of training wheels for HBO that allowed The Sopranos to even exist. The ensemble cast of a large, dysfunctional prison was the first big program on premium cable that showed violence and tried to dig into its characters on a novelistic level. Great actors like Dean Winters, Edie Falco (from The Sopranos), and J.K. Simmons make Oz’s cast one of the best in late 1990s TV history.
Barry (2018)
Barry is Bill Hader’s venture into semi-dramatic acting that proved his talents to the tune of two Emmys for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. The show is about a hitman who tries to integrate himself into a Los Angeles community by becoming an actor. His two professional lives and his personal misdoings all mesh into one messy story, and Hader makes his protagonist one of the memorable ones of the last decade. A good homage to the Tony Sopranos antihero lineage.
