Best tv shows like Boardwalk Empire

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Deadwood (2004)

Plot Summary:

The story of the early days of Deadwood, South Dakota; woven around actual historic events with most of the main characters based on real people. Deadwood starts as a gold mining camp and gradually turns from a lawless wild-west community into an organized wild-west civilized town. The story focuses on the real-life characters Seth Bullock and Al Swearengen.

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Miller's Crossing (1990)

Plot Summary:

Set in 1929, a political boss and his advisor have a parting of the ways when they both fall for the same woman.

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Kill the Irishman (2011)

Plot Summary:

Over the summer of 1976, thirty-six bombs detonate in the heart of Cleveland while a turf war raged between Irish mobster Danny Greene and the Italian mafia. Based on a true story, kill the Irishman chronicles Greene's heroic rise from a tough Cleveland neighborhood to become an enforcer in the local mob.

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The Last Don (1997)

Plot Summary:

Sprawling Mario Puzo novel about an Italian family of gangsters draws the inevitable comparison to "The Godfather", but does find its own direction. Headed by Don Domenico Clericuzio, the family executes a rival gang on the night of the Don's daughter's wedding, including her new husband, the son of his rival. Unfortunately the daughter gets pregnant and the repercussions of the night drift into the future. Spanning 1964-1985, the film jumps forward with the growing up of the grandson who has grown ruthless and scheming. A co-rival in the family is a nephew who has been raise to take his father's place in the family as a hitman and has established his place by assassinating a man who killed a Senator's daughter. However, he is proven to not be ruthless enough and moves into the family's casino business in Vegas. When the nephew falls in love with a beautiful actress, everything is set in place for the grandson to set up a coupe to take over the family.

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Hoodlum (1997)

Plot Summary:

In 1934, the second most lucrative business in New York City was running "the numbers". When, Madam Queen, the powerful woman who runs the scam in Harlem, is arrested. Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson takes over the business and must resist against the invasion from merciless mobster Dutch Shultz.

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Once Upon a Time in America (1984)

Plot Summary:

A former Prohibition-era Jewish gangster returns to the Lower East Side of Manhattan over thirty years later, where he once again must confront the ghosts and regrets of his old life.

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Goodfellas (1990)

Plot Summary:

The true story of Henry Hill, a half-Irish, half-Sicilian Brooklyn kid who is adopted by neighbourhood gangsters at an early age and climbs the ranks of a Mafia family under the guidance of Jimmy Conway.

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Banshee (2013)

Plot Summary:

Banshee is an American drama television series set in a small town in Pennsylvania Amish country and features an enigmatic ex-con posing as a murdered sheriff who imposes his own brand of justice while also cooking up plans that serve his own interests.

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Casino (1995)

Plot Summary:

The life of the gambling paradise – Las Vegas – and its dark mafia underbelly.

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Gomorrah (2014)

Plot Summary:

Based on Robert Saviano's bestselling book, this gritty Italian crime drama paints a portrait of the brutal Neapolitan crime organisation the Camorra, as seen through the eyes of Ciro Di Marzo, the obedient and self- confident right-hand man of the clan's godfather, Pietro Savastano.

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The Take (2009)

Plot Summary:

Freddie Jackson is just out of prison. He's done his time, made the right connections and now he's ready to use them. His wife Jackie dreams of having her husband home but she's forgotten the rows and the girls Freddie can't leave alone. His younger cousin, Jimmy, dreams of making a name for himself on Freddie's coattails.

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Lawless (2012)

Plot Summary:

Set in the Depression-era Franklin County, Virginia, a bootlegging gang is threatened by authorities who want a cut of their profits.

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The Godfather: A Novel for Television (1977)

Plot Summary:

A seven-hours-plus adaptation of Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather" and "The Godfather, Part II" - with new scenes added and some old ones lengthened. Originally broadcast on the NBC television network in November of 1977, it was restored for high definition broadcast and presented uncensored nearly forty years later on HBO.

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Scarface (1983)

Plot Summary:

After getting a green card in exchange for assassinating a Cuban government official, Tony Montana stakes a claim on the drug trade in Miami. Viciously murdering anyone who stands in his way, Tony eventually becomes the biggest drug lord in the state, controlling nearly all the cocaine that comes through Miami. But increased pressure from the police, wars with Colombian drug cartels and his own drug-fueled paranoia serve to fuel the flames of his eventual downfall.

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Magic City (2012)

Plot Summary:

Set in 1959 Miami, Florida shortly after the Cuban Revolution, Magic City tells the story of Ike Evans, the owner of Miami's most glamorous hotel, the Miramar Playa. Evans is forced to make an ill-fated deal with Miami mob boss Ben Diamond to ensure the success of his glitzy establishment.

Similar in 87%

American Gangster (2007)

Plot Summary:

Following the death of his employer and mentor, Bumpy Johnson, Frank Lucas establishes himself as the number one importer of heroin in the Harlem district of Manhattan. He does so by buying heroin directly from the source in South East Asia and he comes up with a unique way of importing the drugs into the United States. Based on a true story.

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The Sopranos (1999)

Plot Summary:

The Sopranos is an American television drama created by David Chase. The series revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads. Those difficulties are often highlighted through his ongoing professional relationship with psychiatrist Jennifer Melfi. The show features Tony's family members and Mafia associates in prominent roles and story arcs, most notably his wife Carmela and his cousin and protégé Christopher Moltisanti.

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Ray Donovan (2013)

Plot Summary:

Set in the sprawling mecca of the rich and famous, Ray Donovan does the dirty work for LA's top power players, and makes their problems disappear. His father's unexpected release from prison sets off a chain of events that shakes the Donovan family to its core.

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Brotherhood (2006)

Plot Summary:

A working-class Irish family rules a city built on loyalty and corruption. The Caffee brothers, Tommy, a rising politician desperate for reelection, and Michael, a hardened criminal returning from seven years on the run and eager to reclaim his turf, fight for survival on opposite sides of the law. In their ruthless quest for power, the entire Caffee family is driven to lies, betrayal and infidelity -- threatening to tear them and the city of Providence, RI apart.

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The Wire (2002)

Plot Summary:

Told from the points of view of both the Baltimore homicide and narcotics detectives and their targets, the series captures a universe in which the national war on drugs has become a permanent, self-sustaining bureaucracy, and distinctions between good and evil are routinely obliterated.

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Narcos (2015)

Plot Summary:

The true story of Colombia's infamously violent and powerful drug cartels.

Similar in 77%

Gangs of New York (2002)

Plot Summary:

It's 1863. America was born in the streets. Amsterdam Vallon returns to the Five Points of America to seek vengeance against the psychotic gangland kingpin, Bill the Butcher, who murdered his father years earlier. With an eager pickpocket by his side and a whole new army, Vallon fights his way to seek vengeance on the Butcher and restore peace in the area.

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Breaking Bad (2008)

Plot Summary:

When Walter White, a New Mexico chemistry teacher, is diagnosed with Stage III cancer and given a prognosis of only two years left to live, he becomes filled with a sense of fearlessness and an unrelenting desire to secure his family's financial future at any cost as he enters the dangerous world of drugs and crime.

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The Godfather Part II (1974)

Plot Summary:

In the continuing saga of the Corleone crime family, a young Vito Corleone grows up in Sicily and in 1910s New York. In the 1950s, Michael Corleone attempts to expand the family business into Las Vegas, Hollywood and Cuba.

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The Godfather (1972)

Plot Summary:

Spanning the years 1945 to 1955, a chronicle of the fictional Italian-American Corleone crime family. When organized crime family patriarch, Vito Corleone barely survives an attempt on his life, his youngest son, Michael steps in to take care of the would-be killers, launching a campaign of bloody revenge.

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Peaky Blinders (2013)

Plot Summary:

A gangster family epic set in 1919 Birmingham, England and centered on a gang who sew razor blades in the peaks of their caps, and their fierce boss Tommy Shelby, who means to move up in the world.

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Power (2014)

Plot Summary:

James “Ghost” St. Patrick has it all: a beautiful wife, a gorgeous Manhattan penthouse, and the hottest, up-and-coming new nightclub in New York. His club, Truth, caters to the elite: the famous and infamous boldface names that run the city that never sleeps. As its success grows, so do Ghost’s plans to build an empire. However, Truth hides an ugly reality. It’s a front for Ghost’s criminal underworld; a lucrative drug network, serving only the wealthy and powerful. As Ghost is seduced by the prospect of a legitimate life, everything precious to him becomes unknowingly threatened. Once you're in, can you ever get out?.