Few television creators would dare position a series between The Godfather and The Sopranos. Both stand among the defining works of the gangster genre, with Francis Ford Coppola’s trilogy setting the standard for mob movies and HBO’s The Sopranos reshaping television crime dramas. Yet Terence Winter’s Boardwalk Empire came remarkably close to meeting that daunting standard, with Martin Scorsese helping establish its distinctive vision.
There is no shortage of acclaimed gangster stories. The Power universe, Gangs of London, and HBO’s The Wire have offered very different approaches to organized crime on television. On the big screen, films such as Brian De Palma’s Scarface and the 2008 Italian crime drama Gomorrah have likewise become genre landmarks.
Still, The Sopranos remains one of the first titles associated with great gangster television, just as The Godfather trilogy continues to define the mob movie. Even The Godfather Part III, despite its poor reputation compared with the first two films, could not diminish the influence and enduring affection surrounding Coppola’s earlier installments.
The Sopranos faced a similar situation in its finale. Its deliberately ambiguous ending frustrated viewers who wanted a more conventional conclusion, but that divisive final moment did little to diminish the series’ enormous influence on television.
A Gangster Drama That Combined Two Different Legacies
The morally complicated criminals of The Godfather helped pave the way for Martin Scorsese films such as Goodfellas, Casino, and The Irishman, along with crime classics including Donnie Brasco and The King of New York.
The Sopranos took another important step by giving its criminal characters greater emotional and psychological depth. Its influence can be seen in later series such as The Wire, Breaking Bad, and even the Yellowstone franchise.
That made the idea of combining the qualities of The Godfather and The Sopranos an especially ambitious proposition. Boardwalk Empire, which premiered on HBO in 2010, nevertheless managed to do exactly that.
Boardwalk Empire Combined The Godfather’s Period Setting With The Sopranos’ Expansive Story
Boardwalk Empire ran for 56 episodes over five seasons and was loosely adapted from Nelson Johnson’s 2002 nonfiction book Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City.
At the center of the series was Enoch “Nucky” Thompson, the notoriously corrupt treasurer of Atlantic City. Steve Buscemi delivered what became one of his career-defining performances as Nucky, a powerful underworld figure forced to navigate the competing interests of organized crime, law enforcement, politicians, and ordinary residents.
As the story developed, the series incorporated historical figures such as Al Capone. That approach could easily have turned Boardwalk Empire into a glamorous version of a much darker period in American history. Instead, the series carefully balanced historical fact with fictional storytelling.
Its criminals are given enough humanity to make them compelling, but the show rarely treats their lives as something to admire. That distinction is important to Boardwalk Empire’s approach. Rather than using its historical foundation simply as an excuse to make events more sensational or violent than the real history, the series builds its drama around the world that actually existed.
The result is an immersive portrait of Atlantic City as it emerged from the Prohibition era and developed into a national hotspot. The series also explores how the gangsters who operated there influenced the city’s history.
That perspective gives Boardwalk Empire a melancholy quality reminiscent of Bruce Springsteen’s iconic song Atlantic City. The series presents this pivotal period in American history as compelling and tragic, but also harsh and frequently brutal.
Boardwalk Empire Helped Reinvent The Gangster Series
Boardwalk Empire was an exceptionally expensive production for its time, with HBO committing record-setting budgets to the historical drama. Its achievements were soon overshadowed by the arrival of Game of Thrones, whose enormous first-season budget was accompanied by unprecedented mainstream popularity.
The influence of Game of Thrones on the television fantasy boom that followed is widely recognized. Boardwalk Empire had a comparable effect on gangster television, although its contribution has received less attention.
Netflix’s Peaky Blinders and Narcos adopted a similar blend of historical or period storytelling and crime drama, eventually becoming major international hits. Godfather of Harlem also found enough critical success to run for seven years.
Elsewhere, Italy’s Gomorrah, Britain’s contemporary crime dramas Top Boy and Gangs of London, and the Irish series Love/Hate demonstrated the international appeal of ambitious gangster television.
Taken together, these shows illustrate the lasting impact of Boardwalk Empire. By bringing together the period atmosphere and morally complex storytelling associated with The Godfather and the expansive, character-driven approach of The Sopranos, HBO’s series helped breathe new life into the gangster genre around the world.