Oz

Series Similar to Oz

If you enjoyed Oz, these series share similar themes, tone, and quality. Each recommendation is scored on genre overlap, tonal match, and critical acclaim.

1. The Sopranos

   1999 · Drama, Crime · ended

   Recommended for similar Crime profile, highly rated (8.9), also on HBO.

   The Sopranos, writer-producer-director David Chase's extraordinary television series, is nominally an urban gangster drama, but its true impact strikes closer to home: Like 1999's other screen touchstone, American Beauty, the HBO series chronicles a dysfunctional, suburban American family in bold relief. And for protagonist Tony Soprano, there's the added complexity posed by heading twin families, his collegial mob clan and his own, nouveau riche brood.

2. The Shield

   2002 · Drama, Crime · ended

   Recommended for similar Crime profile, highly rated (8.6).

   Detective Vic Mackey is the leader of an elite Strike Team unit, a group of cops effective at eliminating crime but also operating under Vic's own set of rules. But his rules sometimes cross the fine line between legal and illegal. Now the precinct has a new captain who doesn't like Vic's tactics and wants to bust him off the force - even as the captain finds himself going to Vic for help whenever the going gets rough.

3. The Wire

   2002 · Drama, Crime · ended

   Recommended for similar Crime profile, highly rated (8.9), also on HBO.

   The first season of The Wire (2002) concentrated on the often-futile efforts of police to infiltrate a West Baltimore drug ring headed by Avon Barksdale and his lieutenant, Stringer Bell. In Seasons Two and Three, as the Barksdale investigation escalated, new storylines involving pressures on the working class and the city's political leadership were introduced. Season Four focused on the stories of several young boys in the public school system, struggling with problems at home and the lure of the corner - set against the rise of a new drug empire in West Baltimore and a new Mayor in City Hall. The fifth and final season of The Wire centers on the media's role in addressing - or failing to address - the fundamental political, economic and social realities depicted over the course of the series, while also resolving storylines of the numerous characters woven throughout the narrative arc of the show.

4. Boardwalk Empire

   2010 · Drama, Crime · ended

   Recommended for similar Crime profile, highly rated (8.4), also on HBO.

   As the country struggles to cope with the Great Depression and the end of Prohibition looms, Nucky Thompson looks to legitimize himself through alliances with liquor producers, while rivals Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky seek to consolidate their power in the wake of Arnold Rothstein's death and eliminate all competition - by any means necessary on Boardwalk Empire.

5. True Detective

   2014 · Drama, Crime, Thriller · returning

   Recommended for similar Crime profile, highly rated (8.1), also on HBO.

   Touch darkness and darkness touches you back. True Detective centers on troubled cops and the investigations that drive them to the edge. Each season features a new cast and a new case.True Detective is an American anthology crime drama television series created and written by Nic Pizzolatto. 

6. The Penguin

   2024 · Drama, Crime · ended

   Recommended for similar Crime profile, highly rated (8), also on HBO.

   Starring Colin Farrell as Oz Cobb (aka The Penguin), the DC Studios series continues filmmaker Matt Reeves' The Batman epic crime saga that began with Warner Bros. Pictures' global blockbuster The Batman. Developed by showrunner Lauren LeFranc, the series centers on the character played by Farrell in the film.

7. Breaking Bad

   2008 · Drama, Crime, Thriller · ended

   Recommended for similar Crime profile, highly rated (9.2).

   Breaking Bad follows protagonist Walter White, a chemistry teacher who lives in New Mexico with his wife and teenage son who has cerebral palsy. White is diagnosed with Stage III cancer and given a prognosis of two years left to live. With a new sense of fearlessness based on his medical prognosis, and a desire to secure his family's financial security, White chooses to enter a dangerous world of drugs and crime and ascends to power in this world. The series explores how a fatal diagnosis such as White's releases a typical man from the daily concerns and constraints of normal society and follows his transformation from mild family man to a kingpin of the drug trade.

8. Deadwood

   2004 · Drama, Crime, Western · ended

   Recommended for similar Crime profile, highly rated (8.7), also on HBO.

   The outlaw camp of Deadwood marches slowly towards civilization, facing its first elections. But the power struggles continue over everything in Deadwood—influence, money, and whores—as the founding camp members form strategic alliances to face down the threat of a powerful newcomer, seeking to remake Deadwood in his image.

9. Narcos

   2015 · Drama, Action, Crime · ended

   Recommended for similar Crime profile, highly rated (8.4).

   Narcos chronicle the life and death of drug lord Pablo Escobar the ruthless boss of the Medellin Cartel and a known terrorist who was also a congressman, a family man and revered by the poor as a new Robin Hood.

10. Dexter

    2006 · Drama, Crime, Mystery · ended

    Recommended for similar Crime profile, highly rated (8.4).

    He's smart, he's good looking, and he's got a great sense of humor. He's Dexter Morgan, everyone's favorite serial killer. As a Miami forensics expert, he spends his days solving crimes, and nights committing them. But Dexter lives by a strict code of honor that is both his saving grace and lifelong burden. Torn between his deadly compulsion and his desire for true happiness, Dexter is a man in profound conflict with the world and himself.