The Best Criminal Families in TV History

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After the sudden death of her husband, Nancy Botwin, a Los Angeles soccer mom, starts dealing marijuana to support herself and her two sons, Silas and Shane. The Botwins find strength in doing whatever it takes to protect each other, whether it’s Nancy sleeping with rival drug dealers to keep her business afloat, moving to keep the kids safe and away from the drug trade (even though Silas later joins the family business), or Shane murdering someone with a croquet mallet.  

“The family that commits crimes together, stays together” might as well be the Shelby family motto. In a post-World War I England, the Shelbys are a family at the head of the Peaky Blinders gang that’s running an illegal gambling ring that rigs horse races. Ambitious war veteran Tommy Shelby is the Peaky Blinders boss and his brothers serve as Peaky Blinders leaders. Their aunt Polly, a one-time Peaky Blinders boss, is Peaky Blinders treasurer. The Shelbys are cunning and also sensible, knowing when to walk away and avoid violence. But don’t mistake that as cowardice­­—they’re not afraid to get their hands dirty. 

A respectable politician by day and an increasingly ruthless bootlegger by night, Nucky Thompson is the focus of Prohibition-era drama Boardwalk Empire. Though the Thompsons are one of the more dysfunctional families—one brother holds the other at gunpoint during a low point in their relationship—Nucky and his Sheriff bro, Eli, still manage to maintain a stronghold on New Jersey’s Atlantic City. 

Loosely based on Hamlet, Sons of Anarchy tells the story of the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, Redwood Original (SAMCRO), and Jax Teller, the club’s eventual president and son of the club’s founder. SAMCRO’s adversaries include warring motorcycle clubs, white supremacists, and select government officials. It’s a family affair: Clay, Jax’s stepdad, and Jax’s mom, Gemma, SAMCRO matriarch, play major roles in keeping the club going. Gemma, especially, goes to great lengths to ensure the safety of her family and the Sons, which occasionally means stabbing someone in the head with a fork so they won’t snitch.  

The Barksdale organization, led by the titular family, stands at the center of the Baltimore drug trade depicted in the much-revered series. Fronted by drug kingpin Avon Barksdale, the Barksdale organization’s finances are managed by Avon’s sister Brianna who gets paid in return. Brianna, who also assumes leadership of the organization at one point, helps her son D’Angelo enter the family business where he’s made a lieutenant. But D’Angelo eventually grows troubled with the business almost choosing to turn in his uncle and associate to the authorities before his mother convinces him otherwise. After some internal problems (backstabbing) and legal troubles the organization unravels in compelling fashion.  

At the beginning of Breaking Bad, Walter White is a chemistry teacher with a baby on the way, struggling financially much like many U.S. viewers were during 2008’s economic recession. A subsequent cancer diagnosis propels White on a life-altering course when he dips his toe (and ultimately much more) into meth making in order to secure the family’s future. The Whites manage to survive and later thrive, through a dark mixture of intelligence, luck, and scheming, including laundering money through a cover-up business. 

Tony Soprano is a quintessential small-screen antihero, paving the way for Walter White and many more. Not your average mob boss, Soprano struggles both with family life and with the mob life. Betrayal, murder, extramarital affairs, mob politics, and more, are enough to keep Soprano in therapy for treatment of his pre-existing depression and panic attacks. The mob life is all Tony knows, though, having followed in his father’s footsteps. With him in the mob is his Uncle Junior who resents Tony for his position in the family and his cousin Chris who he treats as a son before suffocating him (spoiler alert?). The series ending may still be a topic of debate, but the iconic nature of Tony and clan is not.