Titus Welliver already has his next crime drama set up, and the “The Sopranos meets Peaky Blinders” TV show looks like it will be a must-watch. Mafia and mob stories are perennially interesting, examining why people do bad things and the systems that enable crime. The Godfather, Pulp Fiction, and Goodfellas were released across 24 years, and all three gangster movies are considered masterpieces, consistently ranking among the best movies of all time. Gangster stories are also popular on TV, with two of the most notable being The Sopranos and Peaky Blinders.

Even though they have different styles, The Sopranos and Peaky Blinders are both masterclasses in cinematography, character development, and storytelling. The series dive deep into the psychology of complex antiheroes. Their stories have an almost operatic quality. However, The Sopranos is a gold standard of prestige TV, with graphic violence thrown in. It isn’t every scene, but it definitely has an impact when it’s there. Meanwhile, Peaky Blinders is a period piece with excellent costuming, intense harm and torture in most episodes, and an incredible soundtrack.

Since The Sopranos and Peaky Blinders are two of the most beloved mobster TV shows, it’s not surprising that future series would use them as inspiration. The Westies already looks like it will be “The Sopranos meets Peaky Blinders,” and it already looks fantastic based on the first trailer of Titus Welliver’s new show.

The Westies Is Based On A Real NYC Gang

One of the most intriguing parts of MGM+’s upcoming TV show is that The Westies were a real New York City gang. The Westies were an Irish-American organized crime gang who teamed up with the Italian-American Mafia, working out of Hell’s Kitchen in Manhattan from the late 1960s to the late 1980s.

Westies member and informant William Beattie testified in court that the gang engaged in many crimes, including theft, racketeering, loan sharking, distributing drugs, kidnapping, and murder (via The New York Times). They not only killed people but then dismembered the victims, making them a particularly brutal gang. They also committed acts of violence without motivation.

Both of the previous mafia shows, The Sopranos and Peaky Blinders, are loosely based on real gangs, even if the characters are fictional. As such, it will be interesting to see how The Westies pull more directly from the inspiration. After all, The Westies did have an actual connection to the Jacob Javits Convention Center, leading to a rift between the Italian mafia and the Irish gang. The upcoming series will also feel very different from the other two shows because of the time period. The Sopranos is set in New Jersey from 1998 to 2007, and Peaky Blinders is set in Birmingham immediately after World War I. The Westies will take place towards the end of the group’s reign, in the 1980s.

There is plenty of real-life drama and betrayal from that time period, so they could either heavily fictionalize the story or lean more on the true story. Either way, audiences will be in for an awakening if the TV show is even half as ruthless as the real-life gang. The New York Times described The Westies as “one of the most savage organizations in the long history of New York gangs” in 1987.

Shockingly, The New York Times reported in 2012 that the group had revived under new leadership, though neither the original nor the new group has adopted the name “The Westies” themselves. Ultimately, the long history of The Westies makes it the perfect subject for the titular TV show.

Titus Welliver’s The Westies Role Will Be Much Different Than Bosch

Actor Titus Welliver will be right at home in The Westies, as he’s had plenty of experience working in gritty crime dramas like Bosch, Sons of Anarchy, and Deadwood. However, fans of the actor shouldn’t expect Titus Welliver to play the same character archetype as his most famous role.

Although Titus Welliver will play a police officer in both The Westies and Bosch, the characters will feel absolutely nothing alike. Besides their job titles, the characters Glenn Keenan and Harry Bosch have nothing in common. Glenn Keenan might technically be a law enforcement official, but he’s corrupt. He grew up with The Westies, so he is loyal to them over the law. Meanwhile, Bosch is the kind of person who would have fought to take down Glenn Keenan. He regularly took down corrupt politicians and law enforcement officials, digging into conspiracies.

Sources: The New York Times, Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster by T.J. English, and The Westies: Inside New York’s Irish Mob by T.J. English

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