Television series

Power

Name: Power
Genre: Drama, Crime
Released: 2014
Cast: Joseph Sikora, Lela Loren, Naturi Naughton, Omari Hardwick, Shane Johnson

Power is glossy crime drama at its most seductive — a kingpin fantasy where the club lighting matters almost as much as the kilos. Ghost St. Patrick keeps swearing he's getting out, and the show keeps proving he won't, wrapping betrayal and sex and violence in expensive tailoring. Pure escapist tension for anyone who wants their crime drama to look this good while it destroys everyone in it.

TVMaze rating

7.9

If you liked this

Breaking Bad2008

Shares Ghost's exact lie — a man building a criminal empire while insisting to himself it's temporary, that he's getting out any day now. Watch how that lie eats him alive.

But Slower burn and more methodical than Power's club-lit momentum; the tension builds over seasons, not scenes.

The Wire2002

Same city's drug trade seen through cops, dealers, and dockworkers instead of one man's double life — colder, deeper, and asking whether an empire can survive its own weight at all.

But No easy hero to root for, and the dense slang and institutional plotting demand real patience.

Ozark2017

Swap the club for a lake house and drugs for laundered cartel cash — same slow strangulation of a family pretending to be normal while burning everything down around them.

But Grimmer, colder tone throughout; Marty has none of Ghost's charisma or swagger.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Super Fly1972no page yet

Ghost's fantasy of walking away clean is Superfly's plot exactly, fifty years earlier, minus the prestige-TV budget and the streaming-era runtime.

The original one-last-score-to-get-out story, a blaxploitation landmark whose fur coats, cars and soundtrack invented the visual swagger Power's entire aesthetic descends from.

But Low-budget seventies filmmaking and looser pacing will feel rough next to Power's polish.

Snowfall2017

Watches a young man build a crack empire from nothing in 1980s LA — the same rise-and-ruin arc as Ghost, but with real historical weight underneath the glamour.

But Slower opening seasons, and the series ends on an unfinished, abrupt note.

Sons of Anarchy2008

Another criminal enterprise wearing a legitimate face, another marriage strained by secrets and violence, delivered with the same pulpy, soapy momentum Power fans will recognize instantly.

But Motorcycle-club machismo feels dated now, and later seasons lose the plot somewhat.

Empire2015

Starz's other guilty pleasure — a family empire built on secrets and betrayal, all delivered with the same glossy excess and addictive soap-opera engine as Power.

But Music-industry backstabbing swaps out the physical danger of drugs for pure melodrama; tonally much lighter.

Queen of the South2016no page yet

A gender-flipped kingpin story with the same rags-to-empire arc and constant near-misses, from a network that knows exactly how to make crime look this seductive.

But Familiar beats if you've already burned through several cartel dramas this year.

American Gangster2007

A real-life-inspired Harlem drug lord builds a business empire behind a legitimate façade, the same tension between ambition and exposure playing out in two tightly wound hours.

But A single film means far less room to breathe than Power's multi-season slow burn.

Scarface1983

The granddaddy of the genre — an immigrant hustler becomes a kingpin and learns the empire eats the man who built it, all delivered with total operatic excess.

But Dated by today's standards, and over-the-top even by Power's already heightened measure.

Cocaine Cowboys2006

It strips away the stylish lighting and scored montages to show the real mechanics and real casualties behind the empire Ghost is fantasizing about building.

Real interviews with actual Miami traffickers show what the glamour Power sells actually cost — in bodies, paranoia, and burned lives, told by the people who lived it.

But No charismatic lead to root for, just testimony and archive footage; far less narrative propulsion.

Macbeth2015

Tasha's pressure and complicity mirror Lady Macbeth's exactly — ambition curdling a marriage into a shared, unbreakable crime.

A five-hundred-year-old story about a man pushed toward violence by ambition and a wife who won't let him quit — same marriage-as-conspiracy dynamic, older and starker.

But Shakespearean dialogue and a bleak, slow tone are nothing like Power's pulpy, propulsive momentum.