Television series

Vinyl

A record label president spirals through cocaine, ego and 1973 New York trying to save his company and himself, as punk, disco and hip-hop are being born in the gutters he's too high to notice. It's Scorsese-scale swagger applied to a boardroom instead of a mob crew — loud, filthy, gorgeously scored, and never quite as smart as it thinks it is. For anyone who wants prestige TV with amphetamines in its veins.

TVMaze rating6.9

If you liked this

Boardwalk Empire2010

Same showrunner, same Scorsese pedigree, same charismatic man rotting from the inside out — but tighter, better plotted, and with a genuine sense of where it's all going.

But It's Prohibition gangsters, not rock and roll — a colder, more procedural kind of excess if you wanted the music.

Boardwalk Empire poster

The Deuce2017

Same seedy 70s New York, same collision of art and exploitation, but David Simon's patience replaces Vinyl's chaos — this one earns its filth instead of just wallowing in it.

But It's slow and sociological where Vinyl is manic; if you wanted the rush, this will frustrate you.

The Deuce poster

Almost Famous2000

The warm, wide-eyed cousin to Vinyl's cynicism — same era, same rock mythology, but told through wonder instead of wreckage. A gorgeous corrective if the show's nihilism wears you down.

But It's tender and nostalgic rather than dangerous — nobody here is destroying their life on camera.

Almost Famous poster

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

BoJack Horseman2014

Same engine as Vinyl — a talented, charismatic man wrecking his family and his art through addiction and ego — rebuilt as absurdist animated comedy instead of prestige grit.

An animated tragicomedy about a washed-up sitcom horse destroying everyone who loves him — the funniest, saddest portrait of industry self-destruction ever made, and somehow more honest than Vinyl about the cost.

But It's a cartoon with talking animals — the format alone will turn away anyone expecting straight drama.

BoJack Horseman poster
More like this (8)

The Get Down2016no page yet

Baz Luhrmann's own 70s New York music-birth epic, aimed at hip-hop and disco instead of punk — every bit as excessive, stylised and gloriously overstuffed as Vinyl, maybe more so.

But It's even messier behind the scenes than Vinyl and was cancelled mid-story — you won't get a real ending.

Casino1995

Scorsese doing what Vinyl is straining to imitate: a business empire, a flawed king, a slow collapse narrated with real control. The blueprint, executed properly.

But It's Vegas casinos, not record labels — the milieu is different even if the moral shape is identical.

Casino poster

Boogie Nights1997

Same decade, same drugs, same industry riding high before it curdles — Paul Thomas Anderson's porn-business epic has the exact bittersweet arc of ambition meeting its ceiling.

But Adult film, not music — the specifics are miles away even though the emotional temperature matches.

Boogie Nights poster

Mad Men2007

A different industry, same species of brilliant, self-destructive man burning through everyone who trusts him. Where Vinyl is loud, Mad Men is devastatingly controlled.

But It's advertising, not music, and it moves at a simmer rather than a sprint — patience required.

Mad Men poster

Empire2015

A modern record-label soap with the same family-and-business collision, minus the historical weight — pure entertaining melodrama if you want the industry without the 70s grime.

But It's glossier and far less interested in realism — think primetime soap, not prestige drama.

Empire poster

CBGB2013no page yet

A scrappy, imperfect little film about the club at the actual centre of the punk explosion Vinyl keeps circling — worth it just for the venue's grubby texture.

But It's a minor film, unevenly reviewed, and nowhere near as ambitious as the show it echoes.

Sweet Smell of Success1957

Vinyl's theme of a man corrupted by proximity to fame and power existed fully formed decades earlier — this is the era before rock, doing the same job with a scalpel instead of a sledgehammer.

A vicious, gorgeously shot noir about a press agent selling his soul in the entertainment machine — the moral rot at Vinyl's centre, done with 1950s discipline and not a wasted line.

But Black-and-white, clipped, almost no music — an entirely different rhythm from Vinyl's sprawl and noise.

Sweet Smell of Success poster

The Filth and the Fury2000no page yet

Trades Vinyl's fictionalised punk-birth storyline for the unfiltered real thing, told by the people who lived it — the documentary version of the show's most exciting subplot.

A raw documentary told by the Sex Pistols themselves about the actual birth of punk — no fictional gloss, just the real chaos Vinyl spends its second half chasing and never quite catches.

But No plot, no actors, no comfort — it's archival footage and blunt interviews, demanding a different kind of attention.

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Recommended by

Super Pumped, Amy, Entourage, The Wrecking Crew, Ballers, The Deuce