Boardwalk Empire (Seasons 1–5)

Boardwalk Empire (2010–2014) is HBO's Prohibition-era crime drama, and you can watch it online on iFILM. Atlantic City greets the alcohol ban not as a threat but as the business opportunity of a lifetime.

Enoch "Nucky" Thompson holds the city treasurer's office by day and runs its bootleg trade by night, keeping politicians, cops and rum-runners on his payroll. Steve Buscemi plays him as an accountant first and a gangster second, a man who tallies every favor he hands out. Around him, war veteran Jimmy Darmody strains against his mentor's shadow, zealous agent Nelson Van Alden chases his own crusade, and Irish widow Margaret rises from petitioner to dangerous partner. Young Al Capone and Lucky Luciano are already circling.

Martin Scorsese directed the pilot, and his fingerprints are all over the period craft: the jazz, the tailoring, a full-scale boardwalk rebuilt for the camera. Across five seasons the show pulled in a stack of Emmy Awards and became HBO's signature drama in the years after The Sopranos. If sprawling historical crime with no romance about the violence is your thing, start here. Stream Boardwalk Empire online on iFILM.