The new Epix series ‘Godfather of Harlem’ shifts familiar Mob action to 1960s Harlem, with an all-star cast. Read Alan Sepinwall’s review
character, Nucky Thompson, was based on the historical figure Nucky Johnson, but that show changed the name to allow itself greater license to fictionalize the story. AndBoardwalkThe cast is absurdly stacked beyond Whitaker . Giancarlo Esposito plays Harlem Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., whose ties to the establishment make him a spiritual opposite to Malcolm.
The series opens in 1963 with Bumpy finishing a long prison stretch in Alcatraz, returning home to find his old territory overrun with Mafioso who have little interest in letting him retake what’s his. As Gigante puts it with a sneer: “You know that nobody likes you people getting all loud and boisterous, right?” Malcolm, who knew Bumpy when he himself was a criminal still using the name Malcolm Little, offers to help take back the neighborhood from these white interlopers.
The caliber of the cast — and the fact that so many of them are actors of color, when most of this territory in cable and streaming is still covered by white men — distinguishes the material to a degree. D’Onofrio is at the more scenery-chewing end of his range, and the early episodes mostly have Esposito in glad-handing mode. But Forest Whitaker is a striking, dangerous presence no matter how familiar the material.
But the show also points out how aware Bumpy is of the limits of his power and infamy. As Elise puts it at one point, “He may be a big man in Harlem, but if he goes south of 110th Street, he just another n—-r. I don’t think he can ever get over that.” He’ll never achieve the stature of the most iconic cinematic Godfathers, and that resentment drives the better moments of this
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