Epix's Godfather of Harlem animates pieces of black history that have barely been explored

TV Guide

The 1960s-set drama, premiering Sunday, stars Forest Whitaker as Bumpy Johnson, a real-life crime boss who hasn't received much attention in pop-culture. "It's a sparkling cast, and, bolstered by lush production, they create a world of glamorous danger," says Malcolm Venable. "It's weakest in the writing. As alluded to previously, the Godfather of Harlem uses a lot of vintage gangster slang, as well as typical mob-story tropes, that sometimes make it ring almost cartoonish at times; Bumpy spits out one-liners and slices throats like some sort of comic book mercenary. But it works. It's gritty, pulpy and unpredictable and confident in a swagger that's not really trying to emulate the soft nuances of 'prestige' crime dramas like Breaking Bad or The Sopranos."

ALSO:

• Godfather of Harlem is the rare gangster epic with something new to say
• This is the rare portrait of Harlem at the outset of a cultural and social revolution, of other "race men" and the world they were about to change
• The cast is absurdly stacked beyond Forest Whitaker, with Giancarlo Esposito, Vincent D’Onofrio, Paul Sorvino and Chazz Palminteri