If crime dramas set in gritty, real-world New York are your thing, The Westies has probably already found its way onto your watchlist. MGM+’s new period gangster series kicked off on July 12, 2026, and it’s been steadily building toward its season finale ever since, trading in the kind of old-school brutality and family betrayal that fans of The Sopranos and Goodfellas eat up. With J.K. Simmons and Titus Welliver anchoring the cast, this is prestige mob TV that knows exactly what audience it’s speaking to.
Here’s your complete guide: what the show is about, who’s in it, the full episode breakdown, and where you can watch it.
Drama Overview
| Info | Detail |
|---|---|
| Title | The Westies |
| Genre | Crime, Drama, Historical |
| Creators | Chris Brancato, Michael Panes |
| Showrunner | Chris Brancato |
| Episodes | 8 |
| Air Date | July 12 – August 23, 2026 |
| Airs On | Sundays, 9:00 PM ET/PT |
| Network | MGM+ |
| Episode Runtime | ~45–59 minutes |
| Setting | Early 1980s, Hell’s Kitchen, New York City |
| Based On | The real-life Irish-American gang known as the Westies |
The series marks the third collaboration between showrunner Chris Brancato and MGM+, following Hotel Cocaine and The Godfather of Harlem. Brancato is also the co-creator behind Netflix’s Narcos, so this isn’t his first time turning organized crime history into prestige television.
Synopsis
Set in early-1980s Hell’s Kitchen, The Westies centers on the construction of the Jacob Javits Convention Center, a project that promises a serious financial windfall for whoever controls the turf it’s being built on. The Westies, a notorious Irish-American gang, are massively outnumbered by the Five Families of the Italian Mafia, roughly fifty-to-one, but their reputation for brutality and cunning has kept them a fragile seat at the table.
That peace starts cracking from the inside. A growing rift between the gang’s old-school leadership and its brash younger generation threatens to tear the crew apart, right as the FBI’s investigation into the Italian mafia begins pulling the Westies into its orbit too. What follows is a slow-building, blood-soaked collision of loyalty, ambition, and generational conflict, and by episode 7, that collision has already claimed real casualties.
Cast and Characters
Main Cast
J.K. Simmons as Eamon Sweeney, The charismatic but ruthless head of the Westies. Sweeney’s old-school neighborhood charm masks a fierce criminal ambition and a calculated brutality that becomes harder to hide as the season goes on.
Titus Welliver as Glenn Keenan, An NYPD officer with deep roots in the Westies, having grown up alongside much of the crew in Hell’s Kitchen. His arc is defined by the tug-of-war between loyalty to his found family and his duty to the badge.
Tom Brittney as James “Jimmy” Roarke, The fiercely loyal, streetwise leader of the Westies’ younger generation. Jimmy has looked up to Eamon as a mentor for years, which makes their eventual falling-out land that much harder.
Jessica Frances Dukes as Birdie Polk, The Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Gambino Task Force, determined to take down both the Irish and Italian sides of organized crime in the city.
Stanley Morgan as Mickey Flanagan, The impulsive troublemaker of the crew, freshly released from Bellevue. His devotion to Jimmy and the gang tends to blind him to the consequences of his own actions.
Sarah Bolger as Bridget Walsh, A steely, calculating IRA operative with a troubled past. She’s also Jimmy Roarke’s girlfriend, though her own mission runs on a track largely separate from the gang war.
Allen Leech as Brendan Cahill, A figure from Bridget’s past whose motives, and possible ties to law enforcement, remain a running question throughout the season.
Hamish Allan-Headley as John Gotti, A younger version of the real-life “Teflon Don.” His scheming with Eamon over a cocaine deal becomes one of the season’s central fault lines.
Supporting Cast
| Actor | Character |
|---|---|
| Vincent Walsh | Eddie Breen |
| Hilary McCormack | Erin Malone |
| Aidan Wojtak-Hissong | Danny Keenan (Glenn’s son) |
| Jeremy Walmsley | Pat |
| Dylan Taylor | Connor |
Episode Guide
The Westies premiered with a two-episode launch on July 12, 2026, then settled into a weekly Sunday release through the finale. Recap links go live as each episode airs.
| Ep | Title | Air Date | Recap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Troubles | July 12, 2026 | Read Recap |
| 2 | The Houdini | July 12, 2026 | Read Recap |
| 3 | The Starship | July 19, 2026 | Read Recap |
| 4 | Favours and Funerals | July 26, 2026 | Read Recap |
| 5 | A Right Rose Tree | August 2, 2026 | Read Recap |
| 6 | Rad Tad | August 9, 2026 | Read Recap |
| 7 | A Boy Made of Trouble | August 16, 2026 | Read Recap |
| 8 | The Irish Goodbye | August 23, 2026 | Recap coming soon |
This page will be updated with the finale recap link once “The Irish Goodbye” airs.
Where to Watch
The Westies streams exclusively on MGM+, available through the MGM+ app or as an add-on through providers like Prime Video Channels and DIRECTV. New episodes drop every Sunday at 9:00 PM ET/PT.
Critical Reception
The Westies landed a 71% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on early critic reviews (an initial batch of reviews had it as high as 80% before settling). The reception has been generally favorable without being a slam dunk, critics have praised the performances more than the originality of the storytelling.
Screen Rant’s Greg MacArthur described it as a full-bodied gangster and mob series that knows exactly what its audience wants, and argued the cast is strong enough that a second season should be an easy call for MGM+. Elsewhere, The Guardian gave the show a more lukewarm 3 out of 5, and Decider pointed to Simmons and Welliver specifically as the reason the show works as well as it does. The consistent thread across most reviews: the ensemble cast, especially Simmons, Welliver, and Hamish Allan-Headley’s take on John Gotti, is doing a lot of the heavy lifting.
Season 2 Odds
MGM+ hasn’t officially confirmed a second season as of this writing. That said, creators Chris Brancato and Michael Panes have already hinted to Deadline that more story is coming, essentially telling fans to stay tuned. Given the strength of the cast and the real-world well of Westies history still left to draw from, a renewal wouldn’t be a surprise.
Why It’s Worth Watching
If you’re a fan of gangster sagas that lean into history instead of pure fiction, The Westies delivers exactly that. J.K. Simmons and Titus Welliver are magnetic whenever they share a scene, and the show doesn’t shy away from letting its violence carry real emotional weight rather than treating it as spectacle. The generational conflict between Eamon and Jimmy has been the slow-burning engine of the whole season, and by episode 7, it finally catches fire in a way that makes the build-up worth it.
It’s not a show reinventing the genre, several critics have pointed that out, but it’s a confidently made one, backed by a cast that clearly understands the assignment. If you liked The Godfather of Harlem or Hotel Cocaine, this is Brancato working in familiar, well-earned territory.
Watch it if you like: The Sopranos, The Godfather of Harlem, Boardwalk Empire, or any crime drama where the family drama hits just as hard as the violence.
This page is updated as new episodes air. Bookmark it for recap links, episode titles, and any major cast or production updates.
