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| Best Shows Like 4 Blocks Zero for Crime Drama Fans. |
If 4 Blocks Zero left you wanting another crime drama with family loyalties, organised crime, political pressure and people making increasingly questionable decisions because apparently a quiet life is too much to ask, there are plenty of shows to try next. The 2026 German series takes viewers back to 1990s Berlin to chart the Hamady family's early years, turning the origins of its criminal empire into a tense story about survival, ambition, exclusion and loyalty. Its mix of European crime drama, family saga and historical setting makes it particularly easy to pair with shows that explore how ordinary circumstances can push characters towards increasingly dangerous worlds.
Here are 19 shows worth watching if you enjoyed 4 Blocks Zero, whether it was the Berlin setting, the organised-crime storyline, the family drama or the slow transformation of ambitious characters that kept you watching.
Shows Like 4 BLOCKS ZERO
1. 4 Blocks (2017)
The obvious place to start is 4 Blocks, the original German crime drama that 4 Blocks Zero serves as a prequel to. It follows Toni Hamady as he tries to maintain control over his criminal family and business empire in Berlin. The connection is far more than cosmetic: the prequel explores the circumstances that eventually shape the family seen in the original series. If 4 Blocks Zero shows how the empire was built, 4 Blocks shows what happens when keeping it together becomes almost impossible.
2. Dogs of Berlin (2018)
Dogs of Berlin keeps the crime drama firmly rooted in the German capital, although its story moves into a more contemporary Berlin. Two very different police detectives become involved in a murder investigation that pulls them into organised crime, corruption and competing criminal networks. Like 4 Blocks Zero, it uses Berlin as more than just scenery, presenting the city as a place where different communities, loyalties and criminal interests collide.
3. Gomorrah (2014)
If the appeal of 4 Blocks Zero lies in watching a criminal organisation grow from the inside, Gomorrah is an obvious match. The Italian series explores the power struggles surrounding the Camorra in Naples, focusing on loyalty, betrayal, family ties and ruthless competition. Its characters rarely get the luxury of making simple choices, which makes it particularly close in spirit to a story about people entering organised crime through circumstances that keep narrowing their options.
4. Suburra: Blood on Rome (2017)
Suburra: Blood on Rome combines organised crime, politics and personal ambition in a story set around Rome. Criminal groups, politicians and powerful families repeatedly cross paths, creating alliances that can disappear almost as quickly as they are made.
That mixture of crime, family interests and political influence gives it plenty in common with 4 Blocks Zero, particularly if you enjoyed the way the German series connects personal survival with a much larger criminal ecosystem.
5. Top Boy (2011)
Top Boy focuses on drug dealers, young people and residents navigating life around London's fictional Summerhouse estate. Its strongest connection to 4 Blocks Zero is its interest in the circumstances surrounding criminal life rather than treating organised crime as something that exists in a vacuum. Family, money, territory, loyalty and survival all overlap, while characters can find themselves pulled deeper into the criminal world almost before they realise it.
6. ZeroZeroZero (2019)
For viewers who liked the international scale behind the crime in 4 Blocks Zero, ZeroZeroZero offers a much broader story. The series follows a cocaine shipment from its purchase to its eventual destination, moving between criminal organisations and countries along the way. It has the same interest in the mechanics of organised crime, showing how seemingly distant decisions can have consequences across an entire network. It is less of a family-origin story, but considerably more complicated.
7. Gangs of London (2020)
Gangs of London begins with the death of a powerful crime boss and the chaos that follows. Rival organisations quickly move to protect their interests, settle old scores and seize territory.
Like 4 Blocks Zero, it puts family loyalty and criminal power at the centre of the drama, although it turns the violence and action dial considerably higher. If you thought the Hamadys had complicated family meetings, this one has a rather different definition of workplace conflict.
8. Snabba Cash (2021)
Swedish crime drama Snabba Cash connects the worlds of start-up money, organised crime and personal ambition. Its characters are driven by financial pressure and the desire to move beyond their circumstances, only to discover that fast money tends to come with extremely slow consequences. The similarities with 4 Blocks Zero come through its focus on social inequality, criminal networks and characters crossing moral lines while trying to secure a better future.
9. McMafia (2018)
McMafia takes organised crime beyond one city and follows a family drawn into an international criminal network. Alex Godman initially tries to distance himself from his family's criminal history, but circumstances gradually pull him towards the world he hoped to avoid. That central tension makes it a strong companion to 4 Blocks Zero, where family history and survival repeatedly influence the direction of younger characters.
10. Romanzo Criminale (2008)
Set in Italy, Romanzo Criminale follows a group of criminals who attempt to build a powerful organisation in Rome. The series combines street crime with politics, corruption and shifting alliances, while its characters develop from small-time criminals into figures with considerably greater influence. Like 4 Blocks Zero, it is interested in the formation of a criminal empire, rather than simply dropping viewers into the middle of one and asking them to catch up.
11. Fauda (2015)
Fauda takes a different route, centring on an Israeli counter-terrorism unit and the operations surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Its connection to 4 Blocks Zero comes through its tense character relationships, divided loyalties and focus on how personal connections can complicate dangerous situations. It is not an organised-crime drama in the same sense, but viewers who enjoyed the pressure and fast-moving conflicts of 4 Blocks Zero may find plenty to keep them occupied.
12. Tokyo Vice (2022)
Tokyo Vice moves the story to 1990s Tokyo, where an American journalist becomes increasingly involved with the city's criminal underworld. The period setting is one of its strongest similarities to 4 Blocks Zero, which also uses a historical city undergoing major social and political change as an important part of its story. Both shows are interested in criminal networks, changing power structures and the people trying to understand a world where the rules are rarely written down.
13. Animal Kingdom (2016)
Animal Kingdom centres on a young man who moves in with his extended family after the death of his mother and discovers that the family business is considerably less respectable than it first appears. The series makes family loyalty and organised crime inseparable, much like 4 Blocks Zero. The difference is that the Cody family has its own particularly chaotic way of handling internal disagreements, making ordinary family gatherings look suspiciously peaceful by comparison.
14. Kin (2021)
Irish crime drama Kin follows the Kinsella family, a criminal dynasty whose relationships become increasingly strained as conflict threatens their position. It shares 4 Blocks Zero's focus on the idea that family can be both protection and pressure. Characters repeatedly have to choose between personal relationships and the interests of the wider organisation, creating the same kind of emotional tension that makes crime-family stories so difficult to leave alone.
15. The Wire (2002)
The Wire takes a broader, more socially detailed approach to crime in Baltimore, examining drug organisations alongside police, politics, education, the media and other institutions.
It differs from 4 Blocks Zero in scale and structure, but the connection is clear in its interest in how systems shape individual choices. Rather than presenting crime as a collection of isolated bad decisions, it examines the environment around those decisions and the pressures that keep the cycle moving.
16. The Sopranos (1999)
The Sopranos remains one of television's defining organised-crime dramas, following Tony Soprano as he balances family responsibilities with his position inside a criminal organisation.
The similarities with 4 Blocks Zero are particularly strong around family, power, loyalty and succession. Both stories understand that running a criminal organisation is not simply about controlling rivals; it also means managing relatives who have their own ambitions, grudges and very inconvenient opinions.
17. Peaky Blinders (2013)
Peaky Blinders follows the Shelby family as it expands its criminal operation in post-first-world-war Birmingham. While the period and location are completely different from 1990s Berlin, the central idea is familiar: a family builds power while attempting to turn criminal influence into something much larger. Its combination of family politics, organised crime, ambition and changing society makes it a natural choice after 4 Blocks Zero.
18. Boardwalk Empire (2010)
Set during Prohibition-era America, Boardwalk Empire follows the rise of organised crime around Atlantic City and the political relationships that help it flourish. The historical setting gives the series a similar appeal to 4 Blocks Zero, where the social and political environment matters almost as much as the criminals themselves. It also explores how legitimate institutions and criminal enterprises can become uncomfortably intertwined.
19. Ganglands (2021)
French crime thriller Ganglands follows a skilled thief and his nephew as they become involved with a powerful drug dealer after a dangerous robbery. The series shares 4 Blocks Zero's emphasis on criminal networks, family relationships and characters being pulled further into a world they cannot easily leave. Its faster pace makes it particularly suitable for viewers who want another European crime story without sacrificing the personal stakes behind the action.
My take: 4 Blocks Zero works best as a crime-family story rather than simply another gangster series, because its appeal comes from seeing how the Hamadys reach the point where crime becomes a means of survival and eventually a source of power.
That is why shows such as Gomorrah, Suburra: Blood on Rome, Kin, Animal Kingdom and Romanzo Criminale feel particularly relevant, while The Wire and Tokyo Vice offer something broader through their social and historical settings.
There is also plenty of variety here, so you do not have to watch another German series immediately after finishing it. Sometimes the best follow-up is an Italian crime saga; sometimes it is an Irish family drama; occasionally, apparently, watching an entire criminal dynasty make increasingly terrible decisions is the evening's entertainment plan.
If 4 Blocks Zero was the mix of family, crime, Berlin history and character development that hooked you, these 19 shows offer plenty of different ways to continue. Which one would you put at the top of your watchlist, and which crime drama do you think deserves to be added to this list? Share your pick — especially if there is a European crime series that has somehow escaped this list.