Let’s be honest: nobody does drama better than family dynasties who blend love with deception and commerce with vendettas. There’s something addicting about viewing mighty clans destroying one another while holding on for dear life to their empires—be it an empire of cattle, crime, or platinum-plated singles. These are the dramas that trap us on the television set, cheering, cringing, and mouthing, “just one more episode. If you’re hungry for scandal, ambition, and more backstabbing than a Shakespeare tragedy, here are ten of the most binge-worthy shows about families who know that power isn’t inherited—it’s fought for. And yes, we’re counting down in reverse, because what’s drama without a little suspense?
10. Amsterdam Empire
Netflix’s Amsterdam Empire has quickly positioned itself as the next great family power saga. In the high-stakes environment of Amsterdam’s cannabis empire, the Van Doorn family is threatened not by outsiders but by their own internal meltdown. When patriarch Jack’s dalliance with a journalist gets out, his wife Betty—played by Dutch actress Famke Janssen in her first role in Dutch—becomes his most feared foe. With its smoky mix of betrayal, ambition, and family warfare, this show promises the same cutthroat thrill that made Succession a phenomenon.
9. The Righteous Gemstones
Imagine Succession but swap billion-dollar media deals for megachurch empires, and you’ve got The Righteous Gemstones. John Goodman plays Eli, the televangelist patriarch of a family more interested in private jets and scandal than saving souls. His grown-up kids fight over dominance, as their putative holiness disintegrates into hypocrisy and debauchery. Equal measures of bitter satire and over-the-top comedy, the series excoriates greed and religion with equal relish, showing that dysfunction is just as messy in a church pew as it would be in a boardroom.
8. Yellowstone
The Duttons don’t merely own property—they own America’s largest ranch, and they’ll shed blood (sometimes actually) to defend it. Yellowstone is a contemporary Western steeped in family strife, as Kevin Costner’s John Dutton fights developers, politicians, and occasionally even his own kids to protect his empire. Against the wide-open vistas of Montana’s unforgiving horizons, betrayals are waged with the poignancy of gunfights. It’s a show where dinners can turn into all-out wars, and allegiance is frequently as delicate as a glass of bourbon.
7. Arrested Development
Not all power struggles are fatal—some are riotously trivial. Meet the Bluths, TV’s most lovably screwed-up family. When it’s put away, it’s up to patriarch George Bluth’s son Michael to keep the family (and their declining real estate empire) afloat. Too bad his siblings and mother care more about self-indulgence than staying alive. Filled with running gags, quick one-liners, and ridiculous situations, Arrested Development renders the family power struggle cliche into one of the greatest comedies ever.
6. Billions
While money doesn’t necessarily lead to happiness, it buys power, enemies, and a lot of aggravation in Billions. Hedge fund kingpin Bobby Axelrod and U.S. Lawyer Chuck Rhoades face off in a game of power and family loyalty where personal scores and familial allegiance mix into the equation. Each step is a gamble for all, with alliances tested by the pressure of plays. With wickedly sharp wit and morally ambiguous players, Billions proves that in finances and family alike, no one’s hands are clean—and that’s the very thing that makes it so compulsively watchable.
5. Six Feet Under
Few series approach family dysfunction with such profundity and sensitivity as Six Feet Under. Focusing on the Fisher clan, proprietors of a funeral home, the show examines grief, love, and secrets both darkly comedic and deeply affecting. Every show starts with a death, but the drama is really with the living—siblings struggling with identity, parents tormented by regrets, and a family business where death is always nearby. A family drama but also a reflection on what it means to live, love, and let go.
4. Empire
Take a hip-hop empire, mix in a vicious patriarch, add Shakespearean degrees of treachery, and Empire results. Terrence Howard stars as Lucious Lyon, the music mogul who must decide which of his sons will succeed him on the throne. But it’s Taraji P. Henson as Cookie Lyon—his fiery, unforgettable ex-wife—who usually upstages them both. With flashy acting, outsized emotions, and so many twists they approach King Lear, Empire serves up family drama at its most brawny and fun.
3. The Sopranos
The template for all contemporary family dramas, The Sopranos revolutionized television. It revolves around Tony Soprano, a mob leader attempting to reconcile the expectations of organized crime with the subnormality of his suburban clan. Therapy sessions also discover fissures in his mind, as betrayals and rivalries unveil the cruel nature of power. Equal measures of crime, epic and family drama, The Sopranos is darkly comedic, endlessly riveting, and still among the most influential programmes ever produced.
2. The Great
History, but wickedly humorous. The Great reimagines the ascent of Catherine the Great to the Russian throne in the 18th century through razor-sharp satire and contemporary style. Elle Fanning is brilliant as Catherine, whose intelligence and drive render her formidable, and Nicholas Hoult’s superbly deranged Peter ensures royal life is riotously silly. It’s edgy, biting, and a heck of a lot more fun than any dry-as-dust textbook history. If you prefer your family dynasties with a dash of dark humor, this one’s the ticket.
1. Succession
The current king of dysfunctional family television, Succession is the greatest tale of riches, treachery, and toxic love. The Roys, proprietors of an international media conglomerate, make every conversation a fight and every birthday bash a takeover. With sharp-as-knives dialogue, iconic performances, and sufficient backstabbing to provide limitless memes, the show is a cultural reference point. Logan Roy’s shadow hangs heavy over his children, all of whom scrape frantically for validation and control. Succession is not television—it’s a masterclass in human need and the ugliness of family bonds.
Haunted funeral homes and gilded palaces, ranches in Montana and recording studios in New York: these shows establish one universal truth: when power and family combine, chaos is always at hand. They might make you laugh, they might make you gasp, but one thing’s for sure—you won’t be able to tear your eyes away. So pick up your snacks (and perhaps have some family therapy jokes at the ready), because these dirty, addictive soap operas are the kind of TV that will have you up all night.