MGM+'s new eight-part drama The Westies brings New York's most feared Irish-American gang to television, starring Oscar winner J.K. Simmons and Tom Brittney. The series, created by Narcos showrunner Chris Brancato and Michael Panes, landed on MGM+ via Prime Video this week.
Setting and Stakes
The series transports viewers to Hell's Kitchen in the early 1980s, where the gang is fighting to hold onto its shrinking patch of Manhattan while balancing an increasingly fragile alliance with New York's Five Families. With the construction of the Javits Center promising millions of dollars flowing through their territory, the stakes have never been higher.
Irish gangs have rarely received the prestige television treatment on the global stage. While Irish audiences have embraced gritty homegrown dramas such as Love/Hate and Kin, it's the Italian Mafia that has traditionally dominated the genre through classics like The Godfather, Goodfellas and The Sopranos. Even Britain's Peaky Blinders has elevated the Birmingham gang into pop-culture folklore.
J.K. Simmons' Performance
At the centre of it all is J.K. Simmons, delivering one of his most quietly unnerving performances since Whiplash. His character Eamon Sweeney barely needs to raise his voice to command absolute authority. Within minutes of the opening episode, audiences understand exactly who they're dealing with. One moment, Sweeney is calm, measured and almost fatherly; the next, the mask slips to reveal a calculating man capable of extraordinary ruthlessness.
“Any bad guy role that that comes my way, I'm always looking for complexity and for you know subtlety, shades of grey and glimpses of humanity, even in a vile human being,” Simmons told The Standard. “Chris Brancato and Michael Panes really wrote a whole cast full of well-rounded characters and that's the appeal.” Asked to sum up Sweeney, Simmons quips: “He's just such a sweetheart.”
Tom Brittney's Role
If Simmons provides the show's authority, Tom Brittney supplies its restless energy. Having spent six seasons playing Grantchester's compassionate Reverend Will Davenport, Brittney couldn't be further from Cambridgeshire's leafy villages. Swapping sermons for shootouts, he stars as Jimmy Roarke, one of the gang's younger rising stars whose ambition threatens to upend the delicate order Sweeney has spent years maintaining.
As money pours into Hell's Kitchen through the Javits Center development, Jimmy begins questioning whether the old rules of doing business still apply. That tension gives The Westies far more than a straightforward cops-and-gangsters narrative. Instead, it becomes a story about generational change, with Jimmy representing a younger, more volatile generation colliding with Sweeney's calculated, old-school leadership. Their pseudo father-son relationship quickly becomes the emotional engine of the series.
“You couldn't ask for a better scene partner,” Brittney says of Simmons. “It's J.K. Simmons. We all grew up watching him in something we admired. He makes the set incredibly warm and he's just the best person to work opposite.”
That warmth, however, rarely extends to their characters. Every exchange between Jimmy and Eamon feels weighted with obligation. For Brittney, that conflict reflects the changing identity of the gang itself. “The younger Westies are coming out of the 60s and 70s,” he explains. “There's more rebellion in them. They're beginning to question how business has always been done.”
Supporting Cast and Themes
The impressive supporting cast, including Titus Welliver, Jessica Frances Dukes, Allen Leech, Sarah Bolger and Stanley Morgan, further blurs the moral lines, ensuring there are few straightforward heroes or villains. The Westies is available to stream now on MGM+ through Prime Video.
