The Artful Dodger is a crime drama series created by James McNamara, David Maher, and David Taylor. Based on the characters from Charles Dickens‘s classic book Oliver Twist, the Hulu series is set in 1850s Australia and it revolves around a grownup Jack Dawkins aka the Artful Dodger. After Jack escaped from prison he made a new life for himself as a surgeon but when Fagin re-enters his life things are surely going to go awry. The Artful Dodger stars Thomas Brodi-Sangster in the lead role of Jack Dawkins, with David Thewlis, Maia Mitchell, and Damon Herriman starring in supporting roles. So, if you loved the spin-off series here are some similar shows you could watch next.
Oliver Twist (Hulu & Prime Video Add-On)
The Artful Dodger is a character from the pages of Charles Dickens’s classic novel Oliver Twist. The 2007 series of the same name revolves around the titular character, an orphan who becomes a part of a gang of thieves led by Fagin. Besides some similar characters, The Artful Dodger also features the battle between good and evil in the main characters. Oliver Twist stars Tom Hardy, William Miller, Adam Arnold, Timothy Spall, Sarah Lancashire, and Sophie Okonedo.
Sneaky Pete (Prime Video)
After being released from prison, a con man decides to take on the identity of his cellmate to save his life from some enemies. One thing leads to another and he ends up at his cellmate’s estranged grandparents’ house and pretends to be him to con them out of their hard-earned money but surprisingly he becomes attached to the family especially his cellmate’s cousin Julia. Sneaky Pete has some similar concepts as The Artful Dodger including the inner battle between good and evil, and a main character who is pretending to be someone else to save his life.
Irreverent (Peacock & Rent on Prime Video)
The Peacock series has many similarities to Sneaky Pete and The Artful Dodger, which will be explained if you keep reading the description of the series. Irreverent revolves around a New York thug, who has a chance encounter with a priest at an airport while running for his life. The priest surprisingly steals all of his money and runs off to find him our protagonist goes to the village where the priest was headed and pretends to be him. He quickly develops admiration for the people of the village.
Barry (Max & Prime Video Add-On)
One of the best dark comedy series ever created is Alec Berg and Bill Hader’s Barry, and luckily we found some similarities between The Artful Dodger and Barry. Such as both of the main characters are trying to battle the demons within them to fit in the lie they have told the people around them and both of them also have a toxic relationship with their mentors aka guardians. The HBO dramedy revolves around a hitman who wants to leave a life of death behind and he gets that chance when he travels to Los Angeles to murder an actor but ends up impersonating as an acting student and finds himself eager to learn. Barry stars Hader in the lead role with Henry Winkler, Stephen Root, Anthony Carrigan, and Sarah Goldberg starring in supporting roles.
The Knick (Max & Prime Video Add-On)
The Artful Dodger is half thriller and half medical show, and for the fans of the latter half, we would like to suggest another HBO series titled The Knick. The medical drama series is set at the turn of the 20th century at a New York hospital where a brilliant surgeon named Dr. John Thackery tries to push the boundaries of medicine of the time. The Knick stars Clive Owen in the lead role of Dr. John Thackery with Eve Hewson, Juliet Rylance, and André Holland starring in supporting roles.
A Young Doctor’s Notebook (Rent on Prime Video)
While this psychological and medical comedy-drama series doesn’t have much in common with The Artful Dodger, it does have a similar morbid humor to death and sickness. Starring Daniel Radcliffe and Jon Hamm, A Young Doctor’s Notebook is based on semi-autobiographical short stories by Bulgakov and it revolves around a young doctor at the start of his career in a small Russian village. This series deals with heavy topics such as addiction and depression.
Ripper Street (Rent on Prime Video)
Ripper Street is a British mystery drama series and while it doesn’t have much in common with The Artful Dodger aside from some political maneuvering and one shady main character who is hiding his past, it is worth a watch. The series is set in 1883 in Whitechapel, nearly five months after the last Jack the Ripper murder and it follows Detective Inspector Edmund Reid, who tries to find heinous criminals when everybody is still recovering from the Ripper killings. In this quest, he is helped by a US Army surgeon named Captain Homer Jackson. Ripper Street stars Succession and Pride & Prejudice famed actor Matthew Macfadyen in the lead role of DI Edmund Reid.
The Musketeers (Prime Video, Hulu, Pluto TV & Tubi)
If you loved the vibe and thrills in The Artful Dodger, then you might like The Musketeers, which is also based on a classic novel by the writer Alexandre Dumas. Set in 17th-century Paris, The Musketeers revolves around Athos, Aramis, and Porthos who stand for honor, love, and just for the hell of it in the times when law and order is more of an idea than a reality. The Musketeers is an action-packed thrill ride that will get you hooked from the get-go and the characters are also quite compelling.
Banshee (Max & Prime Video Add-On)
Banshee is a wildly underrated crime thriller and it also follows a main character who changes his identity to hide his past from the people around him. The Cinemax series revolves around a recently paroled thief who assumed the identity of Sherrif Lucas Hood and moves to a small town named Banshee in Pennsylvania, where his partner in crime moved years ago and changed her identity to Carrie Hopewell and married the prosecutor of the town. Banshee stars The Boys famed actor Antony Starr in the lead role of Lucas Hood with Ivana Miličević and Lili Simmons starring in supporting roles.
Dodger
Dodger is another adaptation of Dickens’s classic novel Oliver Twist. In this comedy-drama series, we focus on Dodger aka Jack Dawkins during his childhood years when he ran a gang of pickpockets in 1830s London. The gang is always one step from being captured by the law but to meet the pickpocketing demands of Fagin, Dodger and his team of pickpocketing kids do what they have to, to survive the grim conditions of early Victorian London. While Dodger is an adaptation from the same novel, the tone is very much different from The Artful Dodger and it is also much more of a children-centric series.