MGM+'s 8-Hour The Westies Lands as Generic Gangster Drama Despite J.K. Simmons

Q: Why was a key 80s NYC developer erased from a series about Javits Center profits?

He was left out deliberately, not accidentally. Co-creator Chris Brancato said the show chose not to include Donald Trump, even though the Javits Center era was part of the “go-go ’80s in New York” in which he was a major developer. Brancato’s explanation was blunt: “No, we decided to leave him out. He gets enough press.” That means the omission was a creative choice aimed at keeping the focus on the Westies, the Gambinos, and the criminal ecosystem around the convention-center construction rather than pulling attention toward a famous real-estate figure. In a series already crowded with real and fictional mob players, law enforcement, and labor-corruption storylines, adding Trump would likely have shifted the center of gravity away from the gang drama. The decision also fits the broader criticism of “The Westies” as a conventional, tightly bounded genre piece. Reviewers say the show stays within familiar mob-drama lines and concentrates on the truce over Javits Center profits, not on widening the canvas into a fuller portrait of 1980s New York power brokers. So the “erasure” was less about historical denial than about narrowing the narrative to organized-crime characters the creators wanted front and center.

3 articles · Updated · Hollywood Reporter · Jul 12

MGM+’s new eight-hour crime series is judged watchable but uninspired, with the review saying it lacks depth even as J.K. Simmons and Titus Welliver deliver solid lead performances.
1980s New York provides the setup: a truce between the Westies and the Gambino family around Javits Center construction, with FBI pressure and internal betrayals supplying steady but familiar plot movement.
The review argues the show’s biggest weakness is characterization, with Jimmy Roarke, John Gotti and other figures reduced to stock gangster types rather than distinct personalities.
Production design and pacing earn some credit—the period New York looks convincingly grimy and the story stays clear—but the series is said to recycle mob-drama tropes without memorable style, themes or emotional weight.