Lilyhammer Was Netflix's First Series: The Sopranos Sequel Hiding in Plain Sight

Let’s go back a dozen years, way before Stranger Things or Squid Game, when Netflix was better known for mailing DVDs than churning out prestige TV. Everyone gushes about House of Cards as the show that put Netflix on the original content map, but here’s the twist: the true first Netflix original actually arrived a year earlier — and it’s a wonderfully bizarre, slightly overlooked mob comedy starring a guy who used to play guitar for Bruce Springsteen. That show is Lilyhammer.

Netflix Originals: The Real First Act

Lilyhammer hit the service on February 6, 2012, back when Netflix’s original content strategy was just getting off the ground. Instead of launching a self-serious political drama right out of the gate, Netflix decided to roll the dice on a fish-out-of-water mobster sitcom, with a concept I honestly can’t imagine any other American network touching at the time.

Here’s the key bit: It stars Steven Van Zandt—yes, the E Street Band’s longtime guitarist, but more to the point, the guy behind Silvio Dante, one of the best scene-stealers from The Sopranos. Despite basically zero professional acting experience before his HBO days, Van Zandt was the anchor of this first Netflix gamble.

And if you’re thinking Netflix cooked this up to ride the wave of The Sopranos’ cultural dominance, you’re not wrong. If House of Cards was Netflix trying to be HBO, Lilyhammer was Netflix trying to be…well, HBO with a Scandi-crime twist.

So What’s Lilyhammer Actually About?

Steven Van Zandt co-wrote the show with creators Anne Bjørnstad and Eilif Skodvin, and the premise is bonkers in the best way. Van Zandt plays Frank 'The Fixer' Tagliano, a New York mob guy who rats to the feds and gets dumped into the FBI’s Witness Protection Program. But instead of asking for somewhere warm or familiar, Frank demands to be sent to Lillehammer, Norway — purely because he was obsessed with seeing it on TV during the 1994 Winter Olympics.

What follows is three seasons (24 episodes in all), full of Frank flailing through small-town Scandi life, with zero patience for local customs but enough criminal know-how to try bending Norway to his will. The show leans hard into the comedic culture clash: Frank tries to open a nightclub, invest in luxury real estate, and generally run his old playbook in a place where people don’t even jaywalk.

There’s also a bit of weird, almost mythic backstory: the series title isn’t just the town—it’s also named for Frank’s dog, Lily. (Yes, really.) The show actually kicks off because Lily gets murdered, sending Frank on a revenge tear against New York mob boss Aldo Delucci (Thomas Grube). If you sense some John Wick energy—minus the endless gun-fu—you’re not far off.

• Frank 'The Fixer' Tagliano (Steven Van Zandt): The mobster-turned-underground Scandinavian mogul.
• Aldo Delucci (Thomas Grube): Frank’s nemesis and the target of his canine-fueled vengeance.
• Creators: Steven Van Zandt, Anne Bjørnstad, Eilif Skodvin.
• Spanned 3 seasons and 24 episodes, kicking off Netflix’s entire original content operation.

Frank, Silvio—Same Guy, New Accent?

One of the funnier aspects of Lilyhammer is just how much Van Zandt leans into his Silvio persona. Honestly, swap out the suits and location, and it wouldn’t be hard to sell this as a stealth continuation of The Sopranos: Last time we saw Silvio on HBO, he was left in a coma with his fate totally unresolved. Suddenly Van Zandt pops up here, as a mobster whose luck runs out, and he has to start over—the timeline kind of lines up if you squint.

Netflix’s logic was almost too obvious: grab one of The Sopranos’ best comic foils, whose character’s story was left open, and launch their whole original content push on his broad, heavily hair-sprayed shoulders. Reed Hastings, Netflix’s CEO at the time, made it clear the goal was to become “the next HBO.” Lilyhammer fits right in with that plan—equal parts derivative and inspired. But in the sea of anonymous “quirky crime shows,” it’s still genuinely funny and weird enough in its own right.

Rediscovery and Lasting Reputation

Here’s where things get a little meta: during the COVID-19 quarantine, Lilyhammer apparently found a second life. In a 2022 interview with Netflix’s TUDUM, Van Zandt put it this way:

"I think the show got three times as big during the quarantine. The Sopranos was rediscovered, but Lilyhammer, I think, was discovered for the first time. I get a lot of wonderful reactions. It blows everybody's mind when they see it because there's just nothing like it. It was just a perfect show to start off Netflix because I think it is truly an international show."

In other words: For all the love House of Cards got, the real starting line for Netflix Originals is Lilyhammer. Sure, it’s fish-out-of-water mob comedy, but it’s also the bold, weird leap that shaped what Netflix would become: global, genre-blending, and totally unafraid to cast Bruce Springsteen’s guitarist as a New York wiseguy loose in rural Norway. Not a bad way to start.