MobLand (season 1)

MobLand is a gritty crime drama on Paramount+, created by Ronan Bennett and directed by Guy Ritchie. The series follows two warring London crime families, the Harrigans and the Stevensons, as they clash in a brutal turf war that threatens to topple empires. At the center of the chaos is Harry Da Souza, played by Tom Hardy, a street-smart fixer navigating dangerous alliances and shifting loyalties. Starring Pierce Brosnan as the patriarch Conrad Harrigan and Helen Mirren as the cunning matriarch Maeve Harrigan.

MobLand Review (S1:E1)

Set in present-day England, Mobland follows the Harrigan family, one of the top two English crime families, led by Conrad and Maeve Harrigan, played by Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren, as they traverse the dark yet exceedingly polite and posh underworld of the top echelons of British drug cartels.

The plot for Episode 1 is fairly straightforward, gangster fare. The Harrigans are looking to expand their operations by cutting into their rival’s fentanyl trade. While that comes with its own set of issues, things are further complicated when it’s discovered that Conrad’s grandson has been out partying with the son of his most bitter rival, and he goes missing following a particularly wild night out.

As tensions rise, the Harrigans’ fixer, Harry Da Souza, played by Tom Hardy, gets involved to help assess whether they should attempt to lower the temperature or go to war, which is something for which Brosnan’s Conrad has been chomping at the bit.

MobLand doesn’t reinvent the wheel. Anyone who’s watched virtually any show featuring organized crime families will recognize all of the familiar tropes in this show—from warring families and longtime friends turned traitor to boosting and reselling cars. But as George Poll-tee claimed in the 1800s, writers like Shakespeare had already explored all possible dramatic scenarios. So, all that’s left to modern filmmakers and storytellers are variations on a theme.

That means that the quality of shows like MobLand depends almost entirely on style and performance to differentiate it from the rest. And MobLand delivers both in pretty close to perfect proportions.

As expected from anyone who has followed his career, Tom Hardy dominates in every scene, perfectly embodying the duality often exhibited in the best gangster characters– that of a remorseless, efficient, and calculating killer who turns into Ward Cleaver when with his loving family. But, and this is the little extra that makes Tom Hardy one of the best actors working today, he never loses the character’s core. He’s not playing two different characters but one multifaceted one that he breathes life into as only he can. It’s rich and delicious and full of promise.

Thanks largely to her Academy Award-winning performance in 2006’s The Queen, the almost 80-year-old Helen Mirren, whose film career stretches back to the 1960s, has had something of an American renaissance in the last few years and is arguably more famous and popular in the States now than ever before. Shows like 1923 and MobLand show us why.

In the former, she plays a strong but supportive homemaker who steps up when needed and down when the men need to get work done. In MobLand, she plays a loving and supportive wife who knows a life of elegance and indulgence but is just as ruthless as her husband. Yet she knows her place in the family dynamic, and that’s not as the leader.

Most surprisingly, Pierce Brosnan gives one of his best performances as the family patriarch. He’s equally menacing and warm—usually at the same time—and it’s fun to see the usually dapper and debonaire ex-Bond lean into not only a darker character but also his native Irish brogue.

Produced by Guy Ritchie, who also directed two of the show’s episodes, MobLand isn’t short on style, though those who find Ritchie to be a little too stylized will appreciate show creator Ronan Bennett’s slightly less extravagant storytelling aesthetic. Rather than relying on borderline unbelievable characters to behave with exaggerated cool, Bennett lets the stereotypical British chic do a lot of that heavy lifting while juxtaposing with characters and situations that you can more or less believe exist.

Unlike yours truly, MobLand is not without its flaws. Like I said, narratively, it hasn’t brought anything new to the table, and longtime fans of the genre can recite the script along with the characters without even having seen it before. There are also possible hints of the Mind Virus peaking in from time to time that, if pandered to have the potential to crash the series faster than a skein of geese.

Time will tell if the series will soar or sink. So be sure to check back here and at Worth it or Woke to find out.

WOKE ELEMENTS

Progressive Mob

• If there’s one thing that Irish mobsters are known for, it’s their progressive hiring practices. The show’s central mob Family has a tough black woman in their crew. Not only is she tough, but she’s also a brilliant car mechanic and a wiz with computers. She’s barely in the program, and such a half-hearted token nod to Diversity that I didn’t see the need to mark the Woke-O-Meter down much.

Cigarettes

• Some have said that they believe there is a burgeoning or hidden homosexual romance between the scions of the competing mob families. While I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if this were to be uncloseted in later episodes, nothing is said or done in the first episode to confirm this supposition.

Tell Me About Your Mother

• There is a burgeoning subplot in which Hardy’s character may start going to couples therapy with his wife. It’s hard to see how this won’t turn into weekly man-bashing sessions meant to neuter the character emotionally and save him from his own toxic masculinity, but right now it’s only a hint that this MAY happen. It hasn’t happened yet. If it does, the Woke-O-Meter will be adjusted accordingly.

MobLand Review (S1:E2)