MobLand

MobLand (2025)
Directed by: Guy Ritchie
Written by: Ronan Bennett
Starring: Anson Boon, Daniel Betts, Geoff Bell, Helen Mirren, Joanne Froggatt, Lara Pulver, Mandeep Dhillon, Paddy Considine, Pierce Brosnan, Tom Hardy

Gangs of Hardy

Introducing a new TV Show about a brewing turf war between two established mobs is a very brave move considering SKY’s unmissable and brutal GANGS OF LONDON has basically taken the mantle of Top Dog and shows no sign of being removed, more so after their rather excellent season three. I mean, once you’ve seen a character strangle to death a nemesis with the very umbilical cord she had just bitten off, after given birth, other shows need to offer something pretty special to get even close to that kind of brutality.

The one good thing MobLand has going for it is the unbelievable stellar cast that seduces you from the off. Tom Hardy, Pierce Bronson, Helen Mirren are the names you’ll see on the posters but there are also serious heavyweights with the likes of Paddy Considine all vying for screentime and its that quality that will no doubt make the show a ratings juggernaut, despite the awful Irish accents donned by Mirren and Bronson, the latter a bit of a puzzlement considering the former 007 is actually Irish.

With Guy Ritchie helming the first two episodes, MobLand establishes the setting straight away. Bronson plays Conrad Harrigan, the father and head honcho of their Criminal Enterprise, a feared guy who may be the boss, but of course his wife Maeve (Mirren) is also cunning and streetwise, who perhaps as more control of the family business than even her own husband realises. Their kids Kevin (Considine) Brendan (Daniel Betts), Seraphina (Mandeep Dhillon) Conrad’s illegitimate daughter are all involved in the business of drugs and everything they do, say and any issues all seems to fall into the lap of Harry (Hardy) a sort of fixer, who deals with everything that may harm the Harrigan family.

Its all standard gangland stuff, a bit cliché, but luckily the first opening episodes has Hardy in excellent menacing form and as you’d expect, so damn watchable in a role he can easily play in his sleep. Plotwise, it starts to go all wrong thanks to Eddie (Anson Boon), Kevin’ son who takes the name Harrigan a bit too seriously. A night out and the disappearance Conrad’s gangland rival, Richie Stevenson (Geoff Bell). son, sparks a war between the two families, which adds a lot of weight and tension in the opening episodes of the show.

Its here where the show sparkles, both families showing threats, with Harry trying desperately to keep the peace and its a gripping watch, with some brutal kills, including a vicious car bomb scene that really sets the tone for a grand epic finale. The trouble is, we never actually get to to the scale of danger the show threatens. Aside from a brilliant warehouse shoot-out and a chainsaw massacre, the majority of the remaining episodes is all about threats and big talk in wish you’ll end up screaming at the TV and mouthing “Well, go on then…if you think you hard enough!”

It doesn’t help that side characters are killed off, to be replaced by more side characters and the fact it all wraps itself up into a tidy little bow with a few threads left hanging and enticing into how a season two could enforce the danger, may infuriate those watching.

The trouble is, even with a stellar cast that never makes MOBLAND boring, you’ll do feel that if these guys decided to walk the streets of London and bumped into the Wallace family with Elliot not far behind, they’d quickly flag down a taxi and turn back to their lovely countryside as at the moment the Harrigan’s are displaying nothing more than bark than bite….

All Episodes of MobLand are now available on Paramount +