MobLand’s second season is
pure television crack
Guy Ritchie directs a stacked cast led by
Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren in a
soap-opera-meets-gangster franchise with polish.
Terry PontikosTV reviewer
MobLand S2, UK, crime-thriller ★★★
Chalk it up to the luck of the Irish. The Harrigan crime dynasty perfectly embodies this expression, which roughly equates to undeserved success through “dumb luck”. This is one of the most ludicrous crime families on television. A mafia with no need for outside enemies, considering the range of Machiavellian plots occurring inside their Cotswolds stronghold. It’s like Succession with shooters. MobLand is back in all its blood-soaked bastardly and betrayal. Episodes are set for weekly release after a premiere double, with the streamer offering up the first four for review.
The family’s led by dangerous nutter Conrad Harrigan (Pierce Brosnan) and his equally psychotic wife Maeve (Helen Mirren). These two crazed codgers allow Tom Hardy to calmly stride onto centre stage as fixer Harry Da Souza, sorting out their self-inflicted problems. The likes of which remarkably never jeopardised Harrigan supremacy over North London’s criminal underworld – until now. After seeing off rivals, the Stevensons (i.e. mercilessly butchering them all in season one), MobLand’s second season focuses on machinations within the clan, as various players scheme for ascension to Conrad’s throne.
She’s back: Helen Mirren returns as psychotic family matriarch, Maeve Harrigan.
Murderous violence flares early when a routine meeting with the top brass of an affiliated Turkish gang goes haywire at a greyhound track. Conrad feels disrespect from his opposite’s no-show, triggering a wild gunfight in a private box. Meanwhile, Kevin Harrigan (Paddy Considine) continues to feud with his father while contemplating a move to snatch control of a vast drug empire. As ever, Harry is the chips in the buttie, with loyalties torn between his best pal and career employer.
Harry’s busier than bacteria. At times he babysits five mobiles, a sight to have anyone reaching for the painkillers. His marriage to the mob exacts a destructive toll on his other marriage to Jan (Joanne Froggatt), who’s filing for divorce. Daughter Gina (Teddie Allen) teams with Eddie Harrigan (Anson Boon) in a business shaking down rich YouTubers. Joining the mix is Seraphina (Mandeep Dhillon), Conrad’s daughter by another mother, allying with the shadowy American influence-peddler Kat McAllister (Janet McTeer).
Backed by the clout of a US diplomatic role, Kat’s out to crush the Harrigans in response to Harry’s rejection of her employment offer. Also taking a number is new-age hitman Frank Cooper (Johnny Flynn). He’s been unearthed by corrupt, high-ranking police operative Colin Tattersall (Toby Jones), formerly entrenched within the Stevenson cartel. He wants in, approaching Kat to bring Cooper on board as her incursive spearhead. Meanwhile, Conrad secretly undertakes cognition testing. To nobody’s surprise, he’s discovered to be a hothead displaying poor judgment and rash decision-making.
This season wades directly into a pit of past traumas. There’s Kevin’s vengeful retaliation over his mistreatment at the hands of a prison “screw” decades before. Wife Bella (Lara Pulver), Conrad’s former mistress who bore his child/grandchild Eddie, stitches up her own childhood abuser. Seraphina’s closeness to Conrad earns Maeve’s constant scorn, leading her to take the action of an enemy. Eddie continues to be played by his grand-mum/step-mum. We also lurch into murkier incestuous territory as Maeve continues to express herself inappropriately around him.
Created by Ronan Bennett with Guy Ritchie as a director, MobLand made it clear from the start it was less committed to realism or nuance than it was to explosive action, cartoon thuggery and an industrial strength body count. Undoubtedly important to the show’s success is the dream pairing of Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnan. The veterans share great chemistry, as evidenced in The Thursday Murder Club, and clearly enjoy inhabiting their dastardly characters. Conrad is an untethered lunatic who’d give the Kray brothers pause for thought in doing business with him. The delightfully demented Maeve is a conniving puppeteer, playing Conrad and Eddie like a pair of sociopathic marionettes.
In a stacked cast Tom Hardy continues to be MobLand’s centrepiece with his quietly menacing mister fixit commanding plenty of screen time. Kevin is more important this season but Paddy Considine is still wasted, spending too long in the background sitting on sofas and scowling in corners. The quiet strength of this season is the inclusion of Johnny Flynn, delivering great humour in the guise of whimsical scooter-riding gun for hire, Frank Cooper. So too, Emmett J. Scanlan as Conrad’s head lackey Paul, who’s always off to the side, comically mumbling cold truths as the family’s madness envelops him.
MobLand is a strange brew. The show suffers from overused genre tropes and plays like a soap opera, with unrealistic scenarios in an over-the-top presentation of cockney crims. Tracking the body count practically calls for an Excel spreadsheet. But the series is also moreish in the same way any soap can be – once viewers have picked sides – and it boasts the action and polish of a top-class gangster franchise. Holding everything together is Hardy. Virtually the only Harrigan hood with the required smarts, Harry is at his most persuasive here, with and without leverage. It’s the gift of the gab – a sure sign that he’s kissed the Blarney Stone.
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Terry Pontikos is an avowed cinephile who in recent years has turned his focus to premium streaming series. He has worked in major media outlets in Sydney and Hong Kong since the early 1990s.
