MobLand began as a spinoff to the popular Showtime fixer series Ray Donovan, called The Donovans at the time. Essentially an origin story that was announced early in 2024, the series was scrapped (in that incarnation) in October 2024, but later retooled into MobLand, a tale about a crime family’s fixer (no remaining connection to the world of Ray Donovan) working to solve a major problem before it sends London’s criminal underworld into war. The project was since boarded by Guy Ritchie to EP and direct the series’ first two episodes, with Tom Hardy cast in the lead.
As a result, MobLand is a quickly-paced and intense high-stakes crime series that doesn’t feel entirely new. Still, it’s notably elevated by strong performances and smart directorial choices for a series that’s ultimately worth watching.
The series sees Hardy star as Harry Da Souza, a fixer for the Harrigan crime family. Eddie Harrigan (Anson Boon), grandson of patriarch Conrad Harrigan (Pierce Brosnan), secretly goes clubbing one night with the heir of the rival Stevenson gang. The younger Stevenson goes mysteriously missing, creating escalating tension with the vicious Stevenson patriarch Richie (Geoff Bell), threatening a deadly, all-out war between the gangs if Da Souza can’t find the missing young man and calm their rival’s ire.
MobLand is marked by exceptional performances almost across the board thanks to a talented central cast including Hardy, Brosnan, Helen Mirren (as malicious matiarch Maeve), Paddy Considine (as Kevin, Conrad’s son and Eddie’s father), and Lara Pulver (as Kevin’s wife, Bella). There is considerable opportunity for each to have strong moments as the family faces growing external opposition alongside internal tensions and disagreements. The interpersonal family dynamics are well written, with each character having distinct and complex perspectives with competing internal interests.
Hardy is great as the determined protagonist, Harry, who is kind and conflict-avoidant but capable of any violence or maliciousness the situation requires. His hesitancy as an operative who uses violence as a last possible resort makes for an intriguing and easy-to-follow character trying to cool the hotter heads around him. Brosnan is solid as the passionate Conrad, intelligent and loyal to his family to a dangerous extent. He’s interestingly under the thumb of Maeve, whose appearance as a kindly grandmother is wildly misleading (she’s the most aggressive and bloodthirsty member of the family’s elders).
It’s a breezy series in the first episodes that were sent to critics for review, and there’s always something tense going on as Harry hunts for the missing gangland heir. The world boasts ample style, a variety of ever-shifting plot lines, rampant machismo, and some clever writing that allows moments of subtle comedy to seep in. It is the creation of Ronan Bennett (who recently found success with Peacock’s new take on The Day of the Jackal), though there are clear elements that feel like they’re indeed in the wheelhouse of the same director who brought us Snatch. Tonally, it’s somewhere in between the two approaches to these layered criminal worlds, with Ritchie’s flair present but somewhat toned-down and classed-up by Bennett’s high-brow criminal elements.
The series’ primary issue is that, while it’s entertaining, it ultimately fails to bring something truly new to the criminal underworld. “Fixer” characters are certainly interesting, like Pulp Fiction’s Winston Wolf, Inside Man’s Madeleine White, or, arguably Sherlock’s Mortiarty (so skilled as a criminal consultant that he’s an arch-criminal unto himself). Watching a problem solver desperately try to assuage itchy trigger fingers and outplay violent interlocutors towards a common criminal good is more engaging and high-brow than watching simple thuggery run amok in the streets of London. There’s an intuitive appeal to watching Hardy’s machinations come to fruition.
At the same time, the world still feels overly familiar to fans of Ritchie’s other criminal outings, the crisis engaging but indistinct. We’ve seen characters like Harry, but Hardy remains ever-exciting as a performer, always finding a little novelty in the moment. Beyond that, while other performers are also great and watchable, their characters aren’t written with a clear distinctness to stand out in a crowded field.
MobLand could also help audiences get a deeper sense of its players, but such deeper understandings are hard to come by (at least in the beginning episodes). We watch travesties provoked by major characters such as Maeve and Eddie, but the reasons are opaque (at least at the time of the choice and for some time afterward). Major character turns seem consequentially unmotivated when they happen, making it more difficult to feel out a character or gain an intellectual foothold in key moments, let alone feel like unique fictional personages.
MobLand is an engaging series overall, backed by a memorable and charismatic turn from Hardy alongside a talented cast. High-stakes, dangerous events occur, and there’s a well-developed sense of growing tension and danger. There’s also enough happening at all times to provide something to latch onto as a viewer. At the same time, it doesn’t quite feel entirely fresh, with occasionally opaque character motivations fueling situations that otherwise feel naggingly familiar. The players involved are good enough to keep it from being a stale viewing experience, and it’s an engagingly scripted tour of London’s underworld, but it’s difficult to escape feelings of familiarity.
