Skip to content
MobLand sees Tom Hardy (Venom: The Last Dance) in his element, as Harry Da Souza, handler for the Harrigan crime family, led by Conrad Harrigan (Pierce Brosnan), married to Maeve (Helen Mirren – Barbie).
As it begins, Harry is liasing with two mob bosses and their entourage, trying to broker a peace between them. With both sides shouting in Greek at each other, he admits, “I don’t understand a word you’re saying(!)”
Pierce Brosnan enters the chat as his boss, but with the strangest overly-strong Irish accent I’ve ever heard. I can’t place it, and it seems to jump into various places at once. In fact, I thought he was trying to sound Eastern European at one point! Hence, I was so glad that subtitles were included in the preview! Why idn’t he learn from The Out-Laws?
That’s nothing compared to Helen Mirren’s stab at the accent, though. Perhaps they shouldn’t have bothered.
The plot advances to the youngster of the family causing problems, Eddie Harrigan (Anson Boon – Crawl) – andson to Kevin (Paddy Considine – Journeyman) and Bella (Lara Pulver – Maternal), who together with Tommy Stevenson, on the way to a nightclub in a cab with some friends, are likened to a young version of the Krays, perhaps harking back to Hardy’s turn in dual roles as the twins. Although they were brothers, while the Harrigans and Stevensons are at war with each other.
Hardy gets the best of MobLand, as shown when a nightclub situation leads to him being very demanding, stating he’ll get the CCTV he came for in the club, being polite, whilst also waving his gun about(!)
Meanwhile, Conrad’s got a deal going in with fentanyl, but has to deal with a potential rat in the house? And with the opener being titled “Stick or Twist?”, Twist means to kill someone, whereas Stick is to let them live, although it can cause confusion!
Still, when death is delivered in this series, it’s sometimes done with dry humour.
At times, MobLand can drag a bit as the episodes play out, but they do deliver a corker of a final scene on which to end. There’s also different music over the closing credits, depending on what’s happened during the episode. Can’t remember that happening too often, but I do recall BBC1’s The Lakes doing the same, even though that was in the late ’90s. Still, while they had continuity announcers waffling over the credits all the time, at least with a streaming service, you can watch and listen in peace!
As an aside, it’s interesting to now that during filming in late 2024, in the Isle of Dogs in East London, a bag of camera equipment was stolen from the set during the daytime. The thieves even came back to nick some more! As such, the returned security team were fired and someone else hired.
Thanks to our friends at Paramount+ for the screener prior to release.
MobLand is not available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but is on Paramount+ from tomorrow.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 50-60 minutes per episode (8 episodes)
Release date: March 30th 2025
Studio: Paramount+
Format: 2.39:1
Series Directors: Anthony Byrne, Guy Ritchie, Daniel Syrkin, Lawrence Gough
Producer: Peter Heslop
Creator: Ronan Bennett
Writers: Ronan Bennett, Jez Butterworth
Music: Ilan Eshkeri
Cast:
Harry Da Souza: Tom Hardy
Conrad Harrigan: Pierce Brosnan
Maeve Harrigan: Helen Mirren
DC Mukasa: Gemma Knight Jones
DS Ivan Fisk: Luke Mably
Freddie Shaw: Bradley Turner
Darren Guthrie: Florian Rafuna
Jan Da Souza: Joanne Froggatt
Kevin Harrigan: Paddy Considine
Bella Harrigan: Lara Pulver
Eddie Harrigan: Anson Boon
Zosia: Jasmine Jobson
Seraphina Harrigan: Mandeep Dhillon
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.