The crime drama MobLand (2025) from showrunner Ronan Bennett, creator of “Jackal’s Day” and “Top Boy” takes us back to the Foggy Albion. Nostalgia for the 90s to the sounds of Prodigy, Jamiroquai and the Oasis (it’s even strange that the latter are not on the soundtrack), a dark and harsh series with a stellar cast offers viewers a deep dive into the lives of two warring criminal clans of gangsters, Harrigans and Stevensons. Critics’ reviews say that the new series is more dynamic than “Gentlemen”, but also similar to “Peaky Blinders” and “Gangs of London”. But don’t confuse it with the eponymous Southern Gothic movie of 2023, the feature film Mob Land starring Stephen Dorff and John Travolta.
Bennett and director Guy Ritchie, who shot the first 2 episodes of the 10-episode 1st season, chose an interesting perspective for the narrative for Mobland – the story revolves around Harry de Souza, a long-time fixer of the Harrigans. The sullen character of Tom Hardy (Mad Max Fury Road, Bikeriders) acts as if he is in a deep sleep or a GTA-type computer game. A taciturn servant of the mafia, who does not pretend to high roles, he wearily drives from point to point, cleaning up other people’s garbage. His threats are convincing, but also mundane, his face lights up only when his victims are forced to repeat something twice and he begins to describe how their next meeting will take place.
Download or listen online to the soundtrack to the Mobland 2025 TV series (mp3, 156 MB)
The figure of Harry, a thug and a former criminal, echoes another British hero – Thomas Cromwell from the medieval “Wolf Hall”. Our modern vassal is extremely loyal, ruthless, efficient and prudent, but at the same time he realizes that his king is not perfect and can also make mistakes. And although orders are not discussed, Harry sometimes takes on such responsibility, trying to resolve conflicts within his own snake tangle. Harry is always calm, even at some moments you are surprised at his composure and wonder what kind of excellent antidepressants he is on. He functions like a Swiss clockwork, sometimes going for days without rest, food and sleep.
The main character of the series is also compared to “Ray Donovan”, where a professional fixer performed by Lev Schreiber solved the problems of rich people, but was unable to solve the problems in his own family. Harry has a similar situation, he is on the verge of divorce, his wife is tired of his shifted priorities, her daughter rarely sees her father, and he himself plays the role of a good guy, well, “the executioner just has such a job.” Immaculate in the execution of gangster assignments, he fails like Hank Moody in simple family matters – like a joint visit to a psychologist or a promise to spend Sunday morning with loved ones.
Pierce Brosnan is always Bond. Here he is Conrad Harrigan, a native of Ireland, whose expensive casual gentleman outfits hide cruelty and unscrupulousness. And he can also be moody as a child, acting illogically and becoming a hostage to his own irrational impulses. A ruthless monster who does not disdain to finish off a recumbent, quite in the Nietzschean spirit of “push the falling one.” And in his high ambitions, he considers himself an ubermensh, who is allowed everything. The master of his English life, and the whole of London into the bargain. There is also a problem with Conrad’s wife, Maeve (Helen Mirren), the Irish Lady Macbeth. The sociopath and the white queen is guided by the passions boiling in her gray head, places chess pieces on an imaginary board, and rubbing her dry hands, acts with the sincere joy of an extreme suicide.
English gangsters are unleashing a war among themselves, but the most boundless are “both old and young”, creating their outrages to the cheerful music of IDM. The mess that the young offspring brewed with the connivance of a much older generation will have to be cleared up by ordinary soldiers like Harry, and his peers, simpler guys. The show is overflowing with tension, and at the same time retains the intrigue from series to series. At the end, Nick Lowe‘s song “The Beast In Me” will be sung to us by Johnny Cash, summing up the history of the dashing 90s.
