MobLand review: Tom Hardy and Pierce Brosnan go to war
Tom Hardy fixes problems, Pierce Brosnan goes full Irish patriarch and London runs with blood. Is MobLand, on Paramount+, a proper gangster saga or just very well-tailored nonsense?
Reviewed, edited and approved by Editor-in-chief Daniel Sköld · Updated 25 October 2026
Contents
MobLand has a set-up you could sketch on a beer mat: two crime families, one city, and a lot of men in good coats saying things quietly before something loud happens. It’s the kind of show that leaves you either grinning at the telly or wondering why you’re still up at midnight watching a man get very creative with a pair of pliers. Some nights it does both.
Given the cast, that’s no great surprise. Tom Hardy, Pierce Brosnan, Paddy Considine and Joanne Froggatt are in the same London gangland drama, which is either a casting director’s fantasy league or a sign that Paramount+ has very deep pockets. Probably both.
The premise is simple. Two mob families clash in a war that threatens to topple empires and lives. On one side are the Harrigans, an Irish crime clan run by Conrad, played by Brosnan, with Considine, Lara Pulver and Anson Boon as the next generation. Hardy plays Harry Da Souza, the family’s fixer. His job is to tidy up other people’s messes, and the Harrigans make plenty of them.
Early on, one reckless act by a younger Harrigan starts a feud with a rival firm, and Harry has to keep the lid on things while the family’s business, and its blood relations, start to come apart. I’ll stop there. What follows is betrayal, family politics and a fair amount of carpet cleaning, and you should see it for yourself.
Ritchie territory, with a longer fuse
The show was created by Ronan Bennett, the writer behind Top Boy, and Guy Ritchie is among the producers. If you were in a cinema in 1998 for Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, you’ll recognise the London here: slick, sweary, darkly funny, and full of men who look like they iron their socks. The difference is the pace. Bennett gives it the slower build of a family saga, closer to Succession with knuckledusters than a 90-minute caper.
The cast is the main attraction. Hardy plays Harry close to the chest, all stillness and low growl, and his best scenes are the ones where he barely raises his voice. Froggatt, as his wife Jan, brings an ordinary domestic life into his world, and it’s one of the show’s smarter choices. Brosnan seems to be having the time of his life as Conrad, all brogue and menace. Some of you will love it, and some will hear the accent and reach for the remote.
MobLand doesn’t reinvent the British gangster drama. It just dresses it in a better suit and dares you to look away.
AD
What works, and what’s held together with gaffer tape
When MobLand works, it really works. The production values are lavish, the violence is sharp and nasty when it comes, and the tension between Harry’s calm professionalism and the Harrigans’ chaos keeps the show going. Hardy and Considine in the same scene is worth the subscription fee alone, at least for a month.
Look closely, though, and the seams show. The plotting relies on characters making terrible decisions at very convenient moments, and some of the dialogue is so tough-guy it goes past menacing into panto. There are also stretches in the middle where the show seems more in love with its own swagger than with telling the story. It’s 18-rated for good reason: the violence is properly grim at times, so this isn’t one to have on while your mother-in-law visits.
What the critics made of it
Critics were broadly split along the same lines. The cast, Hardy and Brosnan in particular, got most of the praise, along with the glossy look and the show’s sheer nerve. The objections were familiar ones: genre clichés, an over-busy plot and a tendency to take itself very seriously while doing some deeply silly things. With audiences, though, it was a hit. It’s exactly the sort of thing people binge on a Sunday night and then talk about at work on Monday, and a second series has followed.
Where to watch MobLand in the UK
MobLand premiered on Paramount+ on 30 March 2025, and it’s still on Paramount+ in the UK. Series one has ten episodes, so it’s a manageable binge over a couple of weekends or a week of very late nights. A second series is also coming to Paramount+, so if you finish series one wanting more, you’ll get it. If you don’t already have Paramount+, it’s a separate subscription, or you can add it to some Sky packages. It might be time to check which of your other subscriptions you’ve quietly forgotten about.
Verdict
MobLand is a glossy, violent and often ridiculous gangster saga, saved by a cast good enough to sell even its daftest moments. It isn’t Top Boy and it isn’t The Sopranos, but Hardy’s brooding fixer and Brosnan’s swaggering patriarch make it very easy to watch. If you liked Lock, Stock, Peaky Blinders or Gangs of London and you want something meaty for the winter evenings, this is worth a month of Paramount+. If you’re looking for subtlety, look elsewhere.
Ashley Isaacs picks what's worth your evening – film, TV, streaming, music and books for men 45 and over with limited evenings and too many subscriptions. Reviews of what's new on Netflix, Prime Video, BBC iPlayer and the rest, crime dramas worth a weekend, and classics worth a second look. What's worth watching, what isn't, and where to find it in the UK.
One of Midcent's writers. Spotted something? Write to ashley@midcent.uk.
Over half a century on, Coppola’s mafia epic is still the film every other crime drama gets measured against. Brando, Pacino and three hours that feel nothing like three hours.
Sylvester Stallone plays a mob capo exiled to Oklahoma in Taylor Sheridan’s crime caper. It’s daft, slick and a lot of fun, and season four is now on Paramount+.
Robert De Niro and Michael Keaton head the cast of The Whisper Man, a Netflix crime thriller about a missing boy, a dead wife and a father nobody wants to ring.
Sam Worthington plays a father jailed for murdering his own son, who then learns the boy may still be alive. Netflix’s eight-part thriller has a killer premise.
