Paramount Plus appears to be one of the few streaming services that understand that advertising your shows is perhaps a key to getting people to watch them. So with some fanfare, and an all star cast, "Mobland" arrived in March of this year and has, since then, been one of the few shows that I actually watch on an 'as it drops' basis.
The Harrigan crime family, led by patriarch Conrad (Pierce Brosnan) find themselves at odds with another outfit, when Richie Stevenson's (Geoff Bell) son does not return from a night out with Conrad's grandson Eddie (Anson Boon). Chief peacemaker is Harry Da Souza (Tom Hardy), lifelong friend of Conrad's son Kevin (Paddy Considine) and the 'Fixer' of the family. But even he can't anticipate the machinations of the Harrigan's Lady MacBeth, Conrad's wife, Maeve (Helen Mirren).
Despite Guy Ritchie both producing and directing some of this, and the fact that it's in the London gangster scene, tonally this is a little different to the sorts of films and series he generally produces. Despite occasionally being quite funny, it's much more grounded in realism and there aren't the sort of broad characters that he usually favours. That said there are some performances here that you wouldn't exactly describe as subtle. Chief perhaps amongst them is Brosnan, who doesn't get to play the borderline personalities very often, so it's nice (if a bit scary) to see him let loose a bit here. The whole cast are recognisable faces though, including roles for Lara Pulver, Joanne Froggatt, Mandeep Dhillon and Emmett Scanlan - who steals most of the scenes he's in.
So, it's occasionally a bit silly, with its consequence free violence which even sees Harry - who's supposed to be the sensible and levelheaded one - commit several murders that he doesn't always need to. But generally, I found myself enjoying the story and looking forward to coming back each week.
I hope that the cast can come together for a second season.
