“MobLand” season 2’s premiere has finally arrived on Paramount+. And if you didn’t know about the drama surrounding this show in the lead-up to its release, you’d assume everything was fine behind the scenes. Season 2 picks up right where we left off, as if it was just yesterday that we got the season 1 finale.
That includes Tom Hardy being front and center in this episode, which wasn’t always a guarantee. A reported spat between him and showrunner Jez Butterworth led to rumors that Hardy had been fired from the show. Now, that was more likely to affect Hardy’s possible appearance in the recently-announced “MobLand” season 3, but it’s not impossible that it would have affected his role in season 2.
None of that matters now, though. As I said, you wouldn’t even know there was a hint of offscreen drama after watching this episode. Conrad (Pierce Brosnan) and Maeve Harrigan (Helen Mirren) are still crazy, perhaps crazier than ever. And it’s still Harry Da Souza (Hardy) who’s stuck cleaning up their messes.
Spoilers for ‘MobLand’ season 2 premiere beyond this point
‘MobLand’ is setting up 10 straight episodes of all-out gang war
If you watched season 1, you already know “MobLand” doesn’t shy away from violence. And this season starts off with an ultra-bloody affair.
Conrad and Maeve Harrigan, fresh out of prison, are meeting with Turkish gangster Gakbu Ruzgar at a dog track to discuss business. Only when they get there, Gakbu’s not there. Instead, it’s the Turkish drug lord’s brother, and he’s there to inform Conrad that the Turks are doing business with Conrad’s son Kevin (Paddy Considine) instead.
Of course, this is taken as an insult, and Conrad shoots them all up in a pretty epic firefight. But while it may have been the cool thing to do, it’s now turned up the heat on the Harrigans. Not only are the cops now looking into a fairly massive gangland killing, but Ruzgar’s men are going to want vengeance.
But that’s not Conrad’s problem — it’s Harry’s. He ties up both loose ends neatly, for now. I think the police investigation will be an ongoing concern as the season progresses. It doesn’t matter, though, because the main villain this season is Kat McAllister, who has just been appointed U.S. ambassador to the U.K.
While it’s clear Kat is looking to take Conrad off the board this season, I don’t think she’ll be too directly involved just yet. I think that will be reserved for season 3.
Instead, it looks like Frankie (Johnny Flynn) will be the big bad for season 2. He’s introduced to us, who worked to try and take down the Harrigans in season 1. He’s still focused on that task, and he plans to connect Frankie with Kat, so Frankie can do the dirty work of running London and cleaning out the town of all Harrigans
We don’t see much of Frankie, but from the brief glimpse we get, I think this dude is going to be a wacky villain. And I mean that in a good way. He’s going to have some quirks, and I think we’ll get some outbursts of violence from him that stick in our heads after the credits roll. Maybe it’s something about the way he’s dressed or his mannerisms, but I think Frankie ends up being a memorable villain for Harry to take down over the next nine episodes.
- ‘Resident Evil’ review: Officially the best video game movie of all time, but also Zach Cregger’s worst
- ‘Slow Horses’ season 6 kicks things off with a stunning death, and I’m still in shock
- Alan Ritchson does his best John Wick impression in a hyper-violent ‘Reacher’ season 4 finale
