Mobland (2025) is not just another crime series; it’s a dark, sumptuous epic of shifting allegiances, old empires on the verge of collapse, and the dangerous brilliance of those who refuse to go quietly. With a powerhouse cast and an ambitious, layered narrative, it delivers a bold vision of London’s criminal underworld as something closer to a dynastic court than a gangland warzone.

At the centre of the storm is Harry Da Souza, the family fixer played by Tom Hardy with quiet ferocity. Harry is a man who carries violence in his bones, but Mobland isn’t interested in making him another swaggering hardman. Hardy plays him as a war-weary strategist: haunted, calculating, and deeply conflicted. As the Harrigan family’s most trusted operative, Harry navigates a treacherous landscape where every handshake could be a betrayal, and every silence speaks volumes.

Yet, the true dramatic heart of Mobland lies in the ruling pair of the Harrigan empire: Conrad and Maeve Harrigan, portrayed with icy elegance and smouldering tension by Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren. Brosnan’s Conrad is the aging lion; part King Lear, part Henry II, once feared, still dangerous, but increasingly aware that the world he built is slipping from his grasp. There’s a grandeur in his performance: the cultivated menace, the weary pride, and the flickers of desperation behind the eyes of a man who knows the end is near, but refuses to go out quietly.

Mirren’s Maeve, by contrast, is all Eleanor of Aquitaine: commanding, endlessly calculating, and too intelligent by half. While Conrad bellows and blusters to maintain his fading dominance, Maeve moves behind the scenes, pulling strings, forging alliances, and bending outcomes toward her vision of the future. She is Mobland’s most dangerous figure precisely because she never raises her voice, only her expectations.

Together, they form one of television’s most compelling power couples: a king and queen locked in a permanent cold war, allies and adversaries in equal measure. Their scenes crackle with tension, history, and a kind of regal decay. You can feel the decades of love, betrayal, and mutual ambition in every glance across the dinner table or whispered instruction.

Mobland has been criticised in some quarters for trying to juggle too many storylines. It’s true, there’s a lot happening here, but to call it “overstuffed” is to miss the point. Unlike the average U.S. crime drama that cautiously runs two, maybe three story threads, Mobland opts for operatic complexity. This isn’t a neatly folded procedural. It’s a sprawling, textured tapestry; one woven with ambition, blood, and secrets. Every subplot, every character, adds a new colour to the canvas.

Among those threads is Colin Tattersall (Toby Jones), a corrupt retired police officer playing both ends of the game. While not a central figure, Tattersall’s quiet manoeuvrings add a layer of institutional rot to the show’s moral landscape. Jones plays him with understatement and restraint, allowing the focus to remain where it belongs, on the Harrigans and those caught in their orbit. Expect more Tattersall, if and when there is a second season, along with my fellow Tynesider, Janet McTeer as Kat McAllister and her international cartel. 

Visually, Mobland is breathtaking. The cinematography paints London in huge contrast; half gleaming steel, half crumbling stone. The city feels ancient and new at once, a place where monarchs and mercenaries fight for the same scraps of power. The writing, too, is sharp and elegant, rich with subtext and menace, laced with dry wit and the constant reminder that in this world, no one is ever truly safe.

In the end, Mobland is more than a crime story. It’s a meditation on decline, succession, and the cost of ambition. It dares to imagine gangland as Shakespearean drama, where aging lions still bare their teeth, and queens play long games with deadly intent.

Unapologetically dense and ruthlessly stylish, Mobland is the crime epic we didn’t know we needed. For those tired of television that plays it safe, this is a feast: bloody, bitter, and utterly absorbing. At time of writing, Paramount+ has yet to confirm a second season, but with an audience over 2 million, positive ratings, and the show’s stars publicly committing to return, we can only hope for more of the Harrigan clan.