Cliff Notes – Gripping crime drama fans called utterly addictive ‘facing axe after one season’
- Mixed Reception: Despite breaking Paramount Plus records with 2.2 million viewers on its release day, MobLand has faced mixed reviews, with some praising its performances while others criticise its accents and predictable plot.
- Cancellation Uncertainty: The show’s future remains uncertain due to conflicting audience feedback, with reports suggesting it may be cancelled after just one season.
- Star Power: Featuring a high-profile cast including Dame Helen Mirren, Tom Hardy, and Pierce Brosnan, MobLand centres on a turf war between two crime families in modern-day London.
Gripping crime drama fans called utterly addictive ‘facing axe after one season’
Guy Ritchie’s latest thriller MobLand is reportedly facing cancellation after just one season.
Starring Hollywood heavyweights Dame Helen Mirren, Tom Hardy and Pierce Brosnan, the crime drama debuted on Paramount Plus in March.
MobLand centres on a turf war between two powerful families, the Harrigans, headed up by matriarch Maeve (Dame Helen) and Conrad (Brosnan), and the Stevensons, in modern-day London.
Caught in the crossfire as tensions escalate and violence erupts is the Harrigans’ fixer Harry Da Souza (Hardy), who’s married to Jan Da Souza (Joanne Froggatt).
After its release, MobLand received a mixed reaction, with some viewers calling it ‘superb’ and ‘outstanding’, while others rinsed James Bond star Brosnan for his ‘horrific’ Irish accent.
Now, the show’s future is undecided due to the conflicting audience feedback, according to The Sun.
Metro has reached out to Paramount for comment.
However, MobLand broke Paramount’s records, becoming the biggest global series ever to launch on the streaming platform on its first day.
It scored 2.2million viewers on its release date, and 9.7m in total on social, while also boasting a 76% score on Rotten Tomatoes’ reviews aggregator, the Tomatometer.
On Google, Judd was among viewers praising MobLand, writing: ‘If Shakespeare rose from the dead, lit a cigarette, and wrote a mob epic with a blood-stained fountain pen while chugging espresso in a Brooklyn alleyway, Mobland would be the result.
‘And at the pulsing, snarling, mesmerising centre of it all is Tom Hardy, devouring every scene like it owes him money.’
Echoing their sentiment, Bruce said: ‘It’s like you take the Sopranos and cross it with The Gentlemen.’
Other fans, though, complained about accents and the ‘predictable’ plot.
Several critics’ reviews were even less praiseworthy, with The Telegraph’s reading: ‘Hardy makes it all worthwhile but it’s the tiresome Ritchie cliches that grate — and they’re everywhere.’
‘MobLand is in need of a good fixer,’ the Financial Times stated, while The Irish Independent quipped: ‘MobLand was written, shot, edited and packaged in a hurry, and you know what? It shows.’
Pierce, 71, who was born and raised in Ireland as a child, previously revealed his anxiety over using an Irish accent in MobLand as his own had ‘dissipated to the midst of time.’
‘Last summer I spoke to Guy (Ritchie) for the first time about it and having read the five episodes he said not to worry about it,’ he told Dave Moore on Today FM. ‘
[He said] “We’ll just do it 15 minutes on the day, clear your mind, we’ll sort it out, don’t worry about it.” Of course, I put the phone down and did worry about it!
‘Five weeks later I was on the set with Tom Hardy and Guy, first day, important dialogue, important information and he just said, “more Irish, more Irish” and my Irish accent has dissipated into the midst of time. It’s somewhat Californian and everything. So, I asked myself, “What kind of accent would he have?” It was Kerry.’
MobLand is available to stream on Paramount Plus.