Paramount+’s best new show, about a London crime family, is coming back for another season

Paramount+ may have found its answer to The Sopranos — only this time, the mobsters are trading New Jersey for North London, and the family drama is just as lethal as the gunplay. MobLand — the streamer’s violent and stylish crime drama executive produced by Guy Ritchie, and one of its few original hits to not originate from the mind of Taylor Sheridan — has proven such a hit, in fact, that it’s officially coming back for Season 2.

The series, which debuted on March 30 and had the most-watched premiere in Paramount+ history with 2.2 million viewers for its first episode, quickly snowballed into something of a global phenomenon. MobLand has racked up more than 26 million viewers since its launch, and it’s spent more than a month in Nielsen’s Top 10 SVOD Originals for five consecutive weeks. Currently, it’s the #2 most-watched original series on the platform and has already reached the top spot in the U.K.

So, what’s the appeal? On paper, the drama sounds like familiar gangster drama territory: Two rival families, a missing son, and a fixer trying to prevent all-out war. But under the surface, it’s a whole different beast.

Pierce Brosnan stars as Conrad Harrigan, the icy patriarch of a crime family plotting a move into the fentanyl trade. Tom Hardy plays his loyal fixer Harry Da Souza — a role he delivers with quiet menace and surprising (for Hardy) restraint. Hardy’s Harry doesn’t strut or shout, preferring instead to glower and simmer. “To talk low and carry a big stick,” as Hardy told me when I interviewed the main cast, describing his desire to play the role with “contained and measured” force.

Helen Mirren, meanwhile, steals one scene after another as Conrad’s ruthless wife Maeve, a backroom schemer with eyes on the long game. The rest of the cast — including Paddy Considine, Lara Pulver, Joanne Froggatt, and Jasmine Jobson — rounds out a tangled web of family drama, criminal intrigue, and emotional baggage.

Created by Top Boy’s Ronan Bennett and written by Jez Butterworth (Ford v Ferrari, Spectre), the 10-episode MobLand marks Guy Ritchie’s first foray into television for Paramount+. His fingerprints are all over the show, from the stylish editing to the searing monologues and sudden bursts of violence. But as I noted in a prior post, this show isn’t The Gentlemen redux. 

“What feels really original is the heart in it,” Froggatt told me. “The themes of family. And also, the women — the women are equal to the men in this show. That feels original and adds a different dynamic.”