Paramount+’s new series MobLand is now three episodes into its first season, and the Tom Hardy gangster show is a perfect callback to one of his past performances. Tom Hardy plays Harry Da Souza in MobLand and is joined by A-list co-stars including Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnan. The series follows fixer Harry, who works for the Harrigan crime family in London. It is immediately clear that the ruthless gangsters are always looking for a way to expand their business, even if it means killing anyone who gets in their way.
Before MobLand, Tom Hardy Played Two London Gangsters In Legend
MobLand Is A Big Reminder To Watch Tom Hardy’s
10 years before starring in MobLand, Hardy took on a different role in a story similarly centered on the London criminal underground. Hardy stars in the 2015 movie Legend, which explores the lives and exploits of the Kray twins in the 1960s. Hardy plays both Ron and Reggie Kray in the gangster film, which received mixed to positive reviews upon its release. While critics and audiences found flaws in the presentation of the Kray brothers’ story, Hardy’s performance was lauded across the board.
Legend picks up in the ’60s with Reggie Kray already working with their gang, the Firm, and Ron Kray being held in a psychiatric hospital for schizophrenia. After getting Ron released, the two set about becoming the biggest players in London’s underground, engaging with rival gangs along the way. The film examines their relationship with each other as well as how their crime business impacts every area of their lives, especially Reggie’s marriage and Ron’s mental health
Legend’s Kray Twins Feel Like A Clear Influence On MobLand
Legend’s Kray Twins Feel Like A Clear Influence On MobLand
MobLand is a fictional story that takes place in the present day, whereas Legend is a biopic set several decades in the past, but the new show does feel very informed by the 2015 movie. MobLand no doubt took inspiration from real-life London gangs. Stories of gang wars and dramatic deaths and arrests make for great television, so creating fictional versions of certain events or people makes complete sense. Given how important the Kray twins were in London’s criminal underground during the 1960s, it seems only fitting that they would be one of MobLand‘s influence
The story so far…
Two households, both alike in… well, it’s not dignity. Brutality? Cruelty? Unabashed animosity? The Harrigans and the Stevensons are a couple of London crime families. In the beginning, there hangs a fragile detente. But when Tommy Stevenson, the son of ferocious cockney kingpin Richie, goes missing, it becomes a race against time to find him before all hell breaks loose.
The Harrigans are a staunchly Irish pack of – in the words of clan matriarch Maeve – ‘Paddy murderers’, led by the cold-blooded Conrad. Guns and drugs are their game. He summons his key lieutenants to the family Cotswolds mansion to announce plans to expand the empire into the fentanyl trade. By the end of the meeting, one of them – Archie – is dead, shot in the heart for double-dealing with the Stevensons. But did he? The information came only from Maeve. Does she have a plan? It falls to Harry de Souza, the Harrigan’s loyal fixer, to dispose of the body.
Harry becomes a go-between for the two families, and is tasked with finding out what happened to Tommy. Through a bit of quiet violence, he soon finds him dead, chopped up in a box. The culprit? Conrad’s spoilt grandson Eddie. Richie must never find this out to avoid a full-scale war. Failing that, Conrad and Maeve agree on a Plan B: to murder the entire Stevenson family.
Meanwhile, the police, led by DS Fisk get wind of Archie’s death and suspect Harry of having answers. They tail him about London, but he always gives them the slip. It’s a complicated life for Harry as he’s pulled in half a dozen different directions. The demands of his job are throwing his marriage on the rocks; his best friend’s wife, Bella, wants an affair with him; he spots in an old people’s home the prison officer who violently abused him as a youth. He’ll surely buckle under all this pressure. But not yet. He has a broad back, literally and figuratively.
Then, a tip off leads Fisk to Archie’s body, buried in a coffin with a dead old lady. The vice is tightening. Now we’ve landed on episode three – and the drama is ramping up.
When is ‘MobLand’ out?
The series is available to stream now on Paramount+, and new episodes are released weekly. There will be ten episodes. You can sign up to a free trial here.
Episode 1: Out now
Episode 2: Out now
Episode 3: Out now
Episode 4: 20 April
Episode 5: 27 April
Episode 6: 4 May
Episode 7: 11 May
Episode 8: 18 May
Episode 9: 25 May
Episode 10: 1 June
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