I’m Growing Tired Of The Lack Of Stakes In Tom Hardy’s Stylish Crime Series

MobLand: where mean-mugging men are outmaneuvered by ice-cold women, and young lads think stabbing people is the bee’s knees. Episode 2, “Jigsaw Puzzle”, picks up right where we left off in the previous episode. Conrad (Pierce Brosnan) has just killed his old friend Archie (Alex Jennings), and the Harrigans’ fixer, Harry Da Souza (Tom Hardy), is here to fix. In case you forgot what happened and then stared out your window while the recap finished, don’t worry. Harry is given all the details by Kevin (Paddy Considine), complete with flashbacks.

There’s a lot of retreading in MobLand episode 2. Cars reverse and rereverse in a shakily shot chase that ends with them arriving at their original destination, little worse for wear. Characters meet repeatedly, sharing new information that could have been disclosed at some point in an earlier chat. Harry returns to a nightclub and finds a body that an elite fixer probably should have sniffed out the first time he went in there asking questions. And even with all this backtracking, I still don’t see a way forward.

MobLand Still Doesn’t Move The Plot Forward Enough

Not Enough Is Going On To Justify The Lethargic Pace

Like in the pilot, MobLand episode 2 is not concerned with pushing Harry or the Harrigans into the story. It’s content to let things slowly develop and glide along with just a few hints at a larger structure. In the pilot, this was charming when combined with the day-to-day of a family of killers. Now, those little slice-of-life moments have been excised, and we’re left with characters running from point A to point B and back again, and rarely learning anything new.

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There are bones of something interesting happening in MobLand, but it’s buried beneath a convoluted love triangle involving Harry, Jan Da Souza (Joanne Froggatt), and Bella Harrigan (Lara Pulver), Kevin’s wife, who is in her own show for most of the episode. The vying storylines may have been more absorbing had they all not felt so tonally different. There’s something akin to Macbeth or Hamlet with Conrad and his conniving, cocaine-stashing wife, Maeve (Helen Mirren). Both Bronson and Mirren are fun to watch. How can they not be? But they’re a little exhausting as well.

I’m Not Engaged With The Characters Or Their Circumstances

Tom Hardy Is A Bright Spot That Keeps Me Interested

Speaking in metaphors and trying to outdo one another is fine for a time, but it also makes me confused about how the elderly Harrigans managed to end up top dogs. Their family is a bunch of screw-ups at best or are actively undermining at worst. MobLand doesn’t completely excuse their degrading competency, and Harry is hauled into the police station by DS Ivan Fisk (Luke Mably). Fisk asks for Harry’s help taking down the Harrigans. He says that Harry and everyone know the family is crumbling, and now is a good time to get out.

Harry seems to believe him, and I guess I will too, though I’m still a little confused about why exactly the police are zeroing in on the Harrigans. The family is only now interested in the Fentanyl market, but I’m not sure how Conrad earned his money originally. I guess “crime” will have to be a good enough answer for now because, once again, we have to wait until the end of the episode for the plot to shudder forward.

Tommy Stevenson (Felix Edwards), who everyone keeps saying is important, is not coming back if the contents of an ice chest are what I think they are. Without Tommy, Richie (Geoff Bell) is going to kill Harry’s daughter. I don’t know what Tommy thinks happens in a gang war, but clearly not that, judging by his stunned expression. Hardy has chemistry with everyone, from his wife to the old gangster threatening him, and it’s for him that MobLand occasionally elevates, but to what level he can raise the show is up to whether the story ever wants to unfold.