‘MobLand’ Season 2 Is Wasting Tom Hardy’s Time (and Ours)

I am not immune to the charms of a go-for-broke action series. The driving momentum, the escalating calamities, the caution-less characters — it’s easy to get swept up in an onslaught, especially one bolstered by a cast who doesn’t chew scenery so much as they gnash it up, gargle it into a hot paste, and then baby-bird each nasty bit into their audience’s open maws. The first season of “MobLand” is a blitz from start to not-quite-finish. In showrunner Jez Butterworth’s Paramount+ series, a rival family’s missing kid quickly morphs into a full-on mob war, orchestrated in secret by a mad woman (Helen Mirren’s giddy shit-stirrer, Maeve) and carried out by her bigheaded husband (Pierce Brosnan, leaving Bond behind as Conrad, the crass, impetuous patriarch). Dense plotting and brutal conflict come together for memorably extravagant zeniths. A tense truce is broken by a post-funeral car bomb, which is soon topped by a cartel boss wielding a chainsaw, which sets up a grand finale involving a police raid, an exploding safe house, and a dead crime lord. Caught in the middle is Harry (Tom Hardy), the Harrigan family’s trusted fixer, whose adept extinguishing of early fires is as pleasing to behold as his eventual inability to keep up with them all proves gleefully overwhelming. Harry responds to some of the sickest shit you’ve ever seen as if he’s assessing an algebra class, and his expressionless affect serves as the perfect foil for the rest of the family’s cartoonish posturing. His calculated stoicism is so unflappable, that when the season ends with his wife “accidentally” stabbing him in the chest, he doesn’t even flinch. The central trio — Harry, Maeve, and Conrad — is a sturdy dynamic for an action series. The aging mobsters are out of control, and Harry is control incarnate. How they work together (or don’t) makes for entertaining disharmony, as does their crumbling criminal enterprise, what with its many emergencies that spur our antiheroes into diametrically opposed responses. The problem, like with many spectacle-driven action shows, is sustaining the action. TV is a character-driven medium, in part, because people are infinitely more dynamic than what they do — and infinitely more replicable. Most folks are happy to hang out with their friends for hours on end, day after day, year after year, talking about whatever comes to mind, but far fewer will spend the same amount of time perched in front of a screen, watching random things explode or strangers get shot in the head (which can also be quite expensive to produce). So if a show’s story engine can’t support itself when the bullets aren’t flying, the vehicle tends to break down sooner rather than later. “MobLand” may not be running on fumes just yet. But the foot is off the gas in the first four episodes of Season 2, and all the mugging in the world can’t make up the difference. Helen Mirren in ‘MobLand’Courtesy of Luke Varley / Paramount+ You could sense a heavy foot hitting the brakes in the first season’s waning hours. A new, previously unmentioned mob boss, Kat McAllister (Janet McTeer), emerged as a scarier Big Bad than the original mob boss (Geoff Bell). Colin Tattersall (Toby Jones), a corrupt ex-cop with an axe to grind against the Harrigans, took over for the no-name coppers previously applying external pressure. Established characters stopped dying, too, which left no doubt: The shift was on. Sure, the Harrigans will settle their prime beef this season, but not before setting the table for the next one. So brazenly setting up the next chapter before finishing the first undercuts an otherwise solid finish, but Season 2 is peppered with hallmarks of a series stalling for time. (McTeer playing another steely, illicit antagonist isn’t the only similarity between “MobLand” and “Ozark,” in which a smart, reasonable middleman desperately tries to restore order amid escalating chaos). The broadest arc shifts from external to internal conflict, meaning instead of the Harrigans going to the mattresses against a rival family, they’re fighting among themselves. Conrad and his eldest son, Kevin (Paddy Considine), both think they’re running the show. The dueling bosses scenario leads to minor mishaps with day-to-day operations, that Conrad and Maeve then maximize via their natural nuttiness, but it’s soon clear that everyone, viewers included, is waiting for the father and son to settle their feud. The stagnancy is nagging, as is the choice to supplant Kat as Season 2’s primary villain in favor of Frankie, a stopgap baddie played by Johnny Flynn. Installed as a manager working on Kat’s behalf, Frankie offers a slew of strange traits for a criminal mastermind (germophobe, scooter rider, foot fetishist) and a suitably punchable face for Hardy to eventually cave in, but he’s introduced as quickly as he’s propped up. Nothing about him feels permanent or meaningful, and his threats in the early going are just that: threats. He’s only a serious danger because the other characters say so, not because his actions have any meaningful consequence. Where Season 1 pulled the trigger, Season 2 says “bang” without firing a bullet. Such delay tactics are only emphasized by the actors’ brazen attempts at distraction. If “MobLand” is constantly trying to top its last action scene, its cast is reaching for the stratosphere to surpass their already thunderous efforts. In news that seems redundant but is meant to be relevant, Conrad’s doctor warns that his impulse control is weakening, which allows Brosnan to go from zero to unhinged at the drop of a newsboy cap. Maeve wakes up unhinged, manipulating her not-grandson Eddie (Anson Boon) and relishing a gunfight that leaves a hole in her husband’s chest like a typical partner might celebrate a birthday party. That leaves Harry to watch it all go down in silence. He’s got plenty of fires to put out, but they don’t require the cunning gumption he displayed before, nor are they perilous enough to stir much concern. Harry knows what needs to happen for the Harrigans’ reign to continue, but he’s essentially sidelined until his higher-ups make the necessary moves. The audience shares his inertia. “MobLand” isn’t invested in unpacking its lead characters in complex ways, nor is it funny enough to survive as an action-comedy. (That being said, Emmett J. Scanlen’s bodyman Paul is definitely living in his own black-comic nightmare, and every scene that elevates his exasperated efforts to survive his bosses’ lethal unpredictability elevates the show, as well.) It’s an action-delivery device, so when it’s not delivering action, it feels broken. Things are bound to pick up in the latter half of Season 2, but for now, it’s a waste of Harry’s time, Tom Hardy’s time, and fans’ time, too. Nudge me when the charms resume. Grade: C “MobLand” Season 2 premieres Friday, September 18 on Paramount+. New episodes will be released weekly through the finale on November 20. The series has already been renewed for Season 3.