compatriots, hedonists & fabulous folk

I enjoyed the first season of MobLand so much! Apparently, it's from the creators of Ray Donovan and was originally supposed to be a Ray Donovan prequel but then became its own thing – which I think was a good choice because as much as I like Ray, I'm glad that Harry is not Ray. And I'm especially glad that Harry isn't weighted down by Ray's dysfunctional family. He's already too entangled in the Harrigans' dysfunctional family. :D

Spoilers!

Tom Hardy is fantastic! I like how Harry's both sympathetic and utterly ruthless when he needs to be, and incredibly calm under pressure. I like how loyal he is to the Harrigans – well, to Kevin at least. I thought around the mid-point of the show that maybe Harry was the police informant after all, trying to bring down the Harrigans from within, but in the end it turned out that his friendship to Kevin was important enough for him to stick with them even though Conrad is slipping and Meave is fucking insane.

Conrad is an unusual role for Pierce Brosnan. At the beginning, I expected him to be the all-powerful mob boss who was moving everyone around like pieces on a chess board, and it was great how the show revealed bit by bit that he'd long since lost control and was just lashing out. And Meave! She's horrible! I don't buy her "I was just testing everyone" explanation at the end – I think she's a vengeful sadist attempting to make a power play that failed and now she's trying to justify it. Good on Kevin to stand up to them in the final episode. I also liked the scene with Kevin and Bella at the end where they both revealed their traumatic history of sexual assault to each other and bonded over it. I'm not quite sure if Kevin should trust Bella completely, considering that she's been hitting on Harry, but it was a sweet hurt/comfort-y moment, anyhow.

Seeing Lara Pulver and Joanne Froggatt in a show together took me all the way back to my Robin Hood days. And imagine that – I feel the same way about their characters here than I did about their Robin Hood characters! /:D\ As in, I like Bella, but wouldn't trust her as far as I could throw her, and I think Jan is annoying as hell. I'm sympathetic to the whole 'my husband is a mob enforcer and I hate how my life is shaped by fear and violence' but at the same time, I don't think this is news to her, considering her 'I don't want to know about your job' speech earlier in the season. And what's worse – I don't get the impression that she even likes Harry or is into him. Like, why is she with him to begin with? It doesn't help that she and Hardy have no chemistry at all. It shouldn't come as a surprise that I hated the cliffhanger ending. It was so dumb, it was almost funny.

Unfortunately, there's nothing for me to ship, so I don't have any fannish interest in the show. In the first episode, I briefly entertained the idea of Eddie Harrigan and Tommy Stevenson canonically hooking up in some kind of Romeo-and-Juliet sort of romance, but it turned out that my perceptions of where their relationship was going were… grossly misguided. 😬😬 That was unfortunate. I really enjoyed their interactions, but how it ended ruined by interest in exploring the dynamic further (and also, Eddie is batshit insane). Alas. And I can see the potential of Harry/Kevin, but their relationship is lacking the antagonism I prefer in my ships.

Either way, I really hope the show will be renewed and we'll get another series!