MobLand Season 2 Has a Weird New Villain

3 min readThere are three types of Guy Ritchie characters. There’s the calm, collected hit man (Tom Hardy’s Harry De Souza in MobLand), the aged, off-his-rocker gangster (Pierce Brosnan’s Conrad Harrigan), and the eccentric, jumpsuit-wearing weirdo. It’s a bit like Austin Powers, Dr. Evil, and Goldmember. And now MobLand season 2 finally has that third wild card.Played by Johnny Flynn, Frankie is an “unlikely gangster,” according to the actor. “He’s a hedonist, a pleasure fiend,” Flynn told The Times of London. “He doesn’t do serious—even in the tightest hole he’ll start telling jokes. That’s his superpower.” Frankie reminds me most of Jimmy Savile, one of England’s most famous media personalities (and sex criminals), whose persona recently made the spotlight again thanks to Jack O’Connell’s character in 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. But outside of his contradictory oddities—he’s meticulous about his cuticles but apparently couldn’t care less about how insane his hair looks—he’s about to cause some real problems for the Harrigan family.Still, it’s funny how much these rivals plan just how to take down the Harrigans when it seems they’re always on the verge of carrying out their own demise. Episode 2 starts off by sending Conrad to a neurosurgeon to give him physical evidence that his sense of reasoning and decision-making is weakening. We gathered that last week when he murdered a bunch of his allies at the racetrack. “Why are we still talking about this?” Conrad asks him. “Destroy the evidence. I’m right as fucking rain!” Good, I’m glad we learned something here.Luke Varley/Paramount+I’m starting to think Harry should leave the Harrigans.Elsewhere, Seraphina Harrigan (Mandeep Dhillon) actively works with the enemy to take her family down. She orchestrates a meeting with Conrad and Maeve (Helen Mirren) at a fancy restaurant in town and informs Kay McAllister’s (Janet McTeer) team about it. Then her contact tells her not to show up. Naturally, you’d expect a hit right out of The Godfather Part II to occur, with gangsters busting into the restaurant and gunning the two Harrigan heads down. But it looks like Kay and Frankie will take their sweet time with it.Detective Colin Tattersall (Toby Jones) read about how Henry IV was assassinated by tying his arms and legs to horses and ripping him apart, and he has metaphorically convinced Frankie that this is how they need to deal with Harry. Conrad and Maeve are one limb, he suggests. Harry’s wife, his daughter, Kevin (Paddy Considine), and a surprise fourth will likely round out the other three.Sophie Mutevelian/Paramount+Did Colin really need to read a whole book just for that plan?So Frankie and his men attack Harry’s daughter, Gina (Teddie Allen), whom Harry saves, while also learning that she’s dating a more demure Eddie Harrigan (Anson Boon). They also attack Kevin’s wife, Bella (Lara Pulver), who may or may not be dead at the end of the episode, and kidnap Zosia (Jasmine Jobson), Harry’s associate. Oh, and they kill poor little Fergus (Jack Archer), the new Harrigan bodyguard, and Paul’s (Emmett J. Scanlan) nephew. That’s it!Despite the music, quick cuts, and shaky cameras, it’s a rather weak move. Like I said, they could have just gunned down Conrad and Maeve right in the open. Instead, Frankie simply calls Conrad at the restaurant and says, “Bang,” while holding a gun to Bella’s head. He might know a lot about foot fungus, but I’m not sure how much that one’s going to really anger Conrad. You never know, though. His brain isn’t quite right.