The world is well aware of how fantastic a movie actor Tom Hardy is. His performances in films like Mad Max: Fury Road, The Dark Knight Rises, and his Academy Award-nominated role in The Revenant have made him a household name in the current era of Hollywood. However, some would argue that Hardy shines the most in his television roles, when he’s given extended time and more freedom to explore his characters. From smaller performances in Band of Brothers to leading the charge in Taboo and, most recently, MobLand, Hardy has become an actor who brings audiences to a series by name alone.
MobLand isn’t just Hardy’s biggest and most recent TV role; the Paramount series brings out a side to the actor seldom seen in his other projects. Created by Ronan Bennett and with several episodes directed by The Gentlemen’s Guy Ritchie, MobLand puts a magnifying glass on the intense and brutal life of being involved with a dangerous crime family. Hardy is joined by Pierce Brosnan, Paddy Considine, and Oscar winner Helen Mirren, but he stands tall as the show’s main and most interesting character.
Tom Hardy Plays the Quiet and Loyal Harry Da Souza in MobLand
Tom Hardy holding a pistol in MoblandParamount+
In MobLand, Tom Hardy plays Harry Da Souza, the “fixer” for the Harrigan crime family in London. Da Souza is the right-hand man of Pierce Brosnan’s Conrad Harrigan and the best friend of his son, Kevin. It’s Da Souza’s job to clean up any messes created by the family, including disposing of bodies, setting up meetings, or silencing those who stand in the Harrigans’ way, by any means necessary.
Although Harry’s past isn’t explored much in the first season of MobLand, it’s clear that the character sometimes has conflicted feelings about the situations he places himself in and the leadership of the Harrigan family as a whole, even though, for the most part, he comes off as cold, calculated, and unaffected. Da Souza is a cold-blooded killer; it just seems like his reasoning behind his actions is a little more directed and less chaotic than the family that employs him. The Harrigans’ rash decisions and brutal responses never pull Harry off course, though.
Tom Hardy isn’t a stranger to playing the quiet, mysterious antihero, but to see this version kill, dismember, and “fix” without much emotional baggage is a side not seen often in his roles. His performance as Da Souza feels more like an obedient attack dog, where he’ll always do what he’s told, sometimes viciously, if necessary, but the owner must always be aware that they are one wrong move away from being mauled. Hopefully, Season 2 will offer more backstory on Hardy’s character.
MobLand Fits in Well with Guy Ritchie’s Other Brutal Projects
Pierce Brosnan and Tom Hardy in MobLandParamount+
When it comes to R-rated crime genre brutality, Guy Ritchie has never been afraid to hit hard with gut-wrenching, sometimes horrifying scenes. From feeding people to pigs in Snatch to point-blank shotgun blasts in The Gentlemen, Ritchie’s shocking scenes always teeter on the edge of going too far, without jumping overboard. However, MobLand may be the most graphic project that Ritchie has been involved in thus far.
Even though the show, as a whole, is quite graphic, there are a few episodes that stand out, with Ritchie directing some of them. While viewers may remember a specific chainsaw scene as being the most graphic, it actually keeps most of the violence off-screen. It’s in Episode 2, when setting up the plot behind most of the season, that holds the series’ most graphic shot.
In “Jigsaw Puzzle,” directed by Ritchie, Harry is on the search for what happened to a rival crime patriarch’s son, Tommy. Thought to be killed by Conrad’s grandson, the rival crime boss threatens Harry’s family if he doesn’t find out.
In response, Harry moves quickly to uncover the mystery, only to find that Conrad’s grandson has not only murdered Tommy, but he had him chopped up into pieces and stuffed into a trunk. The episode doesn’t shy away from showing it all, perfectly setting the stage for the vast amounts of violence to come.
MobLand is now streaming on Paramount+.
Release Date
March 30, 2025
Network
Paramount+
Directors
Daniel Syrkin
Pierce Brosnan
Conrad Harrigan
