MobLand Was Originally A Spin-Off From A Very Popular American Crime Series

There are far too many TV shows to keep up with these days, but the new Paramount+ series "MobLand" might just be worth squeezing into your schedule. Starring Tom Hardy, Pierce Brosnan, and Helen Mirren, the new show also benefits from Guy Ritchie's directorial flair and some incredibly sharp writing that's as witty and darkly funny as it is appropriately crass coming out of the mouths of some of London's most deranged gangsters.

Hardy plays professional conciliator for the Harrigan crime family, Harry Da Souza, who outside of his life as a mob lieutenant, is a family man who struggles with his work/life balance. One element of many that makes "Mobland" notable is its existence as a Tom Hardy project completely devoid of any weird Tom Hardy accents. Here, where he's not consumed by maintaining one of his "vocal silhouettes" as he calls them, he simply reminds us of his acting prowess, and his ability to project an everyman charm through a character who is about as wretched and otherwise unlikable as you can imagine, is truly impressive.

The same is true of Brosnan and his Irish crime lord Conrad Harrigan, for whom Harry works. Conrad is as unhinged as any of the footsoldiers doing his bidding (though he's outdone in that regard by Helen Mirren's Maeve). Yet, Brosnan makes the villain watchable in a way that goes beyond making audiences wait to see what psychotic act he'll authorize, or indeed carry out himself, next.

The gangster has a sort of alluring frailty to him, which masks a truly rotten core. This dichotomy is represented in Conrad's idyllic Cotswolds country house retreat, where he has all the affectations of a dignified, quiet rural life — from muddied Wellington boots to flat caps — yet runs one of the most brutal organized crime groups in the country, and isn't above using his charming English home to gun down trusted associates while looking them dead in the eye. Hypocrisy, is, after all, the compliment vice pays to virtue, and here Conrad's attempts to maintain the appearance of a kindly English aristocrat while simultaneously committing horrifically violent acts is grimly comedic in an immensely watchable way.

Making this show even more interesting is the fact that it actually started life as a spin-off from a successful U.S. crime drama series.

"MobLand" feels very much like its own show, even while it contains several Guy Ritchie trademarks. At least, it feels very British and belies none of its genesis as a spin-off from the U.S. show "Ray Donovan." The Showtime series starred Liev Schreiber as the titular fixer, who's constantly beleaguered by requests to right whatever wrongs have been carried out by his long list of clients and family members. The series also starred Paula Malcomson, Jon Voight, Eddie Marsan, Dash Mihok, and Pooch Hall and ran for seven seasons from 2013 to 2020, after which a "Ray Donovan" movie was announced. That film arrived in 2022, and fared pretty well with critics. But that was the last we saw of Liev Schreiber's fixer. Then, however, it was announced that the spirit of the character would live on in a spin-off series that was to be set across the pond in jolly old England.

In February 2024, Paramount+ officially greenlit the U.K.-based spin-off (via Variety) which was said to be "loosely based" on the original Showtime series. Titled "The Donovans," the show was set to be written by Irish novelist and screenwriter Ronan Bennett, who previously acted as showrunner, writer, and executive producer on crime drama series "Top Boy," which ran on Channel 4 in the UK before going to Netflix in 2019. Guy Ritchie was also announced as executive producer and director on "The Donovans," the announcement of which came with a logline reading:

"With the most powerful clients in Europe, 'The Donovans' will see family fortunes and reputations at risk, odd alliances unfold, and betrayal around every corner; and while the family might be London's most elite fixers today, the nature of their business means there is no guarantee what's in store tomorrow."

At the time, CEO of production company 101 Studios, David C. Glasser, claimed that he was excited to "reimagine the 'Ray Donovan' legacy," suggesting the series was less of a spin-off and more of a British remake. That said, when the series was first announced, The Hollywood Reporter described it as "The new 'Ray Donovan' origin story," suggesting it was very much a part of the Showtime series' storyline.

It seems that somewhere between February and October 2024, "MobLand" stopped being a "Ray Donovan" spin-off and became its own thing. Variety reported in October of that year that Tom Hardy, Pierce Brosnan, and Helen Mirren were in talks to join the cast, with the outlet noting that "the project had initially been developed with the title 'The Donovans,' with plans to function as an across-the-pond spin-off of the Showtime series 'Ray Donovan'." By that point, however, the show had been "reworked into a standalone series with no connections to that franchise."

The reason for "MobLand" becoming its own standalone show rather than a "Ray Donovan" spin-off remains unclear, but it seems Ronan Bennett and Guy Ritchie very much had their own vision for the series, which at times is about as quintessentially Guy Ritchie as you can get. What's more, the ruthless, morally bankrupt gangsters of "MobLand" are much more unpleasant than Liev Schreiber's fixer, and the show clearly goes to darker places than its American counterpart. Perhaps Bennett and Ritchie just didn't want their vision to be held back by being shackled to a show with a different sensibility.

Had "MobLand" actually remained a "Ray Donovan" spin-off, however, it wouldn't have been the first. The Showtime series was previously reimagined in Indian Hindi-language remake "Rana Naidu," back in 2023. "MobLand," however clearly doesn't need a "Ray Donovan" connection to work, and might be Tom Hardy's best performance of recent years. Being a leading man was never a priority for Hardy but "MobLand" suggests it should have been.