This week on Paramount+‘s MobLand, a single character choice made me stop in my tracks, guffaw madly, and then think wistfully about my own Irish nana. I’m talking, of course, of the crazy scene in which Harrigan family matriarch Maeve (Helen Mirren) comforts her ne’er-do-well grandson Eddie (Anson Boon) by holding him tenderly to her bosom…and then giving him a bag of cocaine she had squirreled away in her bra.
“Nan of the year,” Eddie says, thankfully.
“Holy shit,” I said, stunned.
It’s just another reason why Paramount+’s MobLand hits so hard. Even as the Paramount+ show is still finding its footing, it’s still happy to gift us moments of sheer entertainment like this. Moments that thrill, shock, and seed darker storylines on the horizon…
MobLand was created by Irish writer Ronan Bennett. Originally envisioned as a Ray Donovan spin-off, the series soon found itself going in a completely different, standalone direction. Guy Ritchie directs the first two episodes and Jez Butterworth cowrote the premiere with Bennett. It’s a British gangster series with an all-star pedigree, from Tom Hardy as top-billed “fixer” Harry Da Souza, to Pierce Brosnan as crime family head Conrad Harrigan.
MobLand is also a show about how the sins, or crimes, of the young can potentially upend the work of decades. The show’s first crisis comes when Conrad and Maeve’s grandson Eddie gets in a bit of a pickle stabbing someone for insulting him at a nightclub. The situation gets even hairier when it’s revealed that Eddie was out with rival gangster heir Tommy Stevenson (Felix Edwards) and Tommy never got home.
The Stevensons naturally want retribution. Harry gets to work unraveling this mystery, while Eddie stews at his grandparents estate. While everyone else naturally blames the short-fused young man for his own mistakes, grandmother Maeve sees things differently. She dotes on the kid, comforting him to the point of indulging his coke addiction. Why? Well, as she lays it out for Conrad, she sees “greatness” in this cretin.
Maeve’s speech to Conrad wherein she lays out that Eddie was in the right to stab a rival reveals that she has no pretensions about who and what they are. Conrad might want the respect of the English gentlemen. Harry might want his daughter in a private school. Maeve understands they are the disgusting, violent, and debauched criminals Eddie is morphing into. She’s proud of the piece of shit!
Of course, the scene also hit a chord for me, the grandchild of Irish immigrants. My nana would sneak me treats, too. Only, it wasn’t cocaine, but chalky mints. (Sort of the same thing? Nah?)
MobLand returns to Paramount+ next Sunday, April 13.
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