Mobland

A London Gangster series and damn is it good. Great story & drama, with incredible characters and actors playing them. Of course this is directed by the excellent Guy Ritchie which explains the smart & cheeky dialogue. It’s a story about a London crime family, with Pierce Brosnan as the head of the family, Conrad Harrigan. Helen Mirren as his wife. Tom Hardy as his trusted lieutenant and fixer, Harry. A story leading up to an emerging war with rival crime family the Stevensons. 

Harry is calm, cool and effective. Tough as hell. The man you can rely on and send to fix hard problems. A true professional. Everything I have worked so hard to be, despite my incredible temper and rage. Harry is what every young male should aspire to be like minus the criminal career of course. He is taught to be very thorough: “dot the I’s and cross the t’s.”

Conrad is wise and his observations of the world are keen. That is why he is the big boss. 

On human organizations he uses a story before he purged his own syndicate. 

“It’s always the same in any orchard. You plant the trees. The trees grow tall. Then, sooner or later, they begin to get mangled, and before you know it, the apples begin to rot. And that, Harry, my son, is pruning time.”  

I’ve seen this play out in far too many organizations especially in Silicon Valley, startups that grow to big companies but they hire crappy people and the companies deteriorate at least until the crap people are removed. I see far too little pruning and that is why most companies in general suck. 

He gets the importance of respect: 

“A man disrespects you, you take care of it. That’s the Harrigan way.”

He understands grudges: “I hate you with every bone in my body, I wish you and yours nothing but ill will. You think I am going to stand there and let Richie Stevenson mouth me off with my son standing there. I’m Conrad the Dread “100 Fu—ing Guns” Harrigan! I want peace. But if Richie Stevenson disrespects me like that, I’ll push the f—ing button.”

He makes the hard decisions and is ruthless when executing them: 

“We’re at war. We’re gonna take those fuc-ers out one by one. Their friends, their families. We’re going to cut off the Stevensons empire and we will bleed Richie White.”

Conrad’s has interesting views on human nature: 

“A man sees a way to f—k you over, Fair play. 

It’s human nature and there’s no mercy in nature. That’s what I love about it. If I am bigger than you, stronger than you, I’ll eat you. Or I’ll f—k you and then eat you. But go behind my back? I get it. Hmmm, I get it. I’ll put a bullet in your heart and I won’t blame you.”

I really hate to admit it but he is absolutely correct. Nature is brutal. And the world is brutal, reverting back to what it used to be. It’s a dog eat dog world now. Maybe it always was. 

“We’re all monsters.” We just refused to see and admit it. 

It’s a series really worth watching. Highly entertaining. And you may even learn something along the way. Gangster life is one of the most extreme edges of society.