MOBLAND: Episode 1.1: “Stick or Twist”
Brilliantly made, morally bankrupt — skip this one.
Should You Watch It?
Here's the honest tension: MOBLAND is genuinely well-made. The cinematography, the color grading, the real London locations, and performances from Tom Hardy and Pierce Brosnan are all top-notch, and Guy Ritchie directs the pilot with real skill. If craft alone earned a recommendation, this would be an easy yes.
But craft isn't the whole verdict. The pilot piles on more than 50 obscenities, brutal stabbings and shootings, strippers with exposed breasts, discussion of a boy's sexual abuse by his uncle, and an extended drug trade storyline involving fentanyl and cocaine. The protagonist, Harry, is a comparatively decent man — a loyal husband who avoids killing unless forced to — but nearly everyone around him is worse, and the show offers little to counterbalance the darkness.
Skilled filmmaking in service of an abhorrent world is still an abhorrent world. This one isn't worth your time or your conscience.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESHarry Da Souza is an enforcer for the Harrigan crime family, tasked with keeping an uneasy ceasefire with the rival Stevenson family. When Eddie Harrigan, the clan's young hothead heir, gets violent one night, the Stevenson family's own grandson goes missing after being seen in Eddie's company. Suspicion boils on both sides, and Harry is sent to clean up the mess and find answers before it costs a gang war.
Is It Any Good?
Three stars means this is genuinely skilled work — and the source is clear on why. The cinematography and use of real locations give it a grounded, lived-in feel that suits the "seedy subject matter." Tom Hardy, Pierce Brosnan, and the rest of the cast deliver top-notch performances, and Guy Ritchie's direction of the pilot is expert.
But quality of craft isn't the same as quality of content. The story world offers a bleak parade of deceit, intimidation, and violence, and even the moral high ground the protagonist occupies is thin — he's a devoted husband who neglects his own marriage for the family business. The other characters, including the family's elder married couple, prove just as vicious as the young hotheads they're supposedly restraining.
The Worldview
The source calls this a "very strong pagan, immoral worldview with slight redeeming qualities," and that's exactly the balance on screen. Harry, the protagonist, offers a sliver of something better: he's faithful to his wife and daughter, and he refuses lethal force unless it's truly necessary. He even tries — and fails — to broker peace between warring drug cartels.
Everything else pulls the other way. The crime families openly champion the illegal drug trade. A grandfather murders his own best friend for alleged betrayal. The protagonist and his allies intimidate innocent civilians without apparent remorse. Loyalty to the family business consistently outranks loyalty to spouse, conscience, or law. Whatever glimmers of decency the story offers get buried under an avalanche of cruelty, greed, and violence that the narrative never really answers.
This is a story about men who organize their whole lives around protecting a family that keeps choosing violence over peace — and it never asks whether that's a bargain worth making. Scripture is less ambivalent: "Do not envy a man of violence and do not choose any of his ways" (Proverbs 3:31).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements
Very strong pagan, immoral worldview with slight redeeming qualities, the protagonist is a faithful husband and caring father to his wife and daughter but his wife complains that he seems to care more about his boss and his family rather than her and their daughter (he spends more time working for them), the hero refuses to kill his rivals unless it’s absolutely necessary but that’s not true of the two married leaders of the crime family who are violent hotheads like their grandson, the protagonist tries (and fails) to broker a ceasefire between the drug cartels, the crime families champion the illegal drug market, a grandfather murders his best friend for being a traitor, and the protagonist and his allies openly intimidate innocent civilians
Foul Language
At least 50 obscenities (including at least 30 “f” words), one Jesus profanity, one light profanity, and an older gentleman several times calls his deceased uncle a “nonce,” which is British slang for “pedophile”
Violence
Very strong realistic, bloody violence where various gangsters bleed on the floor and are shot to death, three enforcers brutally gun down a meeting room of crime ambassadors, a mob boss shoves his boot against the neck of his enemy, a drunk man brutally stabs a man in the stomach for no apparent reason (the rival is taken to the hospital), the main character threatens to shoot his enemy gangsters inside a bar, a sniper aims his sights at a mob boss, and a mob boss shoots his second-in-command advisor in the heart for allegedly betraying him
Sex
Sexual acts are mentioned in dialogue, two men discuss how their uncle grabbed them by their private parts as children, an elderly man (fully clothed) scratches his private area during a fishing trip, a gangster visits a bar with strippers, the same performers lightly rub their bodies with one another (but no full on-screen sex), and an elderly mob boss jokes about having an out-of-wedlock daughter (his wife is still angry and jealous about it, even though or especially because the mob boss has welcomed the daughter into the family)
Nudity
Female strippers briefly have their breasts fully exposed, shirtless male strippers are present, and a male gangster is shirtless in bed, but no genitalia are shown
Alcohol Use
A young male gangster gets drunk at a bar, an older mob boss sips wine at a restaurant, and the Harrigan clan drinks wine during a crucial family meeting
Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse
Lots of tobacco smoking, the two warring factions produce large shipments of illegal drugs, a group of college-aged gangsters snort cocaine in the back of a car, a gangster clan discusses switching form heroin to fentanyl to increase their profits, and the characters discuss their strategies to pushing their underground drug trade
Miscellaneous Immorality
A male gangster throws his knife into the Thames River to hide it from police, the protagonist coerces a stabbing victim to purposely lie to the police or risk getting killed by the gangsters he works for, a young man lies about his dealings with the son of the rival crime gang, the protagonist keeps the details of his crime enforcer life a secret from his wife, and a gangster throws his friend’s smartphone onto the street out of spite.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
Harry avoids killing "unless absolutely necessary" but still lives a life built on intimidation and lies. Can a person be partly good inside a fully corrupt system? What does Scripture say about the company we keep?
Proverbs 3:31 · 1 Corinthians 15:33Harry's wife says he cares more about his boss's family than his own. What does it look like when work — even "necessary" work — quietly displaces the people we're most called to love?
Ephesians 5:25 · Colossians 3:19The story treats loyalty to family and organization as the highest value, even when it demands violence and cover-ups. Where does loyalty cross the line into complicity?
Proverbs 4:14–17A character discloses childhood sexual abuse in passing, almost as a joke. Why does that moment deserve more weight than the show gives it, and how should Christians respond when real pain gets treated lightly?
Psalm 34:18 · Matthew 18:6The Final Word
MOBLAND proves that skill behind the camera and emptiness in front of it can coexist in the same hour of television. The performances and direction are real; so is the wall of profanity, violence, drugs, and abuse dialogue that comes with them. Our answer stands: SKIP IT. If you're looking for something to actually watch with your family this week, start with our.
