Tom Hardy’s 10-Part Guy Ritchie Thriller Is Officially the Biggest TV Hit With a Stellar RT Score

Tom Hardy is one of those actors who almost inevitably becomes the most compelling thing in whatever he appears in, which has not always done the material around him many favors. Taboo was built almost entirely around his glowering presence, while Venom relied heavily on his willingness to get strange with the role. Even his smaller film performances tend to pull the center of gravity in his direction.

MobLand felt like the first time in a while that Hardy slotted into an ensemble that could actually push back, with Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren chewing through Ronan Bennett’s profane dialogue as the heads of the Harrigan crime family while Hardy underplayed everything as their fixer Harry Da Souza. Season 1 became Paramount+’s biggest global series launch ever despite critics landing on a fairly lukewarm 77% on Rotten Tomatoes.

The new season is currently sitting at 89% on Rotten Tomatoes from its first nine reviews, and it actually debuted at a perfect 100% before the count grew. Shows that open on star power and a heavy marketing push often lose momentum once the novelty fades, and MobLand appeared to have a few extra reasons it might wobble. There was a 15-month gap between seasons and persistent reporting about behind-the-scenes friction involving Hardy. The streamer then went a step further by renewing the show for Season 3 on Sept. 3, before any new episodes had aired, which could reasonably be read as a deliberate effort to get ahead of that speculation.

Whatever may or may not have happened during production, the finished result seems, at least early on, to have benefited from the longer gap. One early viewer reaction summed up the mood, saying, “What a brilliant show, all the cast members are brilliant. Great acting, soundtrack, everything works. Loved the start of season 2. Do not break up this cast.” Season 1 audiences scored the show lower than you’d expect for a record-breaking hit, at 67% on the Popcornmeter, so a vocal positive turnout this early is its own small course correction.

MobLand Season 2 picks up with the Harrigans nominally victorious after the Stevenson war and predictably worse off for it, with Johnny Flynn joining as a new adversary and Ritchie once again directing the premiere. Paramount+ is holding to a weekly Friday rollout across ten episodes through a Nov. 20 finale. On Paramount+, MobLand has now done something more tangible, as it has overtaken Taylor Sheridan’s Lioness for the No. 1 spot among the platform’s global TV titles.