“The word got around that finally, there was a real gangster in town.” — Casino
It only occurs to me now, after this excellent episode of Paramount+’s MobLand, that the show has never had a really interesting villain. Discounting the shifting loyalties of the Harrigans themselves, all of whom are basically co-protagonists of the show, there’s really only been the tough-as-nails cockney crimelord Richie Stevenson and the cold-as-ice American macher Kat McAllister. You’ve seen British gangsters and Yankee black-ops bosses a million times.
Frankie Cooper, by contrast, stands out in a crowd.
With his mop of hair and tracksuits, he looks like a man they found on a desert island somewhere, clinging to the belief that a 1994 festival with Oasis headlining was still going on. His speech is non-stop patter, non-stop bits, non-stop little jokes that more often than not are so smoothly delivered the target isn’t even given the opportunity to get mad.
I reviewed this week’s MobLand for Decider.
Tags: decider, mobland, TV, TV reviews