Gangs of London (2020).
Created by Gareth Evans
Starring Joe Cole, Sope Dirisu, Michelle Fairley, Lucian Msamati, Paapa Essiedu, Narges Rashidi, and more
The Stage.
Gangs of London is the story of a city torn apart by the turbulent power struggles of its international gangs and the sudden power vacuum that’s created when the head of London’s most powerful crime family is assassinated. Like a more modern Game of Thrones, swapping Colm Meaney for Sean Bean, with guns and bombs instead of swords.
The Review.
The show is created by Gareth Evans (who also directed two episodes) and his focus on amazing action scenes seen in The Raid: Redemption and The Raid 2 are on full display again here. There’s exciting hand-to-hand combat and gunplay in just about every episode and they’re on par with the action scenes in major motion pictures. One scene, in particular, features a raid on a house that is absolutely stunning and could go toe to toe with films that have ten times the budget.
I really loved the power dynamics between the various families. A particular standout is Narges Rashidi as Lale, the head of a Kurdish power in London. Her ruthlessness and poise were really interesting to watch on screen. I also really loved Orli Shuka as Luan Dushaj, a ruthless gangster with a separate typical home life.
Sope Dirisu plays Elliot Finch, the audience surrogate. He’s amazing and takes on a lot of the action scenes, specifically the one on one fights, in which he’s a complete and utter badass. Bravo to him and his performance - if he’s weak, the whole show falls apart.
If you’re not big on escapism, the element of believability quickly flies out the window in this show. Episodes routinely have bodycounts of 20 or more people, and you have to be wondering when any authority would start poking into things. Even if London law enforcement was paid off, surely the deaths of hundreds would start looking a little suspicious. It didn’t bother me - in fact, I felt like Evans went this direction on purpose.
There’s also a gang that just sort of appears out of nowhere during the last few episodes (season 1 is 9 episodes long) and that felt a bit strange to me. It wasn’t a deal breaker in any way, and I actually dug that character and his gang, but it almost felt as if they were taking the place of another family that was already on the show.
The worst thing about this show is that it’s nearly impossible to watch! In the US, you’re limited to seeing it on AMC+, which is a service that I didn’t even know about until I was researching this show! The only Blu-ray release is Region B (UK), so that’s out too.
The violence on this show is brutal. BRUTAL. If you’re not into that, probably best to walk away now. In the very first episode, you get a dart put through a man’s hand (among other body parts on multiple people), a head scraped across a wall so hard it leaves blood streaks, a man who gets a glass shoved into his mouth and then gets smashed into a bar top, shattering it in his mouth, a man lit on fire while hanging from a high rise building, a person chopped up in a bathtub, and more.
Also someone gets their fingernails pulled out with pliers. This show is fucking CRAZY.
The End.
I really enjoyed the first season of Gangs of London. It definitely has the best action I’ve seen in an episodic series since Cinemax’s Banshee. If you’re looking for something action packed, relentless, brutal, with a touch of the drama that made Game of Thrones such a fun watch, you will not be disappointed. It even features a few Game of Thrones actors in Michelle Fairley (Catelyn Stark) and David Bradley (Walder Frey).
