Gangs Of London Season 1 (2020) Review

Gangs Of London Season 1 (2020) Review

 Sky has been marketing this show heavily for the last few weeks and I have now finished watching the first season of Gangs Of London and here is my review for the first season. The premise of the first season see the top gangster in London murdered, his son takes over and has to deal with the other parts of his buisness while attempting to track down his fathers killer. 

Main Character

Joe Cole plays the lead character Sean Wallace and I thought he did an okay job in the role. In terms of a performance I thought he gave a very strong performance with what he is given he is clearly a very good actor, the issues are just with his character. He is the main character on the show and you see he is meant to have a character arc but I just didn't find it that interesting, you are meant to care and root for him at times but I didn't. His enemies make some valid points even though you are meant to not believe them and it makes it hard for me to really care about him as a character but his strong performance brings it up a bit. 

Supporting Characters

The character that we are meant to see the story through is that of the character of Elliot played by Sope Dirisu and I thought he did a really good job. As mentioned I didn't care much about Sean as a character but I did care about Elliot, he is most human character and even though he doesn't have the most unique backstory it is one that you can get on board with and a strong performance helps this even more. There are some other decent performances but the problem is none of them are interesting, plus there are just so many characters to watch that none of them get the time to stand out and get the chance to shine and it really hurts the show. 

Story

The story has some good moments in it, you see Elliot's character develop and you see this crazy world that he is a part of and how much it affects the city of London. Characters are very questionable and the story focuses on that showing just how bad some of these people are and that they live amongst the other people. Though, as mentioned the amount of characters means there are plenty of stories and just way too much going on, quite a few of the stories aren't very interesting, also the hunt for the killer gives too much away too early and it hurts the mystery of the show. 

Script

The script has some really good drama, you can tell just how dark this show is and how the conflict grows and grows as the show progresses and the sinister plot is further explained. However, this show lacks all charm to it for sure, I know this is a very dark show but it feels like a lack of humanity that there isn't any humour at all on the show. 

Style

The styel of the show is really brutal, it holds nothing back. It shows everything in terms of violence and doesn't hold anything back so if you are squeamish to violence then this isn't the show for you. There are some great action scenes, especially at the beginning of the show, though it doesn't hold up towards he end. Sometimes it feels like violence for violence sakes and for me the pacing of the show doesn't quite work. If they had cut some of the characters and some of the stories then this show could have flowed much better and been a much more bingeworthy show for me. 

Overall

It is interesting because when I look online this show has been getting great reviews but I must be in the minority as I thought this was a very average show. I think there is some potential here but as it currently is I don't believe it is worth the time as there are better gangster films and shows out there. 

Rating - 5/10