The unofficial – or perhaps even official – motto of Sky’s Gangs of London (Sky Atlantic, 9pm) could be “gore the merrier”. This ultra-violent, hyper-cartoonish crime romp has placed huge stock across its previous two seasons in the visceral joy of crunching limbs and spurting arteries. It’s Quentin Tarantino-style 1990s violence taken to a sort of evolutionary dead end – topped off with geezer-ish banter which brings to mind prime Guy Ritchie or, for those with longer memories, Dennis Waterman in Minder.
Amid all the gunplay, what’s missing from the returning series – now directed by Hong Kong action veteran Kim Hong Sun – is much in the way of plot. The action kicks off with Sope Dirisu’s one-time undercover detective, Elliot Carter, coming down with a potentially fatal case of Stockholm syndrome and deciding he’d rather be a robber than a cop. To that end, he has set himself up as one of London’s major cocaine dealers, in opposition to his old nemesis Sean Wallace (Joe Cole, aka the Millennial Danny Dyer).
London also has a new mayor (T’Nia Miller) who is against drugs in all circumstances – except when she’s hoovering them up herself. She manages to avoid sampling a new shipment of cocaine laced with fentanyl – but it turns out she’s one of the lucky ones, and the bodies are soon piling up.
The drugs belonged to Carter – but who spiked them? The game’s afoot, and the trail leads to the amusement park hideout of Richard Dormer’s Cornelius Quinn, a Northern Irish hitman whose gang look like Grand Theft Auto’s idea of a Provisional IRA active service unit. There is also a welcome back for Emmet J Scanlan, who would know all about starring in a confusing underworld caper, having featured in RTÉ‘s Kin.
Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, Apple TV+: 10 of the best new shows to watch in February
Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, Apple TV+: 10 of the best new shows to watch in March
Adolescence: Why can’t we look away from Netflix’s hypnotic hit?
In an unhinged world, Ciara Kelly and Shane Coleman are sane company. Even Ivan Yates seems sensible
As ever, the story is threadbare and the real appeal lies in the beautifully choreographed violence, which owes as much to video games as it does to classic gangster cinema. This is evident when Carter and his crew face off against Quinn in a night-time amusement park, and one of the Irish villains is a dispatched with a boink to the noggin from an over-sized mallet.
The entire scene is absurd – as are repeated cuts to London’s tiny footprint of skyscrapers which makes the series feel like a rip-off of the BBC’s The Apprentice. You half expect Alan Sugar or Karren Brady to roll across the screen toting an Uzi – a sight which, anywhere else, would be ridiculous but which would feel entirely on brand for Gangs of London.
