A little late to the party but I've finally gone back and watched "Gangs of London" that I recorded about this time last year, but got lost a little in a sea of Covid Content. Though I admired quite a lot of this show, a few niggles with the story stopped it from being something I considered truly top class.
The murder of Finn Wallace (Colm Meaney) patriarch of a family and head of a crime syndicate causes ructions around city of London. His son, Sean (Joe Cole) presumed next in line for control beings a violent hunt for the perpetrators, whilst senior advisers Ed Dumani (Lucian Msamati) and his son Alexander (Paapa Essideu) try to assure the various interested parties that London and the Wallace organisation are open for business. Into this steps Elliot Finch (Sope Dirisu) a low-level enforcer who sees the confusion as an opportunity to rise the ranks.
I normally start my appraisals with the positives, but I think I'm going to lead with the negatives here as there are less of them. Mostly the issues I found were with how complex the story is at times, there a numerous factions (generally regional or ethnic groups) that Wallace held together that now see their rivalries return. Sometimes, it's a little hard in all that to maintain who is on who's side and what their ultimate motivations are. I also felt a little underwhelmed at the conclusion of the show, thought I understand that there are opportunities to go forward with it now.
The best aspect is Gareth Evans being involved and particularly him bringing some of the action chops that he showed in "The Raid" and its sequel into some really phenomenal action sequences that pepper, particularly, the earlier episodes. He also directs the standout fifth episode, one that could almost stand alone and contains a brutal sustained attack on remote farmhouse. Performances and visuals across the whole series are very impressive.
A little tighter plotted and with a few less blind alley characters then this might have been right up there, as it is, I'll be back for the second season.