Gangs of London - all 9 episodes out now on Sky Atlantic. Gareth Evans (The Raid) Gangland Series

Created by visionary award-winning filmmaker Gareth Evans and his creative partner Matt Flannery, Gangs of London takes audiences on an immersive journey into the hidden heart of the capital.

https://www.sky.com/watch/gangs-of-london



Cast

Joe Cole (Peaky Blinders, Pure) and Sope Dirisu (Humans, The Huntsman: Winter’s War) co-star on Gangs of London. They are joined in the cast by the following:

Lucian Msamati (Black Earth Rising), Michelle Fairley (Game of Thrones), Mark Lewis Jones (Star Wars: The Last Jedi), Narges Rashidi (The Girlfriend Experience), Jing Lusi (Crazy Rich Asians), Pippa Bennett-Warner (Harlots), Brian Vernel (Dunkirk), Orli Shuka (War Machine), Richard Harrington (Poldark), Jude Akuwidike (Beasts of No Nation) and Emmett J Scanlan (Peaky Blinders).

Reviews

Radio Times - 4 out of 5 (1st episode reviewed)

The opening episode – which stands at 90 minutes long – feels like the start of something big: Gangs of London packs a punch, and several early revelations will be enough to drag you back in for more.

The series will rise or fall on its ability to continually strike the balance between all-out violence and tense character drama, leaning too far either way would tarnish its appeal, but if Evans stacks up quality violence and drama in proportion, Gangs of London could be one of the gems of lockdown.

Empire - 4 out of 5 (4 episodes reviewed)

A stylish, homebrewed gang drama that takes its cues from the American classics, while bringing all the full-on, close-combat hurt you’d expect from the makers of The Raid.

https://www.empireonline.com/tv/reviews ... of-london/

If you’re not a massive fan of Guy Ritchie or Vinnie Jones a new show called Gangs Of London might sound a bit off putting. Do yourself a favor and ignore those instincts. This is comfortably one of the very best shows Sky, or indeed anyone, has released in some time. A massive, cinematic epic, this show is likely to be talked about in the same breath as Game Of Thrones for it’s incredible scale, complex politics and its sense that any character could be killed at any moment.

Gangs Of London is an impressive, explosive, thrilling must-watch for fans of epic action and twisty narrative who can stomach a bit (a lot) of gore. No low budget gangland grot here: Gangs Of London runs with the TV big guns.

https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/gangs-of-london-review/

Financial Times - 4 out of 5

From the grisly opening sequence, Gangs of London is revoltingly inventive when it comes to torture and murder. The party hasn’t started until someone’s been set on fire, and one scene in particular should be avoided by anyone who’s ever felt ambivalent about buckets. There’s a lot of whimpering: “You don’t have to do this!” Oh, but they do. They do.

https://www.ft.com/content/e20fecf8-7ef ... c06edeef84

Really liked the look of this when I saw the trailer some time back.

Will catch it hopefully very soon.

I will buy this on blu ray when it comes out, looks amazing.

Wow. 5 episodes in and this has been great. Some quality action scenes as expected.

The violence in this is off the the bloody charts

5 Episodes in and I love it

3 episodes in and I love it other than the actor who plays the main character who’s name I’ve forgotten. He’s got such a miserable face that I can’t wait for him to get off the screen when he’s been on so far.

Just finished it and it was a great last episode. Did not expect that (Episode 9 spoiler) ending for Sean.

Hopefully they do a season 2 as there isn’t one announced yet.

Joer wrote:Just finished it and it was a great last episode. Did not expect that (Episode 9 spoiler) ending for Sean.

Hopefully they do a season 2 as there isn’t one announced yet.

Yeah I didn't expect that either, was a bit miffed about it. Really hoping they do some more, they should do Going by the ending anyway

Watched the first episode last night - this is a fantasy, right? When I watch something like The Wire, I can believe that I'm watching an accurate portrayal of what life in the Baltimore projects is like for the people that live and 'work' there. It's horrifying because it's so true to life. This is bordering on the parody. London's criminal underworld is run by a perfectly ethnically diverse group of Bond villains? During the funeral/business meeting scene, it was almost a tick list - there's the Irish, the vaguely African, the Japanese, one guy looked Jewish, the Yardies, the Arabs, some guy called Nasir who might be Pakistani, probably some Russians.

Don't get me wrong - I enjoyed it and will continue to watch, but in an effort to glamourise this apparent 'underworld', it becomes almost comical. Maybe I need to venture outside NW2 to see this sort of thing.

The action scenes are also a little jarring and I can see the transition from a fixed camera position with proper lighting in, say, the previously mentioned business meeting scene, and the smaller handhelds used for the action sequences. You can tell that there's about to be a fight not from what is actually happening on screen but just from the camera work. This wasn't a problem for something like The Raid because the action sequences are literally the entire point of the movie. The narrative is second to action. Gangs of London, based on the adverts I've seen, is not positioning itself as an action piece and I can see the action sequences seriously confusing someone that isn't familiar with Evans previous work.

Igor wrote:Watched the first episode last night - this is a fantasy, right? When I watch something like The Wire, I can believe that I'm watching an accurate portrayal of what life in the Baltimore projects is like for the people that live and 'work' there. It's horrifying because it's so true to life. This is bordering on the parody. London's criminal underworld is run by a perfectly ethnically diverse group of Bond villains? During the funeral/business meeting scene, it was almost a tick list - there's the Irish, the vaguely African, the Japanese, one guy looked Jewish, the Yardies, the Arabs, some guy called Nasir who might be Pakistani, probably some Russians.

Don't get me wrong - I enjoyed it and will continue to watch, but in an effort to glamourise this apparent 'underworld', it becomes almost comical. Maybe I need to venture outside NW2 to see this sort of thing.

The action scenes are also a little jarring and I can see the transition from a fixed camera position with proper lighting in, say, the previously mentioned business meeting scene, and the smaller handhelds used for the action sequences. You can tell that there's about to be a fight not from what is actually happening on screen but just from the camera work. This wasn't a problem for something like The Raid because the action sequences are literally the entire point of the movie. The narrative is second to action. Gangs of London, based on the adverts I've seen, is not positioning itself as an action piece and I can see the action sequences seriously confusing someone that isn't familiar with Evans previous work.

"Gotham-izing" is what Evans describes as a shorthand version of the look they were going for.

The genesis of show — which lands on Sky on April 23 and on HBO's Cinemax later in the year — actually began with a video game of the same name, made for Sony's PSP handheld console. The action-adventure, released in 2006, scraped middling reviews and has largely been forgotten, but Thomas Benski, founder and CEO of London-based studio Pulse Films, saw an opportunity in its storyline, in which British, Russian, Chinese, Pakistani and Jamaican gangs battle for domination.

"There was something really interesting in the multiethnic gang warfare, and the fact it was different families," he says.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/ ... ut-1291272

It does get bloody crazy towards the end. And not in a good way. It started well, the action scenes are brutal.

But I felt they jumped the shark a lot during the final 3 episodes and felt it totally unnecessary.

Wedgie wrote:It does get bloody crazy towards the end. And not in a good way. It started well, the action scenes are brutal.

But I felt they jumped the shark a lot during the final 3 episodes and felt it totally unnecessary.

Exactly my feelings. The first 4 or 5 episodes were strawberry floating great, really good stuff. Then the last few were just wat.

It went full prison break with THE INVESTORS. Totally unnecessary.

My mate Corin Hardy who was kind of a mentor growing up and my first ever client directed four episodes of this btw I am looking forward to seeing it when I can see it as I don't have Sky.

It's episodes 2, 3, 4 & 9 if anyone's wondering, which by the sounds of things are some of the best ones.

Got to remember that a director has next to strawberry float all to do with a script however on something as big as this.

Nobody was blaming the director, fear not. The opening half of the show was great, it was the last few which were poor by comparison.

The direction was superb all the way through. It’s just that the story went from crazy but grounded to batshit crazy that had me feeling bemused in not a good way. It seems like that they were writing and realised that they had to wrap it up fast and it does show in the last 3 episodes.

Would prefer if it kept the conspiracy side for S2, and kept it as a gang warfare for this whole season. I can’t fault anything else.

I can’t see how S2 will top the first 5 episodes as I got the feeling that it’ll focus on the two characters in the final scene of the last episode and I can’t see anything else than revenge by using the IRA.

no worries I wasn't saying "MY MATE DID THIS, HOW DARE YOU"

I'm just interested in it because I can't watch it yet. Indeed, the script judging by reviews seems to go barmy towards the end with this, sadly he also directed the Nun which was praised for its cinematography and art etc but the script got panned, the polarisation of reviews there form 1 to 9 stars is nuts. The film he actually made 100% (The Hallow) got decent reviews and awards and was on Netflix for a while, it was funded by and filmed in Ireland and based on Irish/British folklore which is rare.

Always exciting to see someone you grew up around finding their way onto the telly. Bit strange went from music promos to silver screen to TV, but this is big budget "cinema-style" longform content, so it figures. Weren't a lot of the people involved with GoT hollywood types? He just got back from living in LA and is shouting about this on Twitter (obviously) from isolating with his kids in London.

He's really big on gothic horror, jump scares and action, but amazing at visual and practical effects, so it kind of figures he'd get attached to do something gritty like this. Hopefully his love of everything from early cinema to 80 horror VHS only releases didn't get the better of him, don't know how much cheese there is but it's not like that, he loves "movies" as opposed to saccharine film-making (maybe, that's just not his style).

There's two other directors, not unlike GoT with it's strawberry floating ridiculous number of co-producers in different parts of the world, so it'll be interesting to see what kind of directions it gets pulled in. Obviously there's a risk for inconsistency there, but it's just par for the course now, you can't have one guy producing what amounts to hours and hours of film, they'd just get burnt out. (I suppose one exception to that is potentially Vince Gilligan? What was the production on Breaking Bad like?)

That must be cool knowing someone involved in things like that. It's always fascinating to get a glimpse behind the curtain in things that are like a other world to you.

Does the fighting ramp up as it goes? Was impressed by the two fight scenes in episode 1, but the rest was super generic and tedious. Feels like the story was written by an a.i fed thousands of hours of London gang shows and films. First ep wasn't much shorter than the first The Raid movie yet only mustered up ten minutes of fighting.

You probably get 1 action scene an episode with various types of combat.