“GANGS OF London” (Max)
When the Brit series “Gangs of London” premiered in 2020 on AMC it dished up the most graphic violence ever seen on mainstream cable.
Each episode was highlighted by at least one state-of-the-art fight scene…sometimes featuring firearms, often with bladed weapons, frequently with fists, feet and teeth.
We’re talking John Wick-level action choreography melded with a gruesome attention to the trauma inflicted on the human body. Sometimes balletic but mostly brutal. In the middle of the first season nearly an entire episode was devoted to the siege of a remote farmhouse by a small army of mercenaries…it was an astounding action set piece comparable to Sam Peckinpah’s “The Wild Bunch.”
“Gangs…” Season Two just dropped on Max and, if anything, it raises the ante on onscreen mayhem.
The premise is pretty much summed up in the title. Various gangs representing different ethnic groups (Pakistanis, Irish, Kurdish, etc.) vie for supremacy of the London underworld. The authorities are conspicuous in their absence…apparently standard-issue law enforcement is utterly ineffective in curtailing the carnage.
Our nominal hero is undercover cop Elliott (Sope Dirisu) who infiltrates the gang led by the demented mother/son duo Marian and Sean Wallace (Michelle Fairley, Joe Cole). The idea is to undermine the Wallaces from within, but to prove his loyalty (and to elude discovery) Elliott must participate in the gang’s reign of terror. He’s the closest thing we have to a moral authority, but even he has way too much blood on his hands.
This being a Brit production, the acting is top-notch. Season Two features the arrival of the loathsome Koba (Waleed Zuaiter), a platinum-haired enforcer from Georgia (the eastern European Georgia, not the American one) tasked with ending the infighting whether the warring gangs like it or not. Kidnapping and torturing the wife of an uncooperative gangster is all in a day’s work for this ruthless killer…Koba may be the year’s best heavy.
Season Two also raises tantalizing questions about “the investors,” a shadowy group of plutocrats (we never see them) who are the mob bosses’ bosses. I have to imagine that Season Three (now in production) will find Elliott exposing their Koch-level shenanigans.
Just about every aspect of “Gangs of London” works. The question is whether you can handle the series’ pervasive nihilism and unapologetic barbarity. Because no matter how you approach it, you’ll end up rooting for one of the bad guys.
“RESERVATION DOGS” (Hulu)
Apparently the world is made up of two kinds of viewers: Those who immediately recognized the genius of “Reservation Dogs” and those of us who discover it later.
When the show debuted in 2021 I gave it a go, but couldn’t slip into its distinctive vibe about slacker teens growing up hopeless on an Oklahoma Indian Reservation. There was something about the pseudo-amateurish performances that rubbed me the wrong way.
Or maybe it was some weird sort of white privilege. “Rez Dogs” has been written, directed and overwhelmingly acted by Native Americans, and it is unapologetic in unfolding from a distinctively N.A. point of view. To an old white guy it didn’t seem a good fit.
A friend, however, encouraged me start again, this time with Season Two. I did…and am eternally thankful for the recommendation.
Most of the Season Two episodes put one or more of the characters through an experience that is simultaneously universal and specifically Native American.
One features young Bear (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai) taking his first paying job…as a roofer. His experiences with the older crew members widen his perspectives and his growing satisfaction at delivering a good day’s work suggests his gentle shift toward maturity.
An entire episode is devoted to the death of the grandmother of Elora (Devery Jaccobs). Virually every major cast member shows up to pay their respects to the fading matriarch, and the interplay among them beautifully reflects the humor, loss and resignation experienced during such a pivotal moment.
Gay kid Cheese (Lane Factor) finds himself in juvie (he was visiting his weed-growing uncle when the cops arrived). And a handful of aunties travel to a Native American confab in a big hotel…it’s a chance to leave the rez behind, party like their old former selves and maybe snag a fine man.
The shows are funny, yes. The characters are periodically visited by the spirits of long-gone tribal members, like William Knifeman, a horse-riding, joke-telling warrior who is far more laid back than intimidating, and Deer Lady, a beautiful but vengeful creature who gruesomely settles scores with folk who have lived badly.
And in one absurdity-drenched segment straight arrow tribal cop Big (Zahn McClarnon) accidentally takes an acid trip and in the woods stumbles across a coven of white Oklahoma businessmen planning to seize Indian land.
But there’s a growing seriousness that comes to its full fruition in Season Three. The overarching theme has the kids little by little coming to terms with just what means to be Indian. Though they are acutely aware of the ridiculous elements of their existence (a touchy-feely session with a couple of wannabe New-Agey Native American gurus is simultaneously hilarious and creepy), these young people are developing a sense of community and discovering a new respect for traditions.
The last few episodes pretty much left me an emotional wreck. But you know what? The kids are gonna be alright.
“WINNING TIME: THE RISE OF THE LAKERS DYNASTY” (MAX)
You don’t have to know anything about basketball to become a big fan of “Winning Time,” whose two seasons chronicle the rise of the L.A. Lakers and provide a veritable smorgasbord of acting treats.
As in most sports sagas there are ups and downs on the court, but the game itself takes a backseat to the potent characters drawn from real-life personalities.
These outsized egos include team owner and dedicated Lothario Jerry Buss (John C. Reilly), his doting mother (Sally Field), charming/naughty court superstar Magic Johnson (Quincy Isaiah), Kareen Abdul Jabbar (Solomon Hughes) and coaches like Jerry West (Jason Clarke), Pat Riley (Adrien Brody), Paul Westhead (Jason Segel) and Jack McKinney (Tracy Letts).
Season Two spends a lot of time with the Lakers’ nemesis, Larry Bird (Sean Patrick Small).
As far as I can tell, the series sticks pretty close to the historic truth, although clearly the writers have had to invent what went on behind closed doors. I particularly love that the show is not in awe of its sugjects…there is a full panoply of human foible on display.
And the look of it all! Rarely have we seen a series which so consistently captures the visual and aural sensations of a past era, in this case the 1980s. The makers of “Winning Time” dig up old newsfilm and video, but they also employ (or masterfully fake) now-abandoned visual formats.
The result is a series that feels more like a time machine than a conventional TV show.
| Robert W. Butler
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