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Tom's Guide
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Tom's Guide
Tom Hardy's Paramount Plus crime thriller just wrapped up an epic first season with a stunning finale
After the premiere of "MobLand," I felt the Paramount Plus show had a major problem, but showed a lot of promise. Fast forward to today's (June 1) season finale, and I can confirm the show wound up delivering on that promise — and then some. No, the show's not perfect by any means. Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren are incredible actors ... just not in this show. They're such caricatures of Irish gangsters that I'm still surprised they agreed to perform their roles the way they did. Then again, there is something very "Guy Ritchie" about their performance, and given the English director's involvement in the show's talented creative team, maybe Brosnan's and Mirren's performance was directed by him in particular. Even though this show isn't technically a Guy Ritchie series — he's an executive producer and director, but "The Day of the Jackal" creator Ronan Bennett is the creative lead behind "MobLand" — it has Ritchie's fingerprints all over it, including the finale. You don't even have to go back far to find a Guy Ritchie movie that feels related to "MobLand." I couldn't stop thinking about "The Gentlemen" while watching this show, especially how much Tom Hardy's Harry Da Souza reminds me of Charlie Hunnam's Raymond Smith. Also, there's plenty of violence. All season long, "MobLand" has been building toward an all-out gang war between the Harrigans and the Stevensons. To call it a simmering conflict would be an understatement. There's been dismemberment, car bombings and much more violence besides. But things go up a notch in the finale. The entire Stevenson crime family gets wiped out in a brilliant move by Harry that involves luring all of Richie Stevenson's (Geoff Bell) soldiers away from the rival gang leader, eliminating them in a hail of gunfire, grenades and bombs. Then, of course, Harry and Kevin (Paddy Considine) kill Richie and the Harrigan family lawyer, O'Hara (Lisa Dawn), who turned out to be a rat. It may be cliche, but this was my favorite part of the episode. First, seeing Harry's move play out in a way that lets you know what's coming just enough for you to get excited for the payoff. Second, Kevin delivering the line 'The Harrigans say hello' right before killing Richie is excellent. Yes, the killer delivering a final line right before the kill has been done before, but it still works. This show may have started slow, but now that the season is over, I can freely admit I've fallen for "MobLand." It's the perfect role for Hardy, who is great on screen with Conisidine. It's just the right blend of clever dialogue, brooding, double crossing and violence, even if the show definitely has some flawed performances and occasionally devolves into cliche. So, Paramount, give us "MobLand" season 2. I'm shocked that the show hasn't been renewed already (it might be by the time this is published), especially since the show is clearly setting up a season 2 with Harry versus the notorious Kat McAllister (Janet McTeer) or a lieutenant of hers we have yet to meet. If we get that showdown, it could genuinely produce a great season of television. Watching Hardy and McTeer on screen this episode gave me real Timothy Olyphant and Margot Martindale in "Justified" season 2 vibes, and that might be one of the greatest seasons of television ever made. Paramount owes it to us and the show to give it the chance to build on a season that's gotten better and better with every episode. Stream "MobLand" on Paramount Plus Malcolm has been with Tom's Guide since 2022, and has been covering the latest in streaming shows and movies since 2023. He's not one to shy away from a hot take, including that "John Wick" is one of the four greatest films ever made. Here's what he's been watching lately:
Time of India
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Snakes in the backyard: How Pakistan admitted it is terroristan
Frederick Forsyth's Avenger never enjoyed the cult reverence of The Day of the Jackal. But buried in its pages is a sprawling geopolitical thriller that predicted the unthinkable: the convergence of terror networks, state complicity, and cold American pragmatism. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now It ends on September 10, 2001 — the day before the world changed forever. But to understand how we got there, and why it still matters in 2025, rewind a little. To a quiet garrison town called Abbottabad, where once lounged in his compound, sipping chai not far from 's elite military academy. That scene wasn't fiction — it was a living embodiment of the double game Forsyth wrote about. And now, more than two decades later, Pakistan is finally saying it out loud. Not just with its nukes or Chinese loans, but with something far more explosive: the admission that, for over thirty years, it has done America's 'dirty work' — by nursing terror groups like a favourite child with rabies. The Dirty Work Diaries Khawaja Asif, Pakistan's defence minister and professional foot-in-mouth specialist, recently sat down with Sky News and delivered a bombshell with casual ease. 'We've been doing the US's dirty work for decades,' he declared, as if he were confessing to watching reality TV, not running a global terror incubator. And because Islamabad rarely does subtle, former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari joined the confession chorus. 'It's no secret that Pakistan has a past,' he said, before vaguely hinting that Western powers were also in on it. They always are. Even Hillary Clinton once warned, 'You can't keep snakes in your backyard and expect them only to bite your neighbours.' The difference now? The snakes have LinkedIn pages, diplomatic immunity, and business class tickets — funded by Western taxpayers. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now This isn't a leak. It's a megaphone. Geopolitical Catfish: Always Swiping Right Let's not pretend this is breaking news. Pakistan's love affair with jihadist proxies is older than WhatsApp forwards. The real story isn't that they did it — it's that they're finally admitting it while expecting applause. Over the decades, Pakistan has gone from Moscow's sulking ex to Washington's Cold War darling to Beijing's 'Iron Brother.' A geopolitical catfish — charming, needy, and never quite what it claimed to be. Always on someone's payroll, always dodging accountability, and always ready to play the victim. It's the global version of Tinder diplomacy: swipe right for dollars, swipe left for deniability. How the Barracks Became the Nation To understand Pakistan's present, you have to understand what it never had: a civilian centre of gravity. While India handed power to babus and ballots, Pakistan handed it to the barracks. There's an old anecdote recalled by historian Anvar Alikhan: in 1957, Prime Minister Nehru visited General Thimayya's office and noticed a steel cabinet. 'What's inside?' he asked. 'Top drawer: defence plans,' replied the general. 'Second drawer: files on our top brass. Third drawer: my plans for a military coup against you.' Nehru laughed. Nervously. But in India, that joke stayed in the drawer. In Pakistan, it became quarterly policy. Over time, the army took over law and order, then the economy, and eventually the national identity. It ran everything from cement factories to cereal brands. By the time it tested nuclear weapons, it wasn't just defending the country — it was defining it. And like every empire, it needed loyal foot soldiers. Enter: the jihadis. Terror as Start-Up Strategy From the Mujahideen of the 1980s to the Taliban of the 1990s to Lashkar-e-Taiba's operatives in the 2000s, the ISI became the Silicon Valley of global jihad. If Al-Qaeda had an IPO, Rawalpindi would've underwritten it. Remember the 2008 Mumbai attacks? Nawaz Sharif admitted non-state actors from Pakistan carried them out. General Musharraf confessed to training militants for Kashmir. And bin Laden, of course, was found in Abbottabad — watching TV, browsing jihadist DVDs, and waving at the neighbours. None of this was shocking. The only shock is that they've stopped pretending otherwise. Pahalgam and the Speech That Preceded It On April 22, terrorists struck in Pahalgam, Kashmir, killing 26 people, including a Nepali tourist. Just days earlier, Pakistan's army chief, General Asim Munir, stood at the Pakistan Military Academy and delivered a speech soaked in ideology: 'Muslims are distinct from Hindus in all aspects.. . the two-nation theory is the basis of our identity.' 'Kashmir is our jugular vein. It was, is, and always will be ours.' Not even subtle. And soon after, the bloodshed began. Coincidence? Only if you believe in unicorns. Zia with a PowerPoint Munir isn't just a general. He's a revival project — a bearded redux of Zia-ul-Haq with better Wi-Fi. A hafiz-e-Quran, ideologically devout, and Bruce Riedel once asked: What if Pakistan is taken over not by a coup, but by a slow-moving theocratic general with nukes and proxies? That's not a hypothetical anymore. That's Tuesday. The Coup That Doesn't Need a Coup Today, civilian rule in Pakistan is like Wi-Fi in a moving train: technically present, but don't count on it. The hybrid regime is dead. The PDM is in shambles. Imran Khan is behind bars. Parliament rubber-stamps what Rawalpindi decides. And the Constitution is more tissue than text. Yet for all its power, the army can't fix the mess it created. Because the truth is: even absolute control doesn't translate to functional governance. You can't drone-strike your way out of inflation. A Partition of the Mind India and Pakistan may have been born from the same womb, but the afterbirths were very different. India inherited British bureaucracy. Pakistan inherited the British army. And terrorism inherited Pakistan. Today, the army doesn't just defend the nation. It defines it — through fear, fiction, and fundamentalism. Under Munir, the two-nation theory isn't a historical artefact. It's a live policy document with marching orders. And Kashmir remains the crown jewel of grievance, not diplomacy. From Confession to Collapse? So here we are. A defence minister who casually admits to decades of proxy terror. A former foreign minister who shrugs off history like dandruff. An army chief reviving partition-era dogma while Kashmir bleeds. This isn't a turning point. It's a point of no return. For decades, the West outsourced its terror management to Pakistan — paying it to fight some terrorists while it bred new ones. The dollars kept flowing. The dead kept piling. And no one asked too many questions. But now the masks are off. The snakes are out. And Pakistan has finally said the quiet part out loud. The real question now isn't whether Pakistan supports terrorism. It's what the world plans to do now that Pakistan finally admitted it.
North Wales Chronicle
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- North Wales Chronicle
Half of us have cheated on partners - by skipping ahead on TV boxsets
A poll of 2,000 coupled-up telly lovers revealed 86 per cent of 'cheats' have had to rewatch a show to hide the fact they'd watched it already from their significant other. And of these, an average of four episodes have been watched quietly so their clueless partner could 'catch up' after their boxset betrayal. A massive 76 per cent have secretly watched the next episode of something they're viewing together, because they couldn't wait to see what happened. (Image: Katielee Arrowsmith / SWNS) The study was commissioned by Sky TV which offers thousands of on-demand shows for couples to watch together - or separately. Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead and The Day of the Jackal were among the top shows bingers enjoyed behind their loved ones' backs. Customers who fancy joining the sneaky group of binge-watchers can simply say 'just one more episode' into their Sky Glass or Sky Stream remote to find something to devour. Sky's Jamie Morris said: 'We have so much gripping telly to choose from, and sometimes 'one more episode' is just too much to resist. 'We understand great shows can be addictive, but whether it's The Day of the Jackal, or something from our extensive back catalogue of iconic series, there's plenty to watch without having to go behind your other half's back.' Of those who have 'cheated', 51 per cent admit they feel guilty about it – with 43 per cent even watching a series finale in secret. More than four in 10 (42 per cent) have outright lied to their other half about continuing to watch a programme they were meant to be viewing together. A third (35 per cent), have even been unfortunately caught out by accidentally revealing a spoiler when they'd talked about something they shouldn't have seen yet. And 39 per cent have been caught red-handed halfway through an illicit episode – although 31 per cent of these people's partners laughed it off, others weren't so pleased. One in five (21 per cent) demanded an explanation, while 17 per cent confessed to feeling 'betrayed', according to the data. On the other hand, 27 per cent of respondents have been in the same situation as the 'cheatees', with their partner ploughing on with a series they were meant to be watching as a couple. It also emerged the typical TV viewer gets through six and a half series each year.
Leader Live
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Leader Live
Half of us have cheated on partners - by skipping ahead on TV boxsets
A poll of 2,000 coupled-up telly lovers revealed 86 per cent of 'cheats' have had to rewatch a show to hide the fact they'd watched it already from their significant other. And of these, an average of four episodes have been watched quietly so their clueless partner could 'catch up' after their boxset betrayal. A massive 76 per cent have secretly watched the next episode of something they're viewing together, because they couldn't wait to see what happened. (Image: Katielee Arrowsmith / SWNS) The study was commissioned by Sky TV which offers thousands of on-demand shows for couples to watch together - or separately. Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead and The Day of the Jackal were among the top shows bingers enjoyed behind their loved ones' backs. Customers who fancy joining the sneaky group of binge-watchers can simply say 'just one more episode' into their Sky Glass or Sky Stream remote to find something to devour. Sky's Jamie Morris said: 'We have so much gripping telly to choose from, and sometimes 'one more episode' is just too much to resist. 'We understand great shows can be addictive, but whether it's The Day of the Jackal, or something from our extensive back catalogue of iconic series, there's plenty to watch without having to go behind your other half's back.' Of those who have 'cheated', 51 per cent admit they feel guilty about it – with 43 per cent even watching a series finale in secret. More than four in 10 (42 per cent) have outright lied to their other half about continuing to watch a programme they were meant to be viewing together. A third (35 per cent), have even been unfortunately caught out by accidentally revealing a spoiler when they'd talked about something they shouldn't have seen yet. And 39 per cent have been caught red-handed halfway through an illicit episode – although 31 per cent of these people's partners laughed it off, others weren't so pleased. One in five (21 per cent) demanded an explanation, while 17 per cent confessed to feeling 'betrayed', according to the data. On the other hand, 27 per cent of respondents have been in the same situation as the 'cheatees', with their partner ploughing on with a series they were meant to be watching as a couple. It also emerged the typical TV viewer gets through six and a half series each year.
Rhyl Journal
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Rhyl Journal
Half of us have cheated on partners - by skipping ahead on TV boxsets
A poll of 2,000 coupled-up telly lovers revealed 86 per cent of 'cheats' have had to rewatch a show to hide the fact they'd watched it already from their significant other. And of these, an average of four episodes have been watched quietly so their clueless partner could 'catch up' after their boxset betrayal. A massive 76 per cent have secretly watched the next episode of something they're viewing together, because they couldn't wait to see what happened. (Image: Katielee Arrowsmith / SWNS) The study was commissioned by Sky TV which offers thousands of on-demand shows for couples to watch together - or separately. Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead and The Day of the Jackal were among the top shows bingers enjoyed behind their loved ones' backs. Customers who fancy joining the sneaky group of binge-watchers can simply say 'just one more episode' into their Sky Glass or Sky Stream remote to find something to devour. Sky's Jamie Morris said: 'We have so much gripping telly to choose from, and sometimes 'one more episode' is just too much to resist. 'We understand great shows can be addictive, but whether it's The Day of the Jackal, or something from our extensive back catalogue of iconic series, there's plenty to watch without having to go behind your other half's back.' Of those who have 'cheated', 51 per cent admit they feel guilty about it – with 43 per cent even watching a series finale in secret. More than four in 10 (42 per cent) have outright lied to their other half about continuing to watch a programme they were meant to be viewing together. A third (35 per cent), have even been unfortunately caught out by accidentally revealing a spoiler when they'd talked about something they shouldn't have seen yet. And 39 per cent have been caught red-handed halfway through an illicit episode – although 31 per cent of these people's partners laughed it off, others weren't so pleased. One in five (21 per cent) demanded an explanation, while 17 per cent confessed to feeling 'betrayed', according to the data. On the other hand, 27 per cent of respondents have been in the same situation as the 'cheatees', with their partner ploughing on with a series they were meant to be watching as a couple. It also emerged the typical TV viewer gets through six and a half series each year.
