‘MobLand’s Pierce Brosnan & Helen Mirren on the Harrigans’ True Connection

The second season of MobLand begins with a literal bang as Conrad (Pierce Brosnan) and Maeve (Helen Mirren) come in guns blazing after being slighted in a deal with one “Gakbu,” who’s apparently chosen to work with their estranged son, Kevin (Paddy Consadine) instead.

Though they’re successful at eliminating these new enemies, Conrad takes a shot in the shoulder, and Maeve has to dig it out, leading to a very colorful exchange of words in the process: “You’re wriggling around like a f**king whore,” he says to her in anger. “Well, you would know, wouldn’t you?” she snaps back. After Maeve gets the bullet out, he then changes his tune to say, “You’re a godsend. I love you like a tramp loves paraffin.” Her reply? “Well, give us a kiss then.”

You’d be forgiven for thinking that the Harrigans’ hearts are completely blackened at this point and that theirs is a marriage of convenience, but the actors playing them insist there’s true love beneath all of that rancorous dialogue.

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“Well, of course. I would say this, but they absolutely love each other,” Helen Mirren tells TV Insider of their dynamic. “They are joined at the hip… I think they can’t live without each other. Each one fulfills a side that’s missing in the other person. And they’ve had an incredible history. And I hope at some point, maybe we’ll recreate that history. That would be fun.” She also likens them to a pair of spiders.

Brosnan, meanwhile, promises that Season 2 of MobLand will continue to investigate those ties that bind the two together, saying, “It’s touched upon here in the second season in this speech that I have around the dinner table talking about Beachy Head… More will be revealed.”

Luke Varley / Paramount+

Elsewhere in the premiere, we see that Harry Da Souza (Tom Hardy), whose love for his wife is very plain in the series, is facing the unthinkable as Jan (Joanne Froggatt) tells him she wants a divorce. He’s not “enough,” she insists, as he’s again called away by his master’s voice to clean up the mess his bosses have made at the race track.

Despite his own family being ripped apart — with his daughter, Gina (Teddie Allen), on the run with Eddie (Anson Boon) — Harry is strictly focused on protecting the Harrigans from both Kat McAllister (Janet McTeer) and themselves. Clearly, it won’t be easy.

MobLand, Paramount+