Gangs of London - Season 3

Gangs of London has, in its third season, degenerated into fun pulp, nothing more, nothing less. How they hate each other, don't they? The London criminals. And how they use extreme violence to eliminate each other. That is the whole premise of Gangs of London. The crime series from the Sky channel elevated bloodshed to an art form in 2020. You can easily overlook the fact that the story and the acting performances were subordinate to the action. It was only logical that there would be a number of follow-up seasons after that overwhelming first season. And although these are also entertaining, they cannot match the debut season. The same applies to season three.

In season three, Sean Wallace (Joe Cole), the former crown prince of the underworld, is behind bars, but he still manages to pull the strings from there. Former undercover agent Elliot Carter (Sope Dirisu) has now entered the higher circles of the criminal circuit, but the question is with what purpose he now acts. Meanwhile, the new London mayor Simone Thearle (T’Nia Miller) wants to deal with the violence that the gangs cause in her city once and for all, but must enter the firing line herself to do so.

The fight choreography is a lot less creative than in previous seasons

Gangs of London is a lot less interesting than it was a few years ago. The first season literally blew me away with tight fight choreography in all shapes and sizes. But in this season I've become a bit more indifferent to that. You can just tell the absence of director and producer Gareth Evans. In the first season, the director of action films was fully involved in the production, but from the second season onwards he didn't interfere anymore. The action scenes are more and more of the same and are also a lot less creative. There are still some nice finds (for example a shootout in a hall of mirrors), but the novelty has worn off a bit.

Nevertheless, it remains fun to watch. This is partly due to the cast, which does a great job again, with Michelle Fairley, Sope Dirisu and Lucian Msamati at the forefront. Also, the Albanian gang leader Luan (Orli Shuka) and Kurdish gangster Lale (Narges Rashidi) get more interesting material to work with this season, which they can handle well. In addition, T’Nia Miller and her storyline are good additions to the series, as is Richard Dormer, who plays Sean Wallace’s uncle.

The third season also manages to surprise in terms of story, certainly in comparison to the second season. The story of season two was actually largely a repetition of what we had already seen in season one. At the end of the second season, however, the cards were thoroughly reshuffled and that provides a breath of fresh air during this season. Former allies are now diametrically opposed while enemies are forced to work together, and that makes the story more interesting.

The story manages to surprise more this season than in previous seasons

The third season of Gangs of London is still fun to watch, but it didn't blow me away like the first season did. It is nice that the story is able to surprise a bit more. The necessary loose ends from previous seasons are also neatly tied together. There is still enough open for a possible sequel and if Sky decides to make a fourth season, I will definitely watch it. However, if this season is the end of Gangs of London, then I will be at peace with that too.