Rated 4.2 out of 5 This brutal series starring Peaky Blinders airs on Canal+

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For 20 years, Finn Wallace was the most powerful leader of organized crime, raking in billions of pounds every year. When he was killed, his son Sean Wallace was appointed with the support of the Duman clan. This program has important implications on an international scale. Surrounded by many rivals, will the impetuous young leader find a valuable ally in Elliot Finch, who has a special interest in the Wallace family? Driven by his destiny, Sean discovers the inner workings of London’s biggest criminal organization.

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After Game of Thrones, where she played Catelyn Stark, Michelle Fairley plunged into another story of rival families. More modern, but no less violent, with scenes that would rival the brutality of Les Noces Pourpres.

The actor is the protagonist of a group of London gangs, together with another Anglo-Saxon knife in a familiar form (Colm Meany, seen in Wings of Hell, Layer Cake or Star Trek series – Deep Space Nine). An actor found in the world of the Darden brothers (Arta Dobroch, the heroine of Lorna’s silence) or in the world of two rising stars: Joe Cole, who was revealed in a prayer before dawn and who confirms, after Peaky Blinders, the hopes placed in him. This role of clan heir; And Sope Dirisu, seen in Black Mirror Season 3 Episode 1 or last in his house, a horror feature released on Netflix on October 30, which portrays a particularly impressive landlord here.

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Warning: hit streak! Literally, in some of these London gang scenes, which is no more surprising than signed to Gareth Evans, director of The Raid and its sequels. With the help of his chief cameraman Matt Flannery, the Welsh director leaves Indonesia in the middle of organized crime in the UK and the English capital, a story of rival gangs rocked by a murder: the murder of Finn Wallace, its most powerful leader.

Saddened by the circumstances that are quickly revealed to us, he leaves his son Sean as the designated heir, but his disappearance sets off a draft in which other families try to shake up the established order for twenty years.

This is the program that Gangs of London prepares us for in its first nine episodes, after the shocking opening scene: hanging upside down from the top of a building under construction (which will be important in the story). A person was burned alive. In a few minutes the tone will be set and there will be talk of alliances, conspiracies and payback.

But the series feels less like The Raid and its almost non-stop barrage of action than its sequel, which wanted to be broader by developing a complex plot, with more or less success depending on whether it managed to get off the beaten track. genre.

For his baptism of fire in the world of television, Gareth Evans hits hard and offers a real mural that nevertheless requires us to hang on as the show takes time to introduce different families and confronts us with a stream of characters, features and functions. Affinities that you can get lost in, especially since certain protagonists disappear for a while before returning to the front of the stage.

The fact that Michelle Fairley leads the cast is a coincidence, but it’s hard not to think of Game of Thrones, which Gangs of London has some similarities to in its density and the way it portrays its world and its current powers to give it real meaning. their confrontations.

All in a drier and more urban style, reflecting both the way London is shown away from the usual clichés and its action sequences. And it’s undoubtedly the highlight of the show, from the intense fight with bare hands and bladed weapons that closes the pilot to the trademark Gareth Evans, who also signed on for Episode 2 and is directing Episode 5 with Corinne Hardy (The Nun), who also takes the lead. , as the Frenchman Xavier Gens, to whom we owe episodes 6 to 8. Which, on paper, raises the question of agreement, each director has his paw.

But here’s also the greatest achievement of Gangs of London: its overall consistency and the variety the series shows when it comes to its bravura parts, which can take us from a pilot fight to a Dantesque shootout in a country house. Violence can be seen on the small screen this year), or in another more cramped residence.

Like the different families at the center of the story, each director has his own specifics. But unlike the characters, none of them want to deal with something that is out of reach.

And each of his powerful sequences manages to surprise, both in terms of effectiveness and ability to stand out from the crowd. In these moments, the series confirms its cinematic ambition and its desire to expand the frame of the small screen, which shines every second.

Having said that, Gangs of London is one of those projects that we can’t go to the cinema anymore, we can only take one step further, and that offers new evidence of the distribution of stories and subjects between the small and big screens.

But whatever the format, the series is one of the must-sees of 2020, and a second season has already been ordered, following the success of the first on the other side of the channel. . A success that also owes a lot to the quality of its casting, from which two actors emerge: Joe Cole, who proves after having distinguished himself in the shocking film A Prayer Before Dawn and then Peaky Blinders; and Sope Dirisu, who was recently seen in the horror drama Her House, which is one of the revelations of the year. It will only take one episode to convince you. From his raw talent and the quality of the show as well.

Broadcast every Monday evening on Canal+.