MobLand season 1, episode 5, "Funeral for a Friend", picks up right where episode 4, "Rat Trap", ended, and like the title of that previous episode, the title of "Funeral for a Friend" also fails to make good on that titular promise. Sure, there's a funeral, and in the premiere, Eddie Harrigan (Anson Boon) and Tommy Stevenson (Felix Edwards) appeared to be something approaching chums, but then Eddie stabbed him a bunch of times and hired a nightclub owner to chop him up. Funeral? Sure. For a friend? Not really.

It's been four episodes since Tommy, the only son of crime lord Richie (Geoff Bell) and his ill-mannered wife Vron (Annie Cooper), died, and we're only now getting to his funeral. Tommy, whom we know next to nothing about, has been the limp line that's threaded its way through the first half of MobLand, and the inert storylines that have spun out of it have sputtered. Now, even that one chain linking the episodes has been cleanly filed off. Yet somehow, that's not even the biggest contrivance of the episode.

MobLand Can't Decide On What Story It Wants To Tell

There Are Too Many Unresolved & Disconnected Storylines

It's a bit pointless to go over every bit of choppy storytelling in MobLand. The series has never depended on connecting motives with decisions. For the most part, the characters simply do whatever is required to get from point A to point B, regardless of whether it fits with what we've been told about someone's personality, intelligence, or knowledge. Just know that in episode 5, "Funeral for a Friend", the plot gets even messier, and this time, unlike in previous entries, there are almost no surprises to keep you halfway interested.

Plots are picked up and dropped at will, and as we near the halfway point of the season, there is still no coherent story. I thought Tommy's death would be the catalyst, but Richie says he doesn't want to start a war. So fuggedaboudit. But then, why the song and dance? Why are the Harrigans so fearful of the Stevensons that they decide to enact an overthought plan involving hidden grenades and guns in the Stevenson's house?

Even the showrunners seem to be caught off guard by Richie's acquiescence, because they immediately backtrack in the last 10 minutes. Maeve (Helen Mirren) goes rogue and blows up Richie's wife in the episode's final scene. It's as if episodes 1-4 never even happened. There's a real desire for spectacle in MobLand, with montages and needle drops signaling that you had better pay attention. But if you barely recognize the characters affected and are unsure of how or why these moments tie together, then they fall completely flat.

Pierce Brosnan & Helen Mirren Don't Fit In MobLand

The Legendary Actors Are A Distraction In This Case

I was intrigued by Pierce Brosnan as Conrad for the first few episodes, and while I was tired of Mirren as Maeve almost instantly, I was still curious about what she would make of this part. Now I'm convinced the pair of acting legends are badly miscast. That or they're in a completely different show, and need their storylines to sync up with the rest of MobLand. To critique the talents of James Bond and Queen Elizabeth II is a fool's errand, but this is more a case of mismanagement.

Brosnan and Mirren seem to think they're in a farce, arguing during funerals, arguing about trout, arguing about children. It's not a refreshing dose of comic relief. It's awkward, and it takes away from the small amount of gravitas MobLand occasionally aims for. Maeve and Conrad don't play by the rules of this universe, content to take action when they feel like it, and yet are treated like untouchable masterminds. I don't know when their comeuppance will arrive in MobLand, but it's now to the point that whether they fail or succeed, both options won't be satisfying.