The National Television Awards are upon us, and to absolutely nobody’s surprise, Adolescence has been nominated for three awards – one for Best Drama, and one each for Best Drama Performance for lead stars Stephen Graham and Owen Cooper.
Don’t get me wrong, Stephen Graham is a powerhouse of an actor, and Owen Cooper will absolutely go far – I even have Stephen Graham Google alerts set up on my phone, because I don’t want to miss out on anything he appears in, or his general, all-around wholesomeness.
It’s just that Adolescence is up against Mobland in its NTA categories, and Mobland is simply… better. The two shows are going head to head in the Best Drama category, and Tom Hardy is up against Graham and Cooper for Best Drama Performance.
I understand the word “better” is subjective, and you might be wondering why I think Mobland is superior – even if you don’t, buckle up because I’m going to tell you anyway.
It’s about how I choose to consume TV and spend my incredibly sparse free time. In that time, I want to be transported out of my reality that, quite frankly, sucks. I want insane storylines and glimpses into worlds I’ll never be a part of that are both simultaneously viscerally repulsive and make me feel something other than the boring disappointment of life in general.
Mobland delivers on all those fronts, and it delivers hard. Adolescence, for all its zeitgeisty conversation starters, just presents me with more of the reality I want to escape.
I’d rather let the 4am anxiety act as my psychotherapist when the thought of living in an Andrew Tate-dominated world creeps into my consciousness unbidden than immerse myself in that horrifying existence on purpose.
Does that make me a cultural deviant who doesn’t care about tech addicted kids and the impact of social media on delicate minds? Not really – I’m just kind of bored of hearing about it in all honesty, and the conversation surrounding this stuff is just turning into buzzwords my brain filters out like white noise.
Do I still genuinely think Mobland is a better show than Adolescence? Absolutely – and it’s a hill that I’m willing to die on, preferably at the hands of Tom Hardy. For more clarity about why, top of the lot are two words: Helen. Mirren.
As family matriarch Maeve Harrigan in the show, Helen’s character is appalling. She made me want to pull at my skin while her masterclass in acting commands, holds and steals every scene she’s in and I couldn’t pull my eyes away from this vile woman.
(Image credit: Paramount+/Alamy)
And, watching Tom Hardy intimidate people could easily become a national pass time. I’d happily watch an entire series of Harry Da Souza, Tom’s character, intimidating people and doing nothing else.
There should be channels on TV dedicated purely to scenes of Tom Hardy Intimidating People, and courses you can take titled Intimidation: The Tom Hardy Way.
I’d stream such a channel constantly and never get bored, because Tom Hardy was perfection in his role. The Mobland characters stayed rocking around in my head for weeks after I’d devoured the final episode.
I can’t say I was one of the hordes of people who maintained they couldn’t stop thinking about Adolescence afterwards, for all the mind-boggling filming styles and admittedly flawless writing.
The starry cast were definitely style and substance in equal measure, offering a veritable feast of murder and mayhem. Each character death was more depraved and gratuitously grotesque than the last – and I gobbled it up like murder tapas.
Anyway, I think I’ve made my case. I’ll be tuning into the NTAs and you know who I’ll be backing.
And if you haven’t seen Mobland yet, it’s worth the price of a Paramount+ subscription for the show alone, although while you’re there, Dexter: Resurrection is also definitely worth your time, but that’s a conversation for another day.
Get Mobland in your life – you won’t regret it.
All episodes of Mobland are currently available to stream on Paramount+ and season 2 has been given the green light.
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