Rent Gangs of London: Series 3 (2025)

Very Stylised, Violent, Multi-ethnic Deathfest Gangsta Asian-style Action Movie Fantasy - Gangs of London: Series 3 review by PV

I do not usually like action movies, but this had my hooked. I watched all 4 episodes in one go from DVD disc 1 then did the same for disc 2. That sort of series.

I have watched series 1 and 2 and do wish the extras had a 10 minute recap of series 2 and even 1 as it is a LONG time since I watched them and I really cannot remember all the plot twists then.

Internecine warfare, shifting loyalities, betrayal, blackmail, love, hate, lust, drugs, murder - and seemingly no police anywhere on the streets (at least that bit is realistic then - UK police all down the nick starting at screens scouring the internet for hurty words these days to get easy meat arrested using bad thought crime laws).

Like Breaking Bad or Peaky Blinders in the levels of violence and body count. Maybe some room here for British gangsters - the Richardsons a famous real-life gang, so it is not all foreigners or Irish or Pakistanis or Kurds or Jamaicans etc.

Watch the short extras films - short but informative! Wonderful how foreign scenes all shot in UK studios - see how they made a palace in Pakistan's heat in the UK.

The set pieces in locations chosen to be eyecatching are as fun as a funfair, which is used to its full potential - and even an old hall of mirrors sequence which was used in the original AVENGERS in 1960s, But why not? Chose great locations and landmarks.

The main director is Korean and this definitely has an Asian flavour - and Sky is aiming it at the Chinese/Far East market for sure.

The character arcs and plotlines intersect well, with so many twists that views have to pay attention of the shifting loyalties. Acting is great.

The moral questions give depth to the characters too, more so than in many action movies and it is that psychology I like - it helps me to forgive the OTT absurd plots and violence, in a fantasy London, a city where shooting a gun gets no police response at all, even after half an hour...

BUT it is not realism; it is stylised fantasy, and best watched as that. Just roll with it.

No spoilers but ambiguous in last part, so there may well be a series 4.

4 stars.