In Ganglands season 2, Mehdi is forced to work with Saber when they are both targeted by the leader of an influential drug cartel. The second season is now streaming on Netflix.
Story
Mehdi, Liana, and Tony plan to execute one last heist before parting ways and starting a new life somewhere far away. They successfully kill their target and steal the diamonds they need, but while doing so, they also injure their target’s client.
This client is Javier, the son of the leader of Los Soles. Seventy percent of the cocaine coming through Antwerp belongs to this drug cartel.
Javier already had business relations with Sofia and Saber before a prosecutor sent by his father came into the picture. Los Soles’ prosecutor, Almeida, kills the negotiator who is carrying out a deal between Sofia, Saber, and Javier.
Almeida knew that Javier’s father had approved this deal, but he wasn’t interested in working with Sofia and Saber. He instead started targeting them along with Mehdi, the person responsible for injuring Javier.
Almeida works the way he desires, and he doesn’t mind lying to his bosses when it comes to saving himself and his seat at the table. If that’s not enough, he has a secret agenda of his own regarding the drug cartel, but before that, he plans to take care of Mehdi and Saber.
Performances
Sami Bouajila and Tracy Gotoas retain their performances from the past season as Mehdi and Liana. There is a lot of attention given to the growing relationship between their characters.
The actors emit all the emotions the characters have right at the beginning to prepare the viewers for what is to come. Talking about emotions, Samuel Jouy, who plays Tony, is someone to look out for.
Tony’s inner conflict while choosing between his family and his loyalty to Mehdi can be seen on Jouy’s face from time to time. Jouy also gets an impressive hand-to-hand combat scene, which even Bouajila doesn’t get.
Salim Kechiouche, who plays Saber, has an interesting character that goes through a change after losing Sofia, but Kechiouche fails to depict the emotions properly.
Kechiouche always stands there with the same intense face that hardly changes throughout the show. There is a scene where he calls for war. This scene doesn’t leave an impact because Kechiouche’s moves fail to address why revenge isn’t his way.
Positives
The second season brings two enemies together to fight one common enemy. Luckily, the show doesn’t dive into the game of betrayals, and for the most part, it sticks to having Mehdi and Saber work together.
It also doesn’t right away portray Mehdi and Saber getting along too well and forming some sort of bromance. Throughout their team-up, they both stay cold to each other and are there only for their own gains.
Talking about the action, the show starts with an exciting heist and ends with an assassination with no epilogue. From this, it feels like the action element is the only thing the creators mostly cared about, but it works for a show like this.
All the heists are unique in nature, even if they are predictable at times. In one heist, the characters are stealing two different things at the same time, and in another, they get trapped in an incinerator and try to escape it.
Negatives
Despite being engrossing, the heists do, at one point, become overwhelming. The viewers may take a break and watch the show sometime later because these heists take most of the duration of the episode.
The twists and turns, too, become predictable after a while. The show isn’t afraid of killing characters right away; it’s the nature of the show, but because of that, the deaths of some important characters do feel unceremonious.
Verdict
Ganglands season 2 is an action-packed thriller one can watch if they are into intricately planned heists with enough action around them. The show has invested in emotions and new relationships too, but the action is what makes the show binge-watch material.
Also Read: Ganglands season 2 ending explained: Do Mehdi and Liana kill Almeida?
