Season 2 of MobLand is off to a raucous start, giving us a rip-roaring season premiere last week filled with the ever-patient Harry (Tom Hardy) cleaning up even more Harrigan shenanigans.

Conrad (Pierce Brosnan) and Maeve (Helen Mirren) are even more out-of-control this season than they were in Season 1, emboldened by their victory over Richie and brief stint in prison and more reckless and ambitious than ever. It’s a delight to watch, though I can’t help but feel for poor Harry, always on the receiving end of whatever bloody brouhaha the pair unleashes on the world.

Paramount gave Forbes an early look at a scene from this Friday’s episode “Song 2” featuring our favorite Irish crime matriarch and patriarch at their finest, arguing over the phone as Conrad eyes a traffic warden writing him a parking ticket.

Maeve thinks he’s sleeping with someone (a reasonable assumption given his history) but he tells her the only person he’ll be * &#$ing* is the traffic warden. She changes her tune rather sharply, suggesting he talk with Seraphina and arrange dinner so that Maeve can apologize. This immediately raises Conrad’s heckles, and he asks her what she’s plotting (a reasonable assumption given her history).

She hangs up and calls him a “lying yoke.” Conrad, meanwhile, has a revolver out in his lap when the traffic warden approaches. Here’s the full clip , which is a great example of this show’s blend of humor and tension:

“Before you stick that ticket on my car, I want you to see what’s sitting on my bollocks,” Conrad says. The traffic warden glances down and sees the gun. “I have people who know how to find you, 9924,” Conrad says.

The traffic warden snags the ticket off the car, stammering his apology, and Conrad hands him a wad of bills. “I couldn’t possibly, sir,” the warden says, but Conrad insists. “Take it now,” he says. “You have a nice dinner with your wife.”

It’s a great example of how terrifying Conrad can be, how little he cares for the rules most of us live by. Recall his unannounced visit to Harry’s wife, Jan (Joanne Froggatt), last season. All chummy at first; oozing threat by the end.

The scene actually reminds me of the first season of Fargo , when Officer Grimly (Colin Hanks) pulls over Lorne Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton). Malvo never flashes a gun. He simply makes it increasingly clear that Grimly has wandered down the wrong path into something much more dangerous than a routine traffic stop.

Grimly eventually takes the hint. Conrad’s traffic warden figures things out considerably faster. I suppose the revolver sitting in Conrad’s lap helps. Unlike Grimly, our poor traffic warden #9924 wasn’t armed, not that Grimly’s gun would have saved him from a demon like Malvo.

MobLand is a very different crime show than Fargo , of course, though both are great at mixing humor with real tension and high stakes. Part of me would love to see Malvo show up in this world. And speaking of Fargo , I’ve finally figured out who MobLand Season 2 newcomer Frankie (Johnny Flynn) reminds me of:

The answer? Ole Munch from Fargo Season 5 ( which I didn’t much care for, but Ole Munch was definitely the best part ). It’s the hair. The jacket. The hair and the jacket and the fact that now I’m thinking about both these excellent, funny crime shows that are so very, very different from one another.

Sam Spruell also plays Maekar in the wonderful Game of Thrones spinoff, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms . I could see Helen Mirren in that series also, come to think of it, though I’m not sure anything can top Maeve.

You can check out my full preview of Episode 2 right here . Look for my review of MobLand Season 2, Episode 2 here on this blog on Friday and more TV and movie coverage on my YouTube channel .

Let me know what you think of this show on Twitter , Instagram , or Facebook . Are you enjoying Season 2 so far?