TV Review: Mad Dogs 2.1

By D.J. Haza / January 20, 2012

rating: 3.5

Only Mad Dogs and Englishman go out in the midday sun. They say the sun makes you crazy. Fries your brain. Helps you make rash decisions you will come to regret. Something that Baxter (John Simm), Quinn (Philip Glenister), Woody (Max Beesley) and Rick (Marc Warren) can surely identify with. Last night Mad Dogs returned to our teleboxes and picked up exactly where it left off nearly twelve months ago. After shooting dead the sexy, but dirty female cop that was the brains behind the operation Woody, Rick and Baxter have sped off down the road in the car and left Quinn behind to face the wrath of those they had been in battle with for the previous 4 days. A not so quick recap of the previous 4 days then sees us sat with the three amigos in their car. Engine running. Pointing away from the madness. A clean get away? Not a chance. A blind loyalty and die-hard friendship sees them spin around and head back when they see Drug Lord Dominic exit his car at the gates to the house and stalk up the path carrying his gun. After promptly putting Dominic over the bonnet of the car, grabbing their gear and leaving him for dead the four of them, now reacquainted with Quinn, speed off and head for the ferry off the island. However, when they reach the ferry port Woody€™s insistence he knows what he€™s doing sees them board the wrong ferry and brings about the only questionable plot point in the episode. The boys are heading for Ibiza rather than mainland Spain, but that€™s not all. Baxter has brought along the bag full of money too! So the boys arrive on the Balearic party island with three million Euros in high denomination notes and a car with a shot out back window. They need a plan. They have the money, there€™s a good chance that all of the people who were after them are either dead or have no idea where they are (yeah right!) and they have a playground in which to try and change their money into smaller bills. And so the money laundering begins. Three million Euros is a lot of money to wash clean and so they enlist the help of an attractive local party girl. As she offers to help clean the money for them in return for a large cut for her and her connection the boys wait uneasily for her and the money to return. As the episode draws to a close they head to a remote mountain top in order to claim their money and are pleasantly surprised to find four bags of small bills thrown at them by her connection riding a moped. They€™ve done it. Of course they have. Then their car blows up and a questionable use of cheap special FX sees them blown across the road and the episode finish. Despite the questionability of the boys ending up on the boat to Ibiza rather than mainland Spain everything else was perfectly feasible within the story and I thoroughly enjoyed the episode. However, I did get the feeling that it was a bit of a slow start as it got us back up to speed with where we had left the boys and they then mulled over what to do with the money. That said enough happened in order to engage audiences and get them wanting more. There is the feeling in series 2, just as there was in series 1, that something big is about to kick off and things are about to get very sticky for this bunch of guys trying to come terms with middle age and where their lives are going. The usual violent and bloody drama is wonderfully perforated by dark comedy, a slight boys will be boys attitude and a male camaraderie. I enjoyed last night€™s episode, despite it€™s slow start, and I'm thoroughly looking forward to the next instalment and hope that it fulfils its promise of plenty of drama and ambition.