At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The negative reviews are mostly due to how Russian Jews are depicted. The series is neither dry, slow nor lacking in suspense. Quite the contrary, viewers are hooked in from the very first episode as they chase the plot to see how it unravels.However, despite the blood and gore, much of the material presented is too tame when compared with reality, and often too far fetched. The idea that a small UK money manager can somehow rise to the top of the Russian criminal world simply by using his wits is of course ridiculous; but there are other aspects of the show which beggar belief.For instance, Vadim (the villain) is said to be smuggling 300,000 kilos of narcotics annually and yet he would spend time and energy pursuing a counterfeit goods operation in the Czech Republic. No one who is moving that much dope would, should or even could spend any of his time doing anything else, never mind heighten his risk exposure by murdering a rival operative.Whilst the series tries it best to depict the international nature of the criminal world by filming on multiple locations, the picture presented is still cartoonish. The reality is far messier and much more complex with numerous and unpredictable intersections between legitimate and criminal enterprises.On the whole this was a good and ambitious effort. All 8 episodes were entertaining and for most part quite gripping.

Where to begin. The main character who appears to be in his 30s was raised wealthy in London, doesn't have a Russian accent and went to best schools including Harvard but later they keep saying the family left Russia 15 years ago. Doesn't really compute along with much of the rest of the story. His 'loving' uncle hurts his business purposesly with rumors so he'll have to let a criminal element into his investment fund. Which even though they try to present him as a man of impeccable character he quickly agrees by buying into the title McMafia idea of we'll go outperform the Russian syndicate that killed your traitor uncle by having a bigger presence (for revenge purposes). And after the first pushback which obviously would be coming when the Russian syndicate figured out what was going on the guy he sold out to basically folds like a cheap suit and gives up. Huh?! Meanwhile the show turns to soap opera drama about his washed up father having an affair, a pregnancy with the mistress, the pretense of drama about his fiancé learning he is not exactly legit. The fiance also gets shot and spends weeks in the hospital with no visible wound or need to be there. There is a lot of crying, suicide attempts and screaming, we see his father feeding ducks about as much as the toy Star Ship Enterprise flew pointlessly around the original Star Trek and more crying. I think about every character gets their shot at crying at least once. The storyline literally barely advances each episode. Not a very good show. They should have focused on an actual crime syndicate war and had characters you cared about like in the Sopranos. This does none of that. Just kill the main guy and end this sad saga.

The lead doesn't fit as a mafia criminal, but appears as a boy. He just can't carry it off and therefore it ruins the entire series. What a shame. Don't waste your time and maybe they will get their next series right.

James Nolan is beyond brilliant and McSexy!!! The pace is perfect. The depth of acting is superb! Binged this in two nights. McLoved it and counting the McMinutes for Season 2. Makes me want to chill a bottle of Belvedere in my freezer! Grantchester throw that collar away~Nostrovia!!!