General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20264 min read

Ganglands

Ganglands (French: Braqueurs) is a French action crime thriller television series created by Hamid Hlioua and Julien Leclercq, adapted from Leclercq's 2015 feature film of the same name, in which a professional robber and an apprentice thief are drawn into a violent turf war between drug dealers.¹ It premiered on Netflix on September 24, 2021, ran for two seasons of six episodes each, and ended after 12 episodes with the final episode airing on February 17, 2023.²

Key fact	Detail
Original title	Braqueurs (international title: Ganglands)¹
Creators	Hamid Hlioua and Julien Leclercq; all six first-season episodes directed by Leclercq¹^•³
Basis	Adaptation of Leclercq's 2015 film Braqueurs (released internationally as The Crew), with Sami Bouajila reprising the same type of lead role³^•⁴
Run	Season 1 premiered September 24, 2021; season 2 released February 2023; 12 episodes total, status ended²^•⁵
Lead cast	Sami Bouajila as Mehdi, Tracy Gotoas as Liana, Salim Kechiouche as Saber, Nabiha Akkari as Sofia, Sofia Lesaffre as Shaïnez, Samuel Jouy as Tony⁵
Production	Labyrinthe Films (France) and uMedia (Belgium) for Netflix; filmed in Belgium and France⁶
Reception	IMDb rating 7.2/10 from about 5,200 users; 54.5 million hours viewed globally in its first three weeks⁷^•⁸

Spoilers

Premise

Mehdi (Sami Bouajila) leads a tight-knit team of professional thieves operating in Belgium, cold and methodical in planning his jobs. His niece's circle of small-time hustlers, including Liana (Tracy Gotoas) and Shaïnez (Sofia Lesaffre), steals several kilograms of drugs from an enforcer working for a powerful dealer, and the retaliation that follows pulls both crews into a deadly turf war among competing criminal groups. Mehdi must negotiate with, and ultimately work for, more dangerous criminals to save his family.⁴^•⁹ The rival gang is led by the patriarch Hassan (Noureddine Farihi), exiled in Switzerland, contested between his ambitious niece Sofia (Nabiha Akkari) and his ineffectual cousin Saber (Salim Kechiouche).¹⁰

Relationship to the 2015 film

The series reworks Leclercq's own 2015 film Braqueurs, keeping the same starting situation, a gang of thieves forced to work for lawless drug dealers, and the same director and lead actor. Bouajila's character changes name from Yanis in the film to Mehdi in the series, and the story is relocated to Belgium; Le Monde's reviewer described Antwerp as being to the twenty-first-century European Union what Chicago was to the United States. The longer format, six 45-minute episodes against the film's 80 minutes, allowed more development of both action and characters, and the pairing of Bouajila with the young Tracy Gotoas gives the story a lighter tone than the film.⁴^•¹⁰ Leclercq has cited directors such as Michael Mann (Heat) and series such as 24 and Gomorrah as influences.⁴

Production and setting

The series was produced by Julien Madon's Labyrinthe Films with the Belgian company uMedia for Netflix, with Philippe Guez as executive producer.³^•⁶^•⁵ Although a French production in the French language, it was filmed largely in Belgium: the first season is set around the port of Antwerp, and filming took place in Brussels (including Avenue de Tervueren) and Wallonia, with work also in Lille, France.⁴^•⁶^•¹¹ The second season was filmed mostly in Brussels and features shootouts and car chases in the city.¹²

Release and reception

Season 1 dropped globally on Netflix on September 24, 2021. According to Netflix's released statistics, it accumulated 54.5 million hours viewed worldwide between September 20 and October 10, 2021, and FlixPatrol data placed it as the number 4 show worldwide as of September 30, 2021.⁸ Netflix France announced the renewal for a second season on November 22, 2021, with the caption "we put our hood back on" (on remet notre cagoule).⁸ Season 2 arrived in February 2023, and Crime Reads included it among 2023's best international crime series.⁵^•¹²

Critical response was mixed but generally favorable to the action. Le Parisien gave the first season 4 out of 5, calling it a successful transposition of the film despite some plot implausibilities.⁴ The Arab News review by Matt Ross judged it a competent action thriller with plenty of high-octane set pieces, praising Bouajila's quietly powerful performance, while finding the world-building and character development less slick and sometimes confusing.¹³ On IMDb the series holds a 7.2/10 rating from about 5,200 users, with individual episodes ranging from 7.1 to 7.6.⁷

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Scripted television and comedy series › Drama and prestige series (individual series) › Crime and thriller series › Organized crime and heist series

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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