Mad Dogs opened with 1.61 million viewers, the 17th highest rated programme ever for Sky1, and attracted positive reactions from critics.

Over time Alvo's behaviour becomes increasingly erratic, and he is later killed by a man in a Tony Blair mask for taking a drug boat the group used earlier.

Using video camera footage of their holiday, Baxter learns the real perpetrators are corrupt police officers, including María and her superior Dominic (Tim Woodward).

María later attempts to kill the four when employing scare tactics to make them part with the cash fails to work, but is shot to death by Quinn.

Two years later, Baxter is a self-employed lawyer, Quinn runs a bar, Rick is a drug dealer who is haunted by a Tikoloshe, and Woody buys black market medicine for local hospitals.

"[4] Philip Glenister elaborated, saying it is not about "a group of blokes hitting their 40s and having a jolly-up, that would have been boring" but is "an undercurrent of something a bit darker", and "about reaching a stage in life, looking at what you've achieved and where you go next, it's about how normal people deal with a certain situation and how they can implode".

[5] The idea behind Mad Dogs came from the friendship between the four main actors, who wanted to work together for a television project, as well as Cris Cole and executive producer Suzanne Mackie.

[6] To write the series, Cole was influenced by the works of David Lynch and the Coen brothers as inspiration to the kind of storytelling that is "never quite what you think it is going to be".

It was produced by Left Bank Pictures, the same production company responsible for other series including BBC One's Wallander and Sky1's Strike Back.

Deacon liked the beginning of the pilot where the main characters record a video message, stating "this is what Mad Dogs did well – like any competent suspense thriller, it made you ask questions throughout.

Deacon also noted at the cliffhanger that "the most disturbing sight wasn't the shower of blood but the gunman's rubber mask, which was of a grinning Tony Blair.

"[27] John Crace of The Guardian was more mixed, starting "after unsuccessfully fobbing us off with endless series of Ross Kemp looking macho, Sky is now throwing serious money at getting viewers to watch something other than sport."

Crace was critical of the set up of the episode, stating "I'm all for allowing a drama time to breathe but we didn't really need a whole hour just to establish that Alvo was a bit dodgy and that the four others had complications in their lives.

Rather than building menace, the snail-like pace dissipated it," However, he reacted positively towards the end, as "things did eventually look up," adding "there's hope for Mad Dogs yet.

"[28] Jane Simon of the Daily Mirror believed the "setting and the gangsterish plot are both reminiscent of that great British movie Sexy Beast, and this first instalment of the four-part series presses all the right buttons," adding "it has naturalistic performances, an effortless blend of comedy and sinister undertones plus rather more shots of Marc Warren's bum cheeks than might be considered absolutely necessary.

"[30] Reviewing the first two episode, The Stage believed the first was "a slow-burning exploration" and "all very intriguing and disturbing, with a great performance by Chaplin as the smilingly psychotic host."

The reviewer criticised the death of Alvo, as he was considered the most "compelling character" and since "sent the plot line spinning off into less original territory," adding the producers took ideas from crime capers such as Sexy Beast and Shallow Grave.

In the end, the reviewer stated that Mad Dogs "may be an unapologetic crowd pleaser, but it is a finely made one, with excellent performances from a dream cast.

"[31] Ryan Lambie of Den of Geek said of the first episode; "In terms of writing and acting, Mad Dogs is good, but not perfect, and much of its knock-about banter is uncannily like any Brit gangster flick you've ever seen," like "Sexy Beast: the series."

However Lambie noted "when events push its premise from naff lads' drama into exotic thriller, Mad Dogs gets infinitely better, and if nothing else, it keeps you guessing.

[32] As the series progressed, Lambie noted that Mad Dogs was "developing into a nifty TV thriller with an engaging sense of the absurd.

Writer, Cris Cole, enjoys picking holes in his characters' machismo as the tension mounts, and the strange billboard posters dotted all over the sun-scorched island, which say "Yenda a ninguna parte," ("Going nowhere") are perhaps a foreshadowing of their imminent fate.

"[33] Lambie was disappointed at the ending, calling it "unexpectedly flat," adding "the major plot twist that the previous three-or-so hours appeared to allude to never arrives, [...] I couldn't help but feel that, as the closing credits rolled on the whole saga, the tension and intrigue that had gradually built up in previous weeks had been allowed to slip away.

[41] All sets from the UK are released with a "15" British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) certificate, indicating that it is unsuitable for viewers under the age of 15 years.

[35][37][38][39][40][41] Mad Dogs was nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Serial Drama at the 2011 ceremony but lost out to the Channel 4 series Any Human Heart.

[45] Later, in March 2013, the American cable channel FX picked up the adaptation, which will be produced by Left Bank and Sony Pictures Television.

The pilot led to a 10-episode full season that began airing on 21 January 2016, although the promotional release date was slated for the following day.