Netflix Review: Peaky Blinders

My neighbour asked me today if the BBC series Peaky Blinders is like Downton Abbey. Now, if I had to think of a show that was more unlike Downton Abbey despite sharing a similar time period and country of origin, I'd be hard pressed to top Peaky Blinders. We recently watched all three seasons available on Netflix and holy hell, it is quite the ride.

It's set in Birmingham, with the first season taking place in 1919. The Peaky Blinders are a violent mob run by the Shelby crime family, headed by Tommy Shelby (the oddly beautiful Cillian Murphy). The Shelbys run the cops, the bars, and the factories in Birmingham and if you cross them, they'll cut your eyes out by whipping you across the face with the razor blades concealed in the peaks of their tweed caps. (Hence: Peaky blinders.)

Definitely not Downton Abbey. 

The series is gorgeously filmed, with grimy but somehow warmly glowing shots of the rough streets of Birmingham. The soundtrack is full of anachronistic music from the likes of Nick Cave (he does the theme song), PJ Harvey, David Bowie, and Leonard Cohen.  I found it jarring at first, but weirdly, it works. The acting is excellent, particularly from Cillian Murphy, Paul Anderson (Arthur Shelby), and Helen McCrory (Aunt Polly). 

The characters are unlikeable at first (and sometimes throughout), but you find yourself cheering for them eventually anyway, almost against your will. Tommy is a conundrum: very intelligent, coldly calculating,but also, paradoxically, a romantic and a decorated war hero. Tommy's brothers, Arthur and John, are on the one hand sheer brutes but they, too, are revealed to be more than just one note characters. The women of Peaky Blinders are also fascinating, fully rounded characters with a lot of backstory and wills of iron, especially Tommy's Aunt Polly, the family matriarch. Polly, played by the fabulous Helen McCrory, is a pragmatic, seemingly cold woman who has depths that are revealed slowly over the course of the series. Grace, the Northern Irish woman with the lovely singing voice who applies to be barmaid at the boys' pub, the Garrison, is similarly much more than she appears to be at first. The thing is, no matter how awful the Shelbys are, there's always someone else who is worse. At one point, this honour goes to Sam Neill's sociopathic Police Inspector Campbell; at another, to Alfie Solomons, Tom Hardy's bombastic leader of a Jewish London gang.

One aspect of the show I find quite interesting and am curious as to its authenticity is its portrayal of Roma culture (the Shelby family are part Roma and self identify as "gypsies," with deep ties to that community). There is a lot of discrimination against Roma in Britain, and there are many reminders of this in the uneasy relationship the Shelbys have with that side of their heritage. 

Although there are some over the top moments and ridiculous plot twists, if you can stomach the Sopranos-esque violence, Peaky Blinders is compelling period storytelling. I'll be awaiting the fourth season with eager anticipation.