A Fitting Farewell to One of the Best Series on Television
Read Time:4 Minute, 25 Second
MOVIE REVIEW
Peaky Blinders Final Season (S06)
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Genre: Crime, Drama
Year Released: 2022
Director(s): Anthony Byrne
Writer(s): Steven Knight
Cast: Cillian Murphy, Natasha O'Keeffe, Paul Anderson, Sophie Rundle, Finn Cole, Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Anya Taylor-Joy, Sam Claflin, Tom Hardy, Ian Peck, Harry Kirton, Kate Phillips, Ned Dennehy, Benjamin Zephaniah, Emmett J Scanlan, Packy Lee, Daryl McCormack
Where To Watch: Premieres globally on Netflix on June, 10
Wow, the definition of bittersweet is sweet with a bitter aftertaste. That’s exactly how I felt after watching the final season of what I would consider one of TV’s modern masterpieces. Six seasons, containing six episodes each, gave us a total of approximately 36 hours (it felt like a lot more, in a good way) of looking into this brilliant series.
If you haven’t watched the series, no fear; I won’t be ruining anything here, but if you want to go in blind with no understanding of the series, you may want to run over to Netflix and start streaming now.
Writer and Creator Steven Knight quickly recap the final season “Tommy is about to face enemies and demons more powerful than anything he's ever faced before. It’s the mid-1930s, fascism is on the rise, the Shelbys are more powerful than ever. But demons are coming to reclaim Tommy Shelby.”
In short, the series covers the lives of the Beaky Blinders crime gang/family in Birmingham, England (partially based on a real youth gang from the same town.) It’s not often that a series sees continued growth throughout the majority of its run. Let alone one that does that and then calls it a day. I am glad they went out on top, being able (for the most part) to go out how they wanted to instead of having their hands forced.
Cillian Murphy as Thomas Shelby (INCEPTION, THE DARK KNIGHT) is truly the heart and soul of this series; he demands your attention when he’s on-screen, and then when he speaks, you are listening. While the show is about the family, this last season is Thomas’ story, and there’s no doubt about that. While there are other subplots, we see his fallout from the previous season and everything that’s happened in between.
The series started in a fictional 1919, and the final season has jumped to 1934. The world changes in just the first episode; the way season five ended morphs into another story, and we see the struggles this family must fight through and overcome. In reading the back story for this last season, I found that Steven Knight intentionally focused on real-life events that weren’t the major ones but ones he found while scouring newspapers from the days.
The entire premise of the series is that “these men came back from the First World War just broken and shell shocked – we now call it PTSD. It’s about how these men tried to fit back into society, how difficult that was for them — and how difficult it was for society.” I think that’s what I found most interesting, the exploration of these real people facing real problems in a time unlike any other.
I don’t think I can talk about this series without mentioning its visual style. It’s dark, gritty, and honest, showing a time in England in such a beautiful way that makes you glad you aren’t there but that you get to sit back on your couch and experience it this way.
While I will remain spoiler free, any series fans know that something has to change between the fifth and sixth seasons. Thankfully this was done in the most respectful and honorable way I could imagine.
“The women in Peaky are as tough as the men,” says Sophie Rundle (Ada Shelby); to me, this is the sign that hangs above the entire series. There wasn’t a moment in the series where I thought that any of the MANY well-written and mentally tough women in this ever doubted that they would accomplish what they were going after.
As I’ve rambled on more than usual, I would like to cap this with a few more quick thoughts. I was introduced to “Red Right Hand,” a 1994 song by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, in the movie SCREAM, PEAKY BLINDERS cemented the importance of the style of the song in my mind forever.
Knight has had the idea of a feature film for the Blinders in mind. I, for one, am 100% on board with this idea! If we can get two DOWNTON ABBEY movies, we deserve a PEAKY BLINDERS movie!
To start streaming, head on over to netflix.com/PeakyBlinders
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