My friend East Texas Red recommended we watch a show called Peaky Blinders (on Netflix). This was not so long ago, but we’ve already exhausted the 3 seasons available so far.

Peaky Blinders is a story about a family of gangsters in post-WWI Birmingham in the UK. It’s well done, intriguing, violent and very compelling. The show reminded me of Boardwalk Empire in a broad sense and I’m OK with that comparison.  There were a few episodes which dragged some but overall I can’t complain. I enjoyed getting to know the characters and there were enough plot twists to propel the show through 3 seasons.

The show is peppered with music made and popularized decades after the story was set, including plenty of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and also including The White Stripes, Johnny Cash, P.J. Harvey, Arctic Monkeys, Radiohead, Tom Waits, The Last Shadow Puppets, David Bowie and more. Sometimes the music was remarkably successful, but I thought at other times is just seemed out of place and ineffective. Still, the choices were bold and confident and when the music worked well, it added intensity to the show.

The characters are a nasty bunch overall, operating on a twisted idea of a family code. The lead character, Tommy, is the boss, the thinker, the planner and increasingly the show revolves around his character. Other characters are given enough complexity to keep them interesting – for the most part. Some were stronger than others. For instance the character of Grace started out strong and intriguing, but later it seemed as if the writers didn’t know what to do with her.

I understand they are planning a couple more seasons of this one. I find that often, producers just don’t know when to stop when they’ve got a good thing going. I hope they don’t try to drag this one on for too long and end up sucking the life out of the thing.

Good show, with some exceptional episodes. Recommended (but not for the squeamish).