I'll just get my buzzkill out of the way before praising this series...I am a feminist at heart and I get annoyed when the women seem only to serve as love interests and naked yum yum time for the males who dominate the stories. The only woman I've truly been able to admire is Polly (Helen McCrory) but even she seemed to be lost in generic maternal yawnishness for most of series 2. It was only during that moment we all wanted to come, the "Don't @!#% with the Peaky Blinders" incident in the s2 finale, that I said, "Well...there she is...good to5 have her back." Polly is nothing less than a badass b@#$t, the true leader of the Peaky Blinders, the one who makes the final decisions. Please, no more mama crap?!!
I've never been able to latch onto Grace (Annabelle Wallis) because from the start, she presented as a "half-hearted" operative, assigned to infiltrate the gang. She seemed wimpy, and of course, fell too easily in love. What were her motives for becoming a spy in the first place, aside from that sketchy IRA bit I mean? She was even more disappointing in S2. I may change my mind...is she the one person who makes Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) think about other people? Is it she who makes him think about how grabbing up all the goodies you can during your limited days on this miserable ball of mud isn't necessarily the key to contentment? If she is indeed this special of a person, I will like her more in the future. In the meantime, May could have been a really great flipside to Grace, but she's just another love interest. Nothing really special happening with her.
Crime, gangster and mobster stories are not my thing. I think these kinds of men are the dregs of society who will wipe their shoes on anyone in their path to get the things they think they want. Tommy, Arthur (a highly amusing Paul Anderson), John and the other Blinders are damaged men. They came home from brutalities we can only imagine. Their life experiences have left them...disallusioned to say the very least. Now they want what they can take. They hate the law because they feel they served their country and something is owed to them. I get it. But using people, lying to people, stomping all over people on your way to the top? We all know that on their deathbeds they will be no happier, no more fulfilled than they are now. It never ceases to amaze me. People just don't stop. Each side has to have the last word. It is war, and war is hell.
Sounds like I hate this show? Not at all. My ability to cheer on Polly while knowing she's a ruthless bitch is what entertainment is all about. Sure they're the dregs of society. Sure they're loathsome, but they are, like it or not, our protags. I find it so much easier to love and identify with Polly and Tommy than with Sam Neill's scumbubble of an agent to the Crown. He's supposed to be the good guy, but he's really slimy. Kudos, Mr. Neill!!! Actors who love their craft can be so good in a role you end up hating their guts.
No I can't say I find it perfection, but it' a great series, riveting in all its repugnance, very beautifully acted and written. It just needs stronger females aside from the formidable Polly.
I've never been able to latch onto Grace (Annabelle Wallis) because from the start, she presented as a "half-hearted" operative, assigned to infiltrate the gang. She seemed wimpy, and of course, fell too easily in love. What were her motives for becoming a spy in the first place, aside from that sketchy IRA bit I mean? She was even more disappointing in S2. I may change my mind...is she the one person who makes Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) think about other people? Is it she who makes him think about how grabbing up all the goodies you can during your limited days on this miserable ball of mud isn't necessarily the key to contentment? If she is indeed this special of a person, I will like her more in the future. In the meantime, May could have been a really great flipside to Grace, but she's just another love interest. Nothing really special happening with her.
Crime, gangster and mobster stories are not my thing. I think these kinds of men are the dregs of society who will wipe their shoes on anyone in their path to get the things they think they want. Tommy, Arthur (a highly amusing Paul Anderson), John and the other Blinders are damaged men. They came home from brutalities we can only imagine. Their life experiences have left them...disallusioned to say the very least. Now they want what they can take. They hate the law because they feel they served their country and something is owed to them. I get it. But using people, lying to people, stomping all over people on your way to the top? We all know that on their deathbeds they will be no happier, no more fulfilled than they are now. It never ceases to amaze me. People just don't stop. Each side has to have the last word. It is war, and war is hell.
Sounds like I hate this show? Not at all. My ability to cheer on Polly while knowing she's a ruthless bitch is what entertainment is all about. Sure they're the dregs of society. Sure they're loathsome, but they are, like it or not, our protags. I find it so much easier to love and identify with Polly and Tommy than with Sam Neill's scumbubble of an agent to the Crown. He's supposed to be the good guy, but he's really slimy. Kudos, Mr. Neill!!! Actors who love their craft can be so good in a role you end up hating their guts.
No I can't say I find it perfection, but it' a great series, riveting in all its repugnance, very beautifully acted and written. It just needs stronger females aside from the formidable Polly.