Tom Hardy’s Epic 6-Season Crime Series Is a Near-Perfect Netflix Binge

From HBO’s The Sopranos to Paramount+’s MobLand, dysfunctional mob families make for great television — but no other group of criminals is quite as cunning, conniving, and calculating as the Shelby family from Netflix’s Peaky Blinders. Starring Oscar-winning Cillian Murphy as the notorious Shelby ringleader Thomas “Tommy” Shelby, Peaky Blinders takes viewers back to Small Heath, Birmingham, in 1919, the town that would witness the Shelbys’ rise, peak, and eventual downfall.

Violence and bloodshed are expected in the series, but Peaky Blinders is just as much a family drama as it is a crime epic. Blood may be thicker than water, but Tommy is a businessman first and a family man second. Across six seasons, Peaky Blinders delivers no shortage of shocking plot twists to keep audiences hooked, made all the more surprising by the fact that many come from the people closest to Tommy.

What Is ‘Peaky Blinders’ About?

Inspired by the real-life street gang, Peaky Blinders follows Tommy, fresh out of serving in World War I, as he returns to Small Heath with plans to turn his family’s small horse-betting operation into a legitimate business. His opportunity comes when his men stumble upon a crate of stolen military weapons, setting his bigger plans for the Peaky Blinders into motion. From blackmailing police authorities and taking territory from rival gangs to expanding into bigger cities, each season sees Tommy taking another step toward legitimizing Shelby Company Limited.

Four Netflix characters, four completely different ways of showing up
for somebody. This is the one who fits how you actually do friendship, and what having them in your
life would be like.

You do not do friendship at half volume, and neither does he.
What you want is somebody who says yes to the plan before you have finished describing the
plan.

• Dustin is the friend the entire show runs on: loyal past the point of sense,
  enthusiastic about everything, and incapable of leaving anybody behind.
• You have the same instinct. Your friendships are loud, specific and slightly ridiculous,
  and they last for decades because of it.
• He is also the one person who would take your strangest interest completely seriously,
  which is far rarer than it sounds.
• You would have a group chat. It would never once be quiet.

You are the friend who makes things happen, and so is she.
Together you would be mildly exhausting to everyone around you and completely delighted with
yourselves.

• Emily treats an ordinary Tuesday as something that could be turned into an occasion,
  which is either the best or the worst quality in a friend depending on your energy
  levels.
• You share her refusal to sit still. Neither of you has ever accepted a night in when
  something was happening somewhere else.
• She is far more loyal than people give her credit for. She defends her friends loudly,
  publicly, and occasionally before checking the facts.
• She would post the photo without asking. You would forgive her, because it is a very
  good photo.

You have no patience for pleasant lies, and she has no ability to
tell them. What looks like coldness from the outside is the most reliable friendship on this
list.

• Wednesday never says a kind thing she does not mean, which makes the rare ones count for
  an enormous amount.
• You would rather be told the truth than be made comfortable. She is constitutionally
  incapable of offering you anything else.
• Underneath all of it she is ferociously protective. She simply refuses to make a
  performance out of caring.
• Do not expect a birthday message. Do expect her to ruin anyone who wrongs you.

You look after whoever is having the worst day. So does he. It is
the least strategic way to move through the world and the best possible quality in a friend.

• Gi-hun is not the strongest player in Squid Game, or the cleverest. He is the one who
  keeps choosing to protect somebody else, over and over, at genuine cost to himself.
• You have the same instinct. You notice who is struggling and you stay with them, long
  after anybody would blame you for leaving.
• He is a flawed friend, and that is part of why it lands. He lets people down, then comes
  back and tries again, which is more than most manage.
• He would give you his last chance and never once mention that he had done it.

As Tommy’s ambitions grow, so do the risks. Every season also follows the seemingly untouchable Tommy pushing his luck further, making increasingly questionable decisions to keep his empire growing. He doesn’t even hesitate to use his own family members as collateral, insisting that it’s all for a greater purpose. That’s part of the appeal of Peaky Blinders: watching just how long Tommy can get away with his schemes before his luck finally runs out. When a man who has spent his entire life building an empire finds himself with nothing left, the question becomes whether he can rise from the ashes or if this is finally where his story ends.

‘Peaky Blinders’ Brings Together Some of Hollywood’s Finest

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• Image via BBC

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Image via BBC

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Peaky Blinders has no shortage of seasoned actors bringing its characters to life. Besides Murphy’s cutthroat performance as the morally ambiguous and frighteningly intelligent Tommy, the rest of the Shelby family are just as gutsy as their leader, with some arguably even more so. From Paul Anderson as Tommy’s violent but troubled older brother, Arthur Shelby, to Helen McCrory as the wiser and more level-headed Aunt Polly Gray, each family member has a distinct personality that makes them fascinating to watch. Put them all in the same room, though, and their explosive chemistry makes audiences wonder how they haven’t killed each other yet.

The series also boasts an impressive roster of recurring characters, some of whom become regular fixtures in Tommy’s life while others only appear for a season or two. Even with limited screen time, these roles attract plenty of talent. Anya Taylor-Joy, Stephen Graham, and Adrien Brody are just a few of the big names who join the cast in later seasons. Then there’s Tom Hardy as Alfie Solomons, the leader of a London-based Jewish gang. Appearing across five seasons, Hardy makes for one of Tommy’s most entertaining counterparts, with their unpredictable alliance and rivalry providing some of the series’ best moments.

‘Peaky Blinders’ Sequel Series Is Currently in the Works

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    Image via Netflix</figure>