Critic Reviews

Judging from the first and only episode that was made available for review, Peaky Blinders remains one of the most entertaining shows on the box.

Rest assured that the final series is a worthy testament to this outstanding actress [Helen McCrory, who died last spring], and the character she created.

The beginning of the end of one of the great British TV drama achievements of recent years is as movingly intimate, cinematically ambitious and sweepingly epic as ever.

When you enlist in the Peaky Blinders army you can expect a lion’s share of brawls, bullets, and broads. What most don’t anticipate is an irresistible ensemble performing immaculately as a collective, delivering an absorbing, visceral story entrenched within imposing production and costume design. These attributes are precisely what has made Steven Knight’s period crime-drama startup so successful, now four seasons deep with a fifth on the way. Viewers will soon find out that the latest six-episode story arc is no slouch and even though nothing of what has made Peaky Blinders a hit has changed.

The series remains impeccably stylish, with exquisite sets, eye-catching costumes, and some pretty highfalutin dialogue for a story about uneducated criminals. Another strength of Peaky Blinders is that it's managed to stay fresh from one season to the next.

Peaky Blinders’ array of complicated female characters has always been something that set the gangland drama apart, and both Rundle’s Ada and O’Keefe’s Lizzie get plenty of opportunities to shine as each wrestles with grief, rage, and the seemingly endless frustration of being forever bound to Tommy’s world. But the women are also given a chance to fully step into their own power in a way we haven’t really seen from either of them before.

By focusing on Tommy's deteriorating mental state, the cost of continued violence, and the interpersonal relationships of the Shelby family and how everything they touch eventually turns to ash rather than simply relying on yet more forgettable villains for conflict, Peaky Blinders is a better, more complete family saga than it has been in recent years.

While it seems the right time to retire Peaky Blinders it still has that heavy stamp of quality, the unique mix of early 20th-century gangsterism set against modern music and reassuringly uncorny dialogue.

The clothes horse from nowhere is back where we want him to be: in all kinds of trouble.

This was the Peaky Blinders we have fallen in love with over the past nine years – a dark, gloomy, tense, intricately planned (but never too complicated) show, full of exceptional performances and the underhand machinations of a loveable rogue gangster.