Peaky Blinders Season 3 Review

Peaky Blinders (2013-)
Season 3 (2016)

Created by: Steven Knight
Starring: Cillian Murphy, Paul Anderson, Helen McCrory, Paddy Considine

Rating: TV-14
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Peaky Blinders Season 3 - John, Thomas, and Arthur Shelby

Plot:
This Netflix series follows the exploits of the Peaky Blinders gang led by Tommy Shelby after World War I in Birmingham, England. In season three, Tommy is out of the alleys and into a mansion, but he's still a gangster.

Verdict:
It's got a lot of style. I can remember certain sequences and the composition of scenes more than the actual plot. The show isn't as good at delving into characters. Arthur has a plot line this season that should be more compelling than it is. That's not to say nothing happens this season. There's plenty of plot developments, but that seems secondary to making great looking or violent sequences. Few shows can make their characters look quite as cool when just walking.
Episode 4 and 6 are strong with 6 just a bit better, cashing in on everything the season set up, but I often feel lost in the plot like I've missed a crucial episode. The show isn't against pulling a plot resolution out of thin air. Style doesn't always trump substance.
It depends.

Season 3 Recap
There is a balance between showing and telling. Telling too much creates a boring story, but Peaky Blinders doesn't tell enough. Tommy and his gang attend a meeting, but we don't know why until after, creating an often unnecessarily convoluted plot. It's got a lot of style, but the plot structure holds it back. In episode six, John and Arthur investigate a potential jewelry buyer. Why? He's not the one that is stealing the jewels or blackmailing Tommy. Anomalies like this occur often in the plot.
It's another gangster show dealing with murder and intrigue, but the setting, mood, and production help it stand out.

Episode 1
Thomas Shelby (Cillian Murphy) escaped death at the end of season two, a government agent informing him that Winston Churchill needed him for a job.
Season three opens two years later with Tommy Shelby getting married. He's moved into a mansion. No longer kicking around in back alleys, the gang bare knuckle brawls in fancy gardens.

Tommy warns his men to behave on his wedding day, as the gang is at odds with the cavalry also in attendance. The Peaky Blinders gang is always quick to start a fight.

Tommy's wife questions why he is so tense, as she knows it's not the wedding. The reason is that Tommy is meeting a Russian contact. The Russians are buying weapons, but the contact doesn't have the money and uses the wrong password.

Tommy's brother Arthur (Paul Anderson) draws the short straw and has to kill the Russian imposter. He's trying to reform at his wife Linda's behest, but the murder is a conflict between his woman and his brother. As the season progresses, it's clear Tommy doesn't like the changes Linda is implementing.

Episode 2
Things happen in this episode, but after watching the episode I'm not even sure what. Tommy is making deals with a priest, Father Hughes (Paddy Considine), and the Russians. It's just a jumble of  threats and violence, leading up to the big game changer at the end of the episode.

Tommy gives to Grace a sapphire he got from the Russians as payment. It just so happens that it's cursed. When he finds this out, he demands she takes it off, but I'm not sure why that got him so worked up.
The curse is real though and his wife is shot a few minutes later in the shoulder. It looked like a through and through wound. The shooter is a guy John Shelby beat up and cut earlier in the episode. Tommy had praised that show of violence earlier. If he regrets that, the show never tells us.

Episode 3
Grace died? How? It's a bit ridiculous to kill her off like that. Her death didn't have near the impact it should have because I didn't think she would die from that. Hasn't Tommy suffered worse and lived?

The rift between Tommy and his brothers widen as Tommy focuses on legitimate business. John is upset Michael was seen before he and Arthur. They both feel like trigger man outside of the inner circle.
Arthur's blood lust is waning due to Linda's reforms. Things only seem to be changing more towards a peaceful Arthur with Linda pregnant.

Tommy is gets rid of the gypsy cursed sapphire,and then plans to torture and kill the father of the man that shot his wife. What's the point? Does the show just want to give us a Tarantino-esque scene? It shows Tommy's lust for revenge and Arthur defiance of him. Arthur shoots the captive, sparing him the torture.
The brothers could come head to head in a battle. Tommy knows Arthur is becoming less of the mad dog he can let loose on people and more a family man. I don't take Tommy for one that really cares about Arthur as a person, more just what Arthur can do for him.

Episode 4
The Russian duchess is schooling Tommy on his freedom and how he doesn't take advantage of the fact that he has no rules. Is she just angling for power or is this a new Tommy trajectory?
Everybody is talking when they shouldn't, Polly in confession and Arthur to Linda.

Tommy is going to off Father Hughes, but since Polly dropped that information in her confession, they knew he was coming. Tommy gets his skull fractured but isn't dead. Is he going to bounce back from this? I don't see how. Then again his wife died from a shoulder injury when she shouldn't, so he'll probably be back to normal next episode.
Father Hughes demands Tommy apologize. Tommy stumbles through the apology high on cocaine and his head untreated. Father Hughes compares himself to God and pushes Tommy hard. Tommy complies, but there has got to be retribution for this.

Episode 5
Tommy convalesces for three months. The only result he claims is that he now needs glasses to read the paper. He gets his skull crushed with no visible effect. His wife gets shot in the shoulder and dies.

Tommy, John, and Arthur get into a Russian orgy part. I guess, because why not.
Tommy's real purpose is to get into the Russian treasury and use Alfie Solomons (Tom Hardy) to appraise seventy thousand pounds of jewelry as payment.
His journey into the tunnels is subterfuge to carry out his plan of tunneling into the treasury and nabbing the treasure.
Polly is confessing a lot to her new boyfriend painter. Sharing secrets is always a good way to get somebody hurt in this show.

Episode 6
Tommy is still under the thumb of the Father Hughes.
When Tommy's son goes missing at the Orphaned Children banquet, it's got to be Father Hughes carrying out his threats
Somehow Father Hughes knows about the tunnel Tommy is digging and the Russian jewels. The only people that know the plan are Tommy, Polly, John, and Arthur. Except, Alfie was also there.
Tom Hardy is always a joy to watch, and this is no different.
Tommy knew it could be Alfie, and he tore his Aunt Polly down to nothing. Almost for sport, but that's who Tommy is.

Tommy earnestly begins digging to finish the tunnel. If doesn't finish the tunnel and get his son back, his gang has to blow up a train to appease Father Hughes.
Tommy steals the jewels, Father Hughes is killed, but the message to not blow up the train isn't sent in time. The jewels were a ploy with the Russian duchess the entire time. There's a fast one.
Just as Arthur is about to ride to New York with Linda, Tommy reveals that he's implicated Arthur, John, and Michael. They're all going to jail. Tommy claims he's made a deal, but Tommy always looked out for himself at the expense of everyone else.