Peaky Blinders - General Discussion

[Auntie Anxiety]

Is it on Netflix yet?  I loved Seasons 1 & 2 but fear I'll have to rewatch all of it before I start viewing Season 3.

[HollyG]

On 5/9/2016 at 5:59 PM, turbogirlnyc said:

Anyone seen season 3 episode 1? Can't wait to discuss it here. I found the episode good but so much time went by off screen, it took a while to get back into the groove. Won't post spoilers but I'm so happy PB is back.

I use a streaming service to watch the episodes, so I'm not sure how soon Netflix gets them.  #3.3 was shown today and it's been really good so far this season.  Edited -- I thought this was for the season 3 episode 3.  Is anyone still watching?

Spoiler

 

Edited May 20, 2016 by HollyG
wrong episode

[Ceindreadh]

Yes, still watching. Took a bit of catching up though because I'd missed the last 2 eps of S2. 

[mledawn]

I keep checking to see if a Season 3 thread has been started... love S3 so far! (I'm also up to E3)

[formerlyfreedom]

Season three of Peaky Blinders debuts in the US on Netflix on May 31, 2016. Discuss here!

Please keep in mind, there are only six episodes, and all are discussed in this topic; so entering before viewing those episodes very well could spoil you.

[wineaux]

A few things about Sam Neill's accent...

Although he was born in Northern Ireland (1947), he seems to have spent most of his life in New Zealand (his father's homeland)...from 1954 onward.  So I can understand why he would not have had a naturally sounding Northern Ireland accent.  He was probably away from Ireland too long.  Also, he did receive some coaching from Liam Neeson and James Nesbitt, however, well, even to my American ears, Sam's speech patterns still sounded odd...kinda exaggerated.

With that said, if I had let it, the weird accent could have really pulled me away from the character.  But, he did such a great job as the despicable Campbell, that the accent issue kinda melted away for me. 

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On the other hand, divorce is also a scandal.  Grace can't a divorce unless her husband accuses her of infidelity.  What if he won't?  What if he wants the baby, no matter what? Under British law at that time a child born to a married couple was the legal offspring of that couple.  He's going to be the father in the eyes of the law no matter what Grace says.  

Grace moved to New York, married a rich banker there and lived in Poughkeepsie, so I don't think British laws governed them regarding children born to them while married.  They were only in London for fertility testing.

[hellmouse]

Great news! Season 3 hasn't even started in the US yet, but we already know there will be two more seasons. WARNING - this article contains spoilers for season 3, but they come after the video so just don't scroll down too far. 

Peaky Blinders: fans rejoice as BBC confirms two more seasons of Cillian Murphy mob drama

Two more seasons of 1920s Birmingham-based gangster series Peaky Blinders have been commissioned as part of a new season of BBC dramas, The Guardian reports. Despite the renewal, season three has seen rating drop dramatically. But the show has plenty of fans – and many are household names, Radio Times reports.

[ethalfrida]

Yay!!!

[Eriu]

Even when I don't totally follow what's going on, I don't really care because the show is just so damn pretty.

Speaking of pretty, Aunt Pol is really rocking the new haircut and I hope she and Alexander Siddig's character get to have some fun.

I'm not too big on Tommy and Grace getting married. I haven't liked her since the first season and she just doesn't seem suited for this life. She did take most of the shenanigans better than I thought she would though.

Arthur's "sobriety" simply will not last.

[Arynm]

Don't like Grace, wish he would have married May. I knew it was Grace when she walked into the church in that ridiculous purple veil. Was that a thing back then? It was terrible, so was her dress, but that felt period so I will let it slide.

Anyone else not believe her first husband "killed himself"? I mean come on! If Tommy or one of the Shelbys didnt kill him, I will eat my peaky blinder!

[ethalfrida]

On 5/9/2016 at 7:42 AM, Auntie Anxiety said:

Is it on Netflix yet?  I loved Seasons 1 & 2 but fear I'll have to rewatch all of it before I start viewing Season 3.

I watched first episode of 3 then concluded I needed to  start  over.  No problem, though.

[Eriu]

I'm pretty surprised that the show had the balls to kill off Grace. While I wasn't a fan of hers, I'm a little annoyed that we got her and Tommy married just to kill her off to give Tommy pain. Killing off one of the brothers would have been just as painful and probably more impactful as we've been with them longer. The other ladies are getting good material though, so I can't be too annoyed.

At first I thought that Arthur was way skinnier than I thought he'd be, but then I remember his love of coke, so he's actually probably pretty solid for his state.

[peridot]

I finished season 3 on Netflix.  What a crazy ending!

First, I hope the Russian duchess doesn't come back.  She was extremely arrogant and annoying.  I'm surprised Tommy slept with her in the first place. 
I liked seeing the Peaky women bonding.  The power shot of them joining the protest was very cool.

I'm not surprised Michael turned out to be psycho, guess he's just like mom.  I was afraid he would get the baby killed, luckily that didn't happen.
Alfie Solomons cracked me up.  I had to rewind his scenes in the finale because they were so absurd.

Tommy is such an asshole to his family, though.  That got old after a while.

I'm not sure how season 4 will go.  There's always some big enemy to conquer.

[CertainJewel]

I'm surprised there isn't more chatter here. It's a great show and I love the authenticity for the time period. Do people on this forum even know about Peaky Blinders?

I was sad to see Micheal be the one to kill the priest.  It does make sense because he saw that disgusting piece of shit lead all those children behind a door. He sees a lot of violence and has learned from the Shelby's to get rid of garbage with a weapon.

The baby is so adorable. I love the scenes with Tommy and his son. You remember then that he does have some heart deep inside. Buried deep for sure but when it comes to his son he's daddy.

I liked Arthur a lot this season. Last season not so much. His "righteous" wife needs to go.

I for one am thrilled Grace is gone. And she CAN NOT come back. Her scene in the bedroom with Tommy was great though. Nice to go out with a bang<<<<pun intended. :D

I'm pissed that we got only 6 episodes and they are all arrested. What??? And who knows when season 4 will be available. I think these shows that take forever to come out with the next season lose momentum and interest. I don't think I'll wait until next year. Too many other programs that are just as good.

[ethalfrida]

Has this been discussed? Who is Polly and isn't she related to Tommy? If so, then how did they end up in bed together? Or did I really see that?

[olivia1]

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I was sad to see Micheal be the one to kill the priest.It does make sense because he saw that disgusting piece of shit lead all those children behind a door.

Didn't  the priest abuse Micheal  as a child?  I thought that was his original motive and then seeing the priest with those kids gave him the courage to kill him. But half of the time I don't know what's going on. 

Not sad about Grace either and that Russian woman needs to take her jewelry and scram. 

[Arynm]

I am so glad they made short work of Grace this season. I guess if they did kill the first husband it doesn't matter now. I thought for sure we were going to get a story out of that. By the end I was very tired of the Russians. I did enjoy the older woman, but she wasn't in the show enough. I thought for sure Linda was the mole, I should have guess Solomons. Can't wait an entire year for the next season, what a crazy cliffhanger ending!

[CertainJewel]

6 hours ago, olivia1 said:

Didn't  the priest abuse Micheal  as a child?  I thought that was his original motive and then seeing the priest with those kids gave him the courage to kill him. But half of the time I don't know what's going on. 

 

Yes that's true he was abused too and wanted to kill him. I guess my thinking was that knowing this priest would harm other children would give him more impetus to seek the priest out and kill him.

[vadare]

Quote

I thought for sure Linda was the mole

Me too!  Turns out she's just another Miss-Goody-Two-Shoes gold digger.

Loved the women empowerment scenes as well.  That's okay, Ladies...just give it a few more years and the men will be back to war and y'all can run things again.

As I watched this, I kept being reminded of the Godfather movies and Sons of Anarchy.  (If anyone else here watched SOA, does Polly remind you at all of Gemma?)  The parallels are too numerous to mention.

I hear they've signed on for both a Season 4 and Season 5...Yeah!!

And as for the people that Tommy knows who are higher on the food chain, is Tommy talking about Churchill?  I guess he is.

[venezia54]

I shrieked when I heard Tommy say at the end that he was going to buy a racehorse and get it trained. Foreshadowing May's return, perhaps? I too was glad that Grace didn't last. I don't know if it was the character or Annabelle's acting, but she just so myeh. I have to rewatch this season, because I didn't love it as much as I thought I would. It was relentlessly dark. Sam Neill added some humor and colorfulness to Campbell. He wasn't a black and white villain. But Paddy Consadine's priest was just depressingly evil. Of course, the season was brilliant, but what it added in dark brutality and tragic irony, it lost in heart, somehow. Maybe it could have used a little more humor? But how brilliant was Cillian? What an actor. 

[ethalfrida]

I cannot believe the ending was so much like Godfather 3. I can watch parts 1 and 2 but 3 is a bummer. Felt like this ending was just as depressing.

Yep, Russian chick was annoying so I hope she stays gone. 

The priest was disgusting as was the Jewish fellow.

[DoubleUTeeEff]

I loved the ending!  Everyone thinking they are getting paid and then chaos ensues.  It was just so over the top and thrown in there at the last second.  It was fantastic.

I was looking forward to Tommy cheating on Grace with Tatiana but I'll take her being shot and killed instead.  I also never liked her but she played catty well.

Watching the women go on strike was great and I also loved, loved, loved how John was so tickled by it.

I hope Michael's girl (Charlotte?) really got an abortion rather than the last minute mind changing trope they went with with Ada.

Did I miss something or did Polly get away with confessing to the priest about the Peaky Blinders plot to kill a "holy man" thus putting Tommy in grave danger? I don't think they even showed her privately feeling remorse?

[DoubleUTeeEff]

In Season 2, I enjoyed Grace speaking to May:  "Did he tell you my name?  My name is Grace."

In Season 3, Thomas speaking of his recently deceased father: "The only things he ever taught us was how to kill and cut steaks."

Thomas:  "All religion is a foolish answer to a foolish question."

Edited June 6, 2016 by DoubleUTeeEff
wrong character; added a quote

[stagmania]

Wow, a lot of Grace hate on this board. They pretty much rewrote her character after the first series, and I definitely preferred the original secret spy version to the pure highborn wife schtick, but I don't really get the vitriol.

In any event, I thought killing her off so quickly and randomly after a two year tease campaign about who Tommy would marry was pretty lame. What was the point of all that if their marriage never even made a real dent in the story? Tommy was pretty much the same guy before and after what should have played as a cataclysmic event in his life, and the death itself, and the immediate emotional fallout, happened offscreen. It ended up just another in a long line of senseless female character deaths to create manpain, and I thought this show was better than that.

As for the rest of the season, I enjoyed it, though I must admit I wasn't always sure I was following the increasingly convoluted plot. Alfie's return was pretty delightful, and I'm glad he survived and could potentially come back again. I'll definitely be back next year (or whenever series 4 gets made) to see how Tommy gets his family out of this latest clusterfuck.

[Pogojoco]

I also never had an issue with Grace. I preferred her in the first season, but once her secret was revealed and she was no longer a double agent, she had nothing to do except nag Tommy about legitimate business and look great in a finger wave. Her being a phantom is probably where it needed to go. 

Apparently David Bowie was a big fan of the show, so hearing his song used was great. 

Between Murphy and Hardy, that is some insane charisma. I almost wish the show was entirely Shelby the Gypsy and Solomons the Jew working together and double crossing each other. Solomons appraising the Russian jewelry was a great scene by Hardy. 

[Kirsty]

 I swear Tom Hardy thinks he's playing Fagin in a school play of Oliver Twist! His scenes are just as often unintentionally funny as intentionally funny (so they're pretty enjoyable); I don't know how Cillian Murphy keeps a straight face. My favourite this season was his first scene, when he visited Tommy at home, and told him "your head is like some sort of smashed vase wot has been stuck back together by an 'orse"! That cracked me up.

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I heard Tommy say at the end that he was going to buy a racehorse and get it trained. Foreshadowing May's return, perhaps?

I hadn't thought of that, but I hope so!

They mentioned a lady (shop? factory?) steward a couple of times this season but we didn't meet her. I wonder if she will crop up in the future. I'm also curious to know if we'll follow Ada to Boston at some point.

Edited June 11, 2016 by Kirsty

[muppet29]

Why were the Blinders so upset that Grace's family wore their uniforms to the wedding? and did they wear them intentionally to provoke them? I'm not clear on the history or what happened between these 2 during WWI

 

thanks!

[CofCinci]

1 hour ago, muppet29 said:

Why were the Blinders so upset that Grace's family wore their uniforms to the wedding? and did they wear them intentionally to provoke them? I'm not clear on the history or what happened between these 2 during WWI

 

thanks!

They waited to join the combat -- until the bloodiest part was over. 

[InsertWordHere]

8 hours ago, Kirsty said:

 I don't know how Cillian Murphy keeps a straight face. My favourite this season was his first scene, when he visited Tommy at home, and told him "your head is like some sort of smashed vase wot has been stuck back together by an 'orse"! That cracked me up.

My favorite part was later on it that scene when Alfie pulls out his magical, future-seeing glasses and tells Tommy, "You're f*ckin about with Russians, isn't you? You silly boy." It looked to me like Cillian Murphy was about to start laughing and they had to quickly cut the scene.

[ethalfrida]

Wrong forum.

Edited June 14, 2016 by ethalfrida

[millennium]

Ultimately, an unsatisfying season.    Too brief, too convoluted, too many self-conscious "music video" moments, the silly exaggerated cigarette sounds ... and no matter how much the show wants us to care about Polly, I just don't.   Had the storyline been better, I probably wouldn't be complaining, but when you're bored it's easy to nitpick.

[Kip Hackman]

On 6/12/2016 at 1:18 PM, ethalfrida said:

I am hoping that the Swede is dead. Please let him be dead because I do not think I can stand another episode like this one. Talk about depressing and grim!!!! I don't care what made him a murderous, conniving murderer there was no reason to try and make him a sympathetic character. And the scenes with the soldiers sleeping in the rain with tents with no covering. Who can think of stuff like that??? Well apparently someone but geez...

???

[ethalfrida]

8 hours ago, Kip Hackman said:

???

???

[Kip Hackman]

6 hours ago, ethalfrida said:

???

Which one was the Swede?

Edited June 14, 2016 by Kip Hackman

[ethalfrida]

4 hours ago, Kip Hackman said:

Which one was the Swede?

You are right. I posted in the wrong forum. My comment was meant fot Hell On Wheels.

[Kip Hackman]

9 minutes ago, ethalfrida said:

You are right. I posted in the wrong forum. My comment was meant fot Hell On Wheels.

No problem. I zipped through Season 3 pretty quickly, and thought I might have missed something.  (I don't watch Hell On Wheels, so I didn't get the reference)

As far as the season goes, I liked it, overall. I agree with those who think that bringing back Grace was kind of a waste. But I liked that there were some actual consequences at the end of the finale, rather than Tommy simply outsmarting everyone. Again.

[ethalfrida]

42 minutes ago, Kip Hackman said:

No problem. I zipped through Season 3 pretty quickly, and thought I might have missed something.  (I don't watch Hell On Wheels, so I didn't get the reference)

As far as the season goes, I liked it, overall. I agree with those who think that bringing back Grace was kind of a waste. But I liked that there were some actual consequences at the end of the finale, rather than Tommy simply outsmarting everyone. Again.

Thanks for your comments and catch, though. Agree about the Peaky episode.

If you haven't watched Hell on Wheels give it a look. It is just as intense as Peaky Blinders... in a lot of ways. I think there are five seasons and binge watching will have you glued to the screen.

[hellmouse]

Interesting interview with Stephen Knight, Cillian Murphy, Helen McCrory, Paul Anderson and Annabelle Wallis. They talk about their characters, about filming all six episodes at once, having one director for all six, the writing, and whether they think it would translate well to a movie.

Spoilers for entire show, including Season 3.

'Peaky Blinders' Cast Talks Season 3 In Steve Knight's Purple Patch & Muses On A Movie

[Chaos Theory]

Well that was a finale wasn't it.   The season both worked and didn't work but then I have never been quite sure if I like the show or not.   Tommy is the ultimate unlikable character and usually I can get past that but by the end of the season it was his family that faced the consequences for what were essentially his actions.  Tommy is the one who is never satisfied with what he has and keeps looking for bigger enemies to fight.   

Quote

 

Wow, a lot of Grace hate on this board. They pretty much rewrote her character after the first series, and I definitely preferred the original secret spy version to the pure highborn wife schtick, but I don't really get the vitriol.

In any event, I thought killing her off so quickly and randomly after a two year tease campaign about who Tommy would marry was pretty lame. What was the point of all that if their marriage never even made a real dent in the story? Tommy was pretty much the same guy before and after what should have played as a cataclysmic event in his life, and the death itself, and the immediate emotional fallout, happened offscreen. It ended up just another in a long line of senseless female character deaths to create manpain, and I thought this show was better than that.

 

I thought Grace was one of the better parts of the first season and I didn't get the point of bring her back just to kill her.   As much as the writing is good when it comes to males it is horrible when it comes to women.  The first season was by far the best female wise but as the show went on it become more and more about Tommy's manpain so killing off all the women in his life essentially keeps him alone and manpainy.  

 

Dude you don't do your family like that.  

[90PercentGravity]

Binged all three seasons. I loved it, but I definitely reached my limit of slow motion walking. 

[lazylou]

I loved all three seasons, which I, too, binge-watched.  Just a couple of comments...when Grace and Tom married, I predicted the marriage would untilmately end in ennui...the original attraction existed in a setting that had disappeared...and I was puzzled about what future this marriage would have. (In Season Two I was surprised Grace returned.  Think about it...there was a successful romantic under-story to both season one and season two.  Bringing Grace back as wife ends that entire story possibility for future seasons.)   That she died quickly while there was still passion, as a result of Tom and John's war with the Italians, is one case where a Shelby really pays for his crimes.   But Tom manages to lay off part of the responsibility on the Russians and the alleged "Gypsy curse."  Does seem as though May may be on her way back...  Or maybe a new love interest entirely.  

Next, Michael's killing of that abominable priest was warranted in every way imaginable.  Michael has always wanted to be accepted into the family as a bad actor...look at all the choices he makes in spite of continual efforts on Polly's part to separate him from the family business. I too was troubled that Polly had revealed the planned murder of the "holy" man and then never realized what she had done.  Then, was her painter-lover actually cleared at the end?  I am not at all sure about that.  I guess I need to watch the last episode again.  Isn't Polly the one full member of the family who is not arrested?  Ada is free, but she has not participated except to try to warn the Soviets and help rescue the family.  When she supplies the list of Communists to Tommy, I am not sure she realized the consequences.

Is Winston Churchill part of the conspiracy to blow up the train?  Was this the job Churchill rescued Tom to do? Was Churchill one of the Brits who backed the White armies in the early days of the Russian Revolution?  This plot is too convoluted, really.  Tom agrees (under duress) to supply weapons to the White (anti-Red) armies in the Caucusus or wherever, but then it turns out Tom is really working for people who want to see Britain withdraw diplomatic recognition from the Soviet government?  So we have a sub-plot within the sub-plot...and the whole thing is being managed by abusive priests, Scotland Yard?, and Russian emigres....This conspiracy certainly has tentacles in all facets of British society... one of the reasons the story lines work, though, is that in each season the Shelby family enemies are so much worse than the Shelbys...consider how terrible Chief Campbell ultimately becomes.  I really would have liked a little more development of the elements of the other side.  Solomon only gets to walk away because he is needed somehow for Season Four. And he is suddenly a jeweler?  I am annoyed at the use of the stereotype.  Season Three just was not so well plotted as the earlier two.  Too bad, but I am hopeful Season Four will return to something more rational.  And why wouldn't the Russian duchess or whatever shoot Tommy, too?  Obviously because he is needed for the next season.

And...are they really speaking Romani when they claim to be?  Did Charlie Chaplin ever himself say he was Rom?  

[lazylou]

Whoops...Polly is arrested for killing Campbell.  So everyone pays...

[lazylou]

On June 11, 2016 at 0:50 PM, Kirsty said:

 I don't know how Cillian Murphy keeps a straight face. My favourite this season was his first scene, when he visited Tommy at home, and told him "your head is like some sort of smashed vase wot has been stuck back together by an 'orse"! That cracked me up.

I

Wait...I thought Cillian Murphy played Tommy? Oh, sorry....I misread your post.  The "his" refers to Tom Hardy.  I agree Hardy is seriously over doing it.

Edited July 25, 2016 by lazylou
misunderstanding quoted item

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Finally creeping into this thread! I didn't want to peek in here before I finished watching S1 because I am a spoilerphobe (that's the down side of only having one thread for the whole season when you are watching years after the show aired!). I'd heard about the show when it began airing and put it on my long lists of things to get around to and then a few week ago, Mr. EB mentioned that he wanted to watch it.

I know that having anachronistic music is a hit or miss thing, but it's used really well on this show and really adds to the atmosphere.

I thought Sam Neill's character was going to be more like Javert so when he revealed himself as someone who doesn't honor deals and then he started unraveling, I began to dislike him in earnest. For me the worst thing about him was how he responded to Grace rejecting his marriage proposal. I know things are different now so I can't look at this with my modern sensibilities but I was like dude, you just proposed to someone who you've never even been on a date on. This is the same person who you have been supervising (which means there has been an imbalance in power, although I suppose you could say that was true of most male/female relationships back then) and who you essentially whored out to a known criminal so that you could get what you wanted professionally. And because your former employee turned down your marriage proposal, you call her a whore, hurt a prostitute, arrange for a gang bloodbath, and generally ignore your job duties. Dick!

Did they ever say what happened to their mother? Pa Shelby is like an old timey version of Frank Gallagher. It pained me to watch Arthur so blatantly crave his love and approval. Tommy was like Fiona Gallagher, impervious to her dad's bullshit/schemes and barely tolerant of his presence.

[WatchrTina]

Quote

Did I miss something or did Polly get away with confessing to the priest about the Peaky Blinders plot to kill a "holy man" thus putting Tommy in grave danger?

I dont' recall it ever coming to light that she got drunk and confessed the plan to a priest, but now you've put a thought in my head.  I couldn't figure out why Polly was arrested in the final scene.  Who squealed on her?  She's never been suspected of the killing of Sam Neil's crooked cop from season 2 before so how did it suddenly come up?  The only thing I could figure was that her painter boyfriend DID actually rat her out (she told him about it) but now I've had a second idea.  I wonder if Tommy DID figure out that Polly spilled the beans in the confessional so he had her arrested to punish her.

All in all I have to say that the season was too convoluted to be completely entertaining.  I'm confused about the whole Russian plot -- too many players, too much double-dealing.  I'm guessing that the Grand-Duchess and her caviar-gobbling consort actually did want to buy the weapons to arm the white army, while their daughter the duchess didn't give a shit and just wanted money to go off with her lover in Vienna and she was working with the ruthless anti-communists who didn't care about Russia but just wanted to make the communists in the UK look bad by tricking them into blowing up a train.  Or something like that.  Also, that tunnel-digging under the Thames beggared belief and the super-evil priest was just too much.  Yeah . . . I'm afraid Season 3 did not live up to seasons 1 & 2.  I wanted Arthur to take his Quaker wife and start over in America.  He's been teetering on the brink since the first season and I don't know how he's going to survive this betrayal.

[lazylou]

The first two seasons were so good...hopefully the writers will have better success Season Four.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I wasn't very fond of Arthur's wife Linda until she got all the Peaky women to go to the rally together. Even though I'm still not a huge fan of the character, Arthur did seem much calmer this season. He was still able to kick ass when necessary but he wasn't the ticking time bomb that he was in S1-S2. At the very least, she's better for him than endless amounts of drugs. And while I understand why Tommy is wary of her (heh, especially after her negotiation about Arthur's cut from the robbery), I can't blame her for wanting to get Arthur away from the Shelbys so that he can have a less violent/illegal life. Similarly, I had no problems with Esme fantasizing about living out in the country with some chickens away from all the Shelby business. It's perfectly understandable to want a life where you don't have to wonder if your husband will come home for dinner that night or if he will end up being beaten to death. On a related note, it's nice to see that Esme and John have such a good relationship considering that their arranged marriage was just to end a feud with the Lees.

I actually loved that Michael killed the priest himself. Just like when Tommy insisted on killing Changretta himself because it was personal, Michael wanted to do this himself too. I totally understand why Polly and Tommy wanted to keep Michael only on the legit side of the business but killing the priest who abused him was his choice. He wasn't coerced into it or tricked into it, so I'm totally fine with that development.

In S1, Grace seemed like she thought she was better than everyone else. In S2, she was reduced to the unavailable object of Tommy's affection. Even then I thought that he was making too much of what had happened between them (she skulked around the bar, betrayed him, and slept with him once before going to America and marrying some other guy). His "love" for her seemed more like a college girl waxing poetic about the guy who took her to the prom in high school who she hasn't seen since graduation - another one of those situations where one person thinks that's the one who got away when in reality it was a very brief encounter that wouldn't have lasted if they hadn't parted ways. Tommy seemed happy with her in S3 but I agree that if their marriage had lasted a few years longer, their differences probably would resulted in their relationship disintegrating. But since she was killed before that could happen, Tommy gets to spend the rest of his life believing that she was the perfect woman and that they would have lived happily ever after.

I thought the painter was some kind of mole from the very beginning and I'm still not convinced otherwise. It seemed too coincidental that he showed up (uninvited, right?) to Tommy's wedding and made a beeline for Polly.

[Avaleigh]

Damn, how are more people not watching this show? I just binge watched the first two seasons and am about to start on the third later today. I was totally thinking that this forum would have individual episode threads but apparently the interest isn't there. Hopefully more people will give this show a chance. For me it's like Boardwalk Empire meets Snatch with a dashes of Sexy Beast and Layer Cake. 

Helen McCrory really landed a great role with Polly. I'm not familiar with much of her work but boy is she on my radar now. I loved seeing Polly kill Campbell. I honestly wasn't sure at first if she'd do it just because there were so many people around and it seemed so risky, but wow, I'm glad that she made that asshole pay. I'm still mad about the way he treated the prostitute. Sam Neill did a really great job of playing a villain, I thought, and I wasn't bothered by his accent. He came across as a truly menacing man but also had this veneer of being an almost kindly grandfather with Grace early on that in the first season that I was almost fooled. I didn't understand his monstrous side until later in season one when you realize that he's sexually interested in his dead partner's daughter and is just a twisted prick in general. 

Cillian Murphy really knows how to pull off that dead eyed look that makes him appear to be so damaged in certain scenes. I know that Arthur is the most damaged by the war between the two of them but, you can really see that Tommy is a shattered soul and some of his facial expressions actually reminded me of the war torn Jimmy Darmody character from Boardwalk Empire.

I really like Ada, I just wish they'd give her more to do. I find her to be the most interesting of the younger female characters. I like Grace and May but don't find either to be especially fascinating. 

I don't really have a preference for Tommy marrying May or Grace. I guess if I had to choose I'd go with Grace since she's pregnant but don't have strong feelings about this either way. 

I'm amazed that Tommy didn't piss himself after the first shot rang out. I'm just thinking of Christopher on season 1 of The Sopranos shitting his pants when he was in a similar situation. 

[Lemur]

On 5/26/2016 at 4:31 AM, wineaux said:

Grace moved to New York, married a rich banker there and lived in Poughkeepsie, so I don't think British laws governed them regarding children born to them while married.  They were only in London for fertility testing.

New York State divorce laws were very similar at the time, pretty much the only way to be granted a divorce was to prove infidelity by the other spouse.  But yes, that's correct, they were only in London for medical care.  If they were married in New York, regardless of her British citizenship, the marriage would have been governed by New York law.

[themightykazoo]

Stumbled onto this show recently and cant stop watching it. It has quickly climbed to one of my favorite shows. I recommend it to anyone that has a gangster interest. This show is like a better version of Boardwalk Empire and I love the fact that I hear 5 seasons are guaranteed unless the sun goes Nova or the mole people invade.

Not enough people are exposed to this show and that is a shame. I like the short season formula as it allows for easy viewing for those of us that are busy and not able to watch 25 episode seasons. This does not mean I do not want more episodes I just like the way each chapter (season) concludes itself instead of stretching on forever.