Cillian Murphy is perfect as Tommy Shelby! Murphy is able to show Shelby's fierce and cruel demeanor toward his enemies while showing his kind, sentimental personality towards his family. The writing is absolutely phenomenal, with gruesome fight scenes and amazing surprises the audience does not expect. The set pieces are extraordinary, it is very easy to imagine you are in 1920's Birmingham. Tom Hardy is absolutely amazing as Alfie Solomons and absolutely steals the show in every scene that he is in. Paul Anderson as Arthur Shelby is amazing, he is very convincing as a deranged, brutal gangster that will do anything Tommy commands him to do. I loved Seasons 1, 2, and 4, but 3 was a little convoluted and the show's dynamic changed somewhat. Fortunately, the writers were able to get right back on track. This is top 5 of my favorite shows of all time! I suggest this for anyone to watch, but I do warn that it can be gruesome and there can be very vivid sex scenes especially in Season 3 episode 5.

I always thought the Soprano's was the GOAT, but this show has changed my mind. Killian Murphy shows that he is one of the greatest actors you've probably never heard of. The whole cast is amazing. The short 6 episode seasons help keep out the boring moments that plagued Boardwalk Empire and Sopranos at times. I have literally watched this show all the way through 9 times since I discovered in in December 2017. I have gotten five people at work to watch it, and they're now saying the same things I am. My wife even loves the show. Tom Hardy, Paul Anderson and Helen McCrory are masterful with their characters as well. I can't get enough of this show!

The writing, acting, character development, music, and artistic style are all brilliant. Together they are what make this show so impressive. If you'd like more justification for that, there's a plethora of other reviews explaining those critical aspects. My review will instead be directed towards the fourth season in particular, with my rating representing the show as a whole.I'll come right out with it. Season 4 has some of the laziest, messiest and most predictable writing in the show. Our favorite characters are written off so easily. A few new characters make their introductions, yet we don't learn enough about them, which is a crucial mistake for a drama. Some subplots are explored with no effect on the ending or overall story. Basically, the writing undermines nearly all of the characters involved.There will be spoilers from this point on, as I've decided it is much easier and necessary to explain in a numbered format with direct examples.1 - Tommy Shelby's weak security. A hardened soldier and professional gangster (now four seasons in) doesn't have the security to protect himself? Anyone can drive up to his home, walk into his warehouses, meet his office? The same applies for the rest of his family?2 - The irrational agreement between Luca Changretta and Tommy Shelby to not use police, civilians, or children. Tommy owns Birmingham and its police force, yet agrees to not use them against a foreign adversary who wants him and his entire family dead. And Luca, as he states, could've just killed Tommy at prior moments instead of meeting him in his office. I understand the purpose of this, as it provides more entertainment value and we get to hear Luca's long speech, but realistically Tommy would've been shot dead right in his office, at the very latest point. No further causalities, frustrations, or expenses on either side.3 - The Artillery Square battle. Tommy dodges a hundred bullets and manages to kill three gang members by himself - one who blindly traverses an alley and doesn't even hear Tommy walking down a staircase behind him. Then Luca, standing in the middle of the street with no cover, patiently challenges Tommy to a duel with his armed right-hand man directly behind him. Again, I understand the cinematic reasoning, but this is beyond ridiculous and would never happen in a real gun fight.4 - Luca getting blocked on the bridge. Luca is quite literally built up as a professional gangster from America - someone who the Peaky Blinders cannot defeat. Yet he's unable to spot an obvious trap when a wagon fell over on a bridge and an officer tells him to wait 20 minutes (also remember the agreement to not use police). And how would Aberama Gold's gang know exactly what bridge Luca would be taking when Tommy only indicated Luca was heading south?5 - Tommy's unwillingness to modify wages. Jessie Eden proposes to him that one of his women-only factories should make the same pay as men in another. Tommy states they are different factories performing different work objectives. While his justification may be valid, a man as incredibly rich as him would risk total strike (by lowering the wages of the men to balance out the factories) during a heightened period of communism, rather than bumping wages, all to spite one person he hardly sees as an adversary?6 - Jessie Eden's obliviousness. She already knows Tommy's background. Too well, in fact, and she makes that known. She detests him. Despite this, she's desperate enough for a communist revolution (arguably an overused plot device by this point) that she agrees to dinner with him, drunkenly dances with him, has sex with him, and develops a romantic attraction (also knowing he has two sons from two different women, Grace and Lizzie). She also easily gives Tommy information about top communist leaders, hoping he'll support their cause.7 - May Carleton's pointless return. Why was it necessary to introduce her back into the story when she had no effect on the plot? It was clear her and Tommy still felt something for each other, even though they decided much earlier in the show it could never work out between them. Two people, two opposite worlds. She makes a brief business visit, Tommy tries to have meaningless sex with her, and then she departs.8 - Romance between Tommy and Lizzie. Throughout the entire show, Lizzie is built up as a prostitute turned office worker who occasionally has sex with Tommy for money on the side. She falls in love with him after he uses her for the hundredth time, pretending she's his old girlfriend while having sex with her, and she decides to keep the child. Tommy is completely okay with this and offers to buy her anything she needs (yet won't raise factory wages), despite the incredibly negative reception which should've come from other family members... which never happened. In other words, Lizzie is presented as a nobody prostitute, and now she's nearly on the level of Tommy's ex-wife, Grace.9 - Luca's death. Somehow, miraculously, the Peaky Blinders killed all the blood members of Luca's gang. Off screen, when Tommy contacts other gangsters in America who want to conspire against Luca, all he has to do is mention this simple point, and they agree to let him control liquor distribution into New York, and they decide to turn against Luca. Any armed man he had with him in that room could've ended the Shelby gang of three in that room in a matter of seconds, but decided to let their boss Luca die because of a liquor agreement, which essentially screws them all over, back home.10 - Alfie's death. We know from Season 3, Alfie will bet on the winning side. It makes no sense how Tommy considers him a dear friend, and vice versa. Suddenly, Alfie decides he might have cancer, gives up the business he struggled for so long to maintain for his Hasidic people, and betrays Tommy by letting Luca's men infiltrate the boxing arena with wires. He meets Tommy on the beach, knowing his death is coming, yet attempts to shoot Tommy anyway. Wait... what?11 - Polly's false Betrayal of Tommy. I saw this one coming from a mile away. Polly makes a fake deal with Luca to spare all the Shelby members if she gives up Tommy. She talks it over with Tommy, off screen, and he leads Luca's members into a trap by himself (the Artillery Square fight). Did Luca really think she would betray her entire family when Michael could've been moved from the hospital or protected by many armed guards or the police? Luca wanted to kill all the Shelby members because he saw them as a threat to the Italians, so why didn't he just kill Tommy, Polly and Michael when he had the chance?I might've missed a few other flawed elements of the plot, but I think you get the point. Season 4 does not live up to standards the previous seasons established and the writing defies logic.

If there is one "sin" in this totally perfect series, it is that it is precisely much too perfect; almost overwhelms me to experience all at the same time: fantastic turns of the plot, location, customs, acting, light, photography, camera use, and... audio and music! Kind of baroque experience. Music would be obvious for anyone seeing it (please, connect it to a good audio system and play it loud!), but I mean audio also: the way it often transfers from the wide scale scenery to the intimate one in the same take, just using audio is nothing short of spectacular. Another of the many remarkable things in PB: some chapters (specially at the opening) are a simply a poem in the use of traveling cameras, color punctuations (the sparks or fire bursts for example, red colors going all over the screen in a time sequence: a mesmerizing visual pleasure). I think this must be seen several times to really appreciate all the beauty that's inside it.