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Peaky Blinders: Episode #1.4 (2013)
Blind in Love
Love makes you Blind. The episode 4 of Peaky Blinders is all about this single statement. The opening shot of this episode gives us the glimpse of lovely relationship between Freddie and Ada. In the next scene we see Freddie handing out the money to a guy who is running the revolution. The love between Ada and Freddie makes them both vulnerable. Ada leaves her family and her friends for living with the love of her life, she sacrificed for love. Freddie loves her intently, he sacrificed the secrecy of his revolutions and told everything to his Love Ada. Ada does not want to live in a rotten room and raise her child without any money. However Freddie also do not want to raise his child within this rotten room, but the cause of revolution is still greater than the happiness of his own family for Freddie so he let his family live in the rotten house. But Ada had something entirely different planned for them. There is a way a woman can seduce a man and get whatever they wants. The lust overpowers the accountability of revolution for Freddie and he melted into the loving arms of her beloved Ada.
John Shelby has summoned a family meeting to tell them that he is going to marry Lizzie Stark. Which every of his family member thought as a joke as they all knew she is a prostitute. But John (again blind in love) try to convince all of them that Lizzie had changed and she no longer sells herself for money. He wants his older brother Tommy to at least consider his situation.
Meanwhile we got to know that All of the Lee's family arrives at Shelby's Business and take vengeance from them by stealing whatever they get there hands on. It was an impressive scene of robbery and very well written. The Lee's hiding in the horse cart, the child placed within the Booker's Keep. It was a very well planned robbery which makes me wonder how in early 20th century people were so smart to even execute a robbery like this. The main purpose of this robbery is to give a hint of Lee's power. As the news reached to Tommy's ear he promptly goes to the scene and found a wire cutter, which Tommy suddenly realized are the indication of a lethal dynamite hidden in the vicinity of their house. However after giving a little thought Tommy concludes that if there was a dynamite hidden in the home it would have been blasted. So tommy ran towards his car where he found his younger brother Finn sitting he asked Finn to come outside as he got inside but Finn opened the door and the dynamite appeared which with a swift movement of hand Tommy threw in the air and saved the day. Tommy is very protective of his possessions and he consider his family, his business and his memories as his possessions, which leads to the fact that he will be getting hurt if any of those possessions are snatched from him.
As the story progressed we see Tommy going to Lee Family's elder woman. He talks to her and tells her that the dispute can come to an end. But this got me thinking why is he betraying Billie Kimber? Is it because he doesn't trust Billie Kimber? Whatever the reason might be, it is good for Shelby's business. When questioned from the elder woman about his varying loyalty, he told her about relation between Lee's and Shelby's as they are related from his mother side so they are "kin". This is a very smart move by Shelby for his business as he know it will strengthen his relationship with the Lee's and he is also in good books with Mr. Kimber.
Now we get to see the address of Chapman (the guy to whom Freddie handed the money for the cause of revolution) is being written on a telegraph which is in the hand of Tommy Shelby. After seeing the address in Tommy's hand Polly explained it to him that he should give this tipoff to CI Campbell and make a deal with him to let Ada and Freddie leave the city.
In the next scene we see the conversation between Campbell and Tommy. Tommy tells him about the deal which polly suggested tommy. For a fraction of moment I thought Campbell took the deal but Steven Knight (the writer of this epic saga) surprised yet again with his writing skills. Campbell threatens the hell out of Shelby as he swear in front of him that he will destroy each and every possession of Tommy Shelby if he got in the bad books of Churchill. The main backbone of the story is the guns which are in Tommy's possession. The way the threads are woven in this masterpiece is really very fantastic. After all it is what a Police Criminal story, but the related characters are written so strong that it feels almost like a life. Also I would like to mention the expression, dialogue timing and sinister thinking of Sam Neill is amazing. He nailed each and every scene of this conversation. If you are acting infront of Cilian murphy you are getting a very little chance to overshine this wonderful actor, but Sam Neill is much more than that. He not only did overshine Cilian Murphy he ruled each and every second of the scene. As campbell threatens Tommy and walked away from tommy, Tommy took out his gun and the rage in his furious eyes was neatly indicating that he is going to kill this man despite of the fact that he is a cop. But tommy is a smart man he controlled the rage and did not shoot the man. He let him go and save the day again (this time for his future)
We see Roberts confirming the good business that they are going on with the Shelby's are paying them off and he see no harm in giving him what he asked for. After that they see how they are running their business Kimber granted him his own private pitch on which Peaky Blinders can run their business (this time licences).
As being tipped off Campbell arrested Chapman and asked his Police officer to start interrogating (torturuing) Chapman to get the information about Freddie, to which Police officer reminded him of his words towards Mr. Shelby about leaving his sister and Freddie alone. To which Cambell responded by reminding the police officer about the fact that "you may think that the war between me and Shelby is personal, than yes it is personal."
Moving ahead we see Freddie giving flowers to his mother on her birthday and finds out that Polly is there waiting for him because she knew he will not miss to give flower to his mother on her birthday. Polly told him about chapman being tipped off by his own wife Ada. At this moment I think Freddie realized that being in love is making him blind. But that took an innocent man to death. Freddie forced polly to which Polly threatens him that if he ever laid a single hand on Ada, he will send him in wooden box. I don't know what is the matter with Freddie, why doesn't he wants to leave this wretched town and live his dream with his love and his child. However Freddie is staying (but not for long)
Meanwhile we get to see that Tommy unravel the truth of Lizzie Stark by offering her money which she readily accepted. He told the same to Johnny which leads Johnny to break up with Lizzie. At this moment I think Johnny realized that being in love is making him blind. But the break up didn't do good to johnny and he told the same to tommy. Tommy handled it maturely and asked Johnny to move on and be the mature guy as his grandfather told him to be.
When love is in the air for Shelby Family, how can the leader tommy can be spared from it. We see Grace asking questions about the running of the Shelby's business from Arthur. Arthur told her about where are all the inventory coming from. He told her about the boats. Grace then send the information to Campbell. Campbell searched all the boats in possession of Shelby but he didn't found any. Arthur then reverted back to Tommy saying that Barmaid is asking question. This particular time Tommy must have figured out the truth about Grace. Tommy asked grace to be his advisor and accountant and kissed her. This time the love is in the air for Grace as well. The love in Birmingham is sweeping all those who are coming in its way. Grace then told the promotion news to Campbell. Campbell questioned about the loyalty of Grace as the information which she sent leads nowhere close to the guns. To which Grace showed her anger towards Campbell by saying , "I came to you with good news, and you gave me this". I am also doubting the loyalty of Grace, but we can not be sure from the expression of the spy.
The climax is the strongest point of every episode of this beautiful TV show. This time it was taking Johnny to the Lee's family and letting him marry to one of the LEE's girl. Tommy is a great opportunist, he sees the opportunity when he get to know that Johnny is need of a new wife and Lee's are in a need of a husband. So he took the opportunity and hits the bull's eye. Moving forward we see Ada came to the party from an invitation sent by Tommy using Grace's friendship with Ada. Ada showed up and danced frantically as she is practically in a cage with his husband. Polly asked tommy to ask Ada to slow down a bit. When tommy asked Ada to do the same she made a scene and suddenly her water broke!! As they went to the Shelby's home, Polly asked tommy to let this one day Freddie be free and see his own child. However Grace got to know this information from Johnny and Arthur and send this information to Campbell. Now when we see Shelby family be happy and this episode is going to end at a happy note. Boom!! Police enters and capture Freddie which makes Polly furious at Tommy. Tommy who is blinded by the love of grace never figure out that she tipped the information off. May be this is the moment when he figures out that love is making him blind, or may be not.....
Peaky Blinders: Episode #1.3 (2013)
Expansion of Peaky Blinders
Peaky Blinders are expanding! This TV show is getting better and better with each episode passing by. As we all know Tommy had asked Grace to accompany him to the races. So when grace joked him about not coming to the races as he had not paid for the charming dress yet and how much does the suit Tommy wears cost to him, tommy with all his maginificent characteristic answered that he does not pay for the suit. However after this bit of a conversation two men enters the private area of the pub and grace surreptiously listen to the conversation between two men and Tommy. I am still waiting for the time when Tommy will get to know that Grace is nothing but a spy. The two men told tommy about the stolen guns in the Birmingham, which tommy listen without being perturbed by this revelation. He then gave money to grace for buying the dress for the Races. Now there can be two sides of tommy asking grace to accompany him to the races, either he is in love with the barmaid from the very first time he laid his eyes on her or he is a pure business minded person who just know that Billy Kimber is enchanted by the body of Grace. I will go with the former one. As the story goes ahead we got to see the conversation between CI Campbell and a police officer, where Campbell is pointing out the inferiority of several police officer in front of a lady spy of which the police officer replied with the fact of CI Campbell's not serving for the country by not going to France for the World War 1. The constant poking of Campbell's not going to war is getting into the nerves of Campbell. I am guessing whether he chose not to go to the World War-1 against his will or there might be some other reason, we will get to know this in the upcoming episodes. However the direction of this wonderful tv series is seriously admirable. The use of background music is perfect at every place, the use of actor's expression is accurate in every scene.
As the story moves ahead, the revealation of Freddie being in the town reached to Tommy's ear by his beloved aunt polly. Aunt polly is trying really hard to save the family by offering peace in each matter. However when Tommy told Polly about the deal between him and CI Campbell, Polly got furious of the decision taken by Tommy without the family vote or discussion. She is thinking now that after giving Tommy so much power (I will say after earning so much power) tommy started thinking himself as the superior of Peaky Blinders, but there is something about tommy that he deserves to be respected. He does not have to work hard to get respect, it is just his personality that makes him respect even more, the way he walks, the way he speaks, the way he remains silent. Coming back to the script, Polly tries to give 200 pounds to Freddie to flee from Birmingham to America with Ada and start a fresh life which we all know Freddie will refuse to take. I don't know what the revolutionaries think or what they want exactly, and what will they do if their goal is achieved. However observing the stubbornness of Freddie Polly leaves meddling between two male egos. Meanwhile Tommy got to know from his younger brother Johnny about Arthur who as he allegedly stated "goes blue" , I was eager to watch how will Tommy handles his older brother when he will ask about the truths which have been secured between him till now, the conversation between Shelby Brothers was to the point. Tommy being tommy told Arthur about the guns mistakenly being under his captivity, and luring him by offering the pub to him. In a simultanaeous turn of event we see Grace following someone from Black Swan Inn. Unfortunately the guy who was being followed catched Grace following him red handaedly but Grace with a swift move of hands accidently kills the guy. I thought she had taken lives before but as I see the horrified expression on grace's face after she had witnessed a death made it very certain that she had seen the death for the very first time. She later on puked and shivered in his home and the beautiful direction of this episode showed the dress she picked up for the races. The way this whole episode is written and directed and acted is nothing but a brilliant work. I wonder it will be the best TV show in the history. However the concept is the same as any of the aspiring illegitimate gang. I think Steven Knight had taken inspiration from Sporanos or The Wire. Moving on we see that Ada is running towards the pub to find either her husband or her brother thinking that they might kill each other. Grace finding this as a great opportunity to get information from Ada consoles Ada. Meanwhile Freddie pointed a gun to the head of Tommy and tommy knowing that his best friend will not kill him asked him that they need to talk. Freddie knew how to get to tommy's nerve. He handed him the money and tickets to America. As Tommy was about to leave he forced him to sit down and talk about the guns. The guns are the centre of the story but if everyone knows that the guns are in the Birmingham then why they don't know about the place where they are hiding. We will see in the upcoming episodes where the destiny of the guns is. Moving forward Tommy did not answer Freddie's question and turned the table on him by swiftly attacking him and pointing the gun at him. But Freddie knows just like tommy that his best friend is not going to kill him, so he withdraw his gun and confronted to tommy that he is not going to leave this town.
Tommy than goes to polly telling her that her compassion leads to this. Polly who was letting a child sleep in her lap like once she did the same for tommy signalled him to remain quiet. But tommy is now unstoppable he thrashed polly by commanding her that Now I will do it my way. As the story progressed we get to know the exact history about Tommy's past. He, Freddie and Dannie are stuck in a tunnel looking at a wall where sound of shovels are being heard. Suddenly two men shovelled out of the tunnel and start attacking them. At that very moment Tommy woke up and finds Dannie at his doorstep. He told about the accusation of Peaky blinders related to the death in London. To which tommy responded by saying ,"Lies travels faster than truth". Also Tommy looked at the wall in his bedroom like someone will pop out from it.
Meanwhile the police officer informs CI Campbell about the murder of the man from Black Swann Inn, also accusing his "spy" lady related to the death of that man. To which Campbell denies that one of their guys killed him. Also he corrected the officer by saying, "they are not called spy they are known as Operatives". The police officer meets Tommy and asked him that Freddie is here and Campbell thought that things here are being controlled by him which certainly didn't seem to be the case. Also he warned tommy to get a warrant against Ada. That was a great move by Campbell, he placed tommy into a position where he has to choose between the respect of Peaky Blinders and the happiness of his sister. He will choose both of them.
Now the climax of this episode, again a masterpiece. I was waiting for the races. The scene where tommy and grace are getting ready for their rendezvous is a work of perfection. The way director showed them both is really appreciated. Tommy takes the girl in his car. However as discussed in the climax of previous episode he will show Billy Kimber about the security services that he can provide and work his way into the expansion of Peaky Blinders. He ordered his men to follow him and snatch Billy Kimber's stolen money to from the hand of Lee brothers. Also he makes his presence too Billy Kimber by dancing with Grace. What he underestimated the power of love which he is feeling towards grace. As the climax progressed Arthur delivered the stolen money to Tommy which then tommy forwarded to Billy by pitching a deal. Billy ignored his pitch and goes to dance with Grace. Tommy was feeling more and more concerned about grace but he is still wants to be Billy Kimber's trusted ally. So he lets Billy take Grace to his home while he goes with Billy Kimber's lady. I was very sure that Grace is going to kill Billy and start predicting the aftermath of this idiotic act, Steven Knight (the writer of this Tv show) surprised me yet again by letting Tommy saves Grace's grace. I am sure now little tommy is in love with Grace. Which is certainly not good for Peaky Blinder's business....
Peaky Blinders: Episode #1.1 (2013)
Style Meets Perfection
So the Show starts with people speaking in Chinese. This is not what you expect when you are watching a British Television Show. However when the show starts with Asian people running and hiding all over the place when a Man on Horse (the enchanting Cilian Murphy) came in their neighborhood. The Television show is set in Birmingham England 1919. A year after the World War 1 ended. So we got a hint that the aftermath of the world war 1 will clearly going to be the essence of this television show. I could not help but listen to the background music that was wonderful. Moving forward we see that the man on Horse needs a woman and he clearly is the lord around here as the Asian man brings that woman who do some kind of "Powder Trick" on the horse. Now cut to the next scene we see that some kind of construction is going on and we get into the adobe of the man in the horse. He caught the young boy smoking as he chatted with him. As I was about to get bored of this extreme meticulous details, Steven Knight (the creator of the show) suddenly surprised me by writing a "booker lord" in Birmingham. As the man on the horse opened the door we entered in an entirely different world of Book Keeping as it happened in 1919. The man on the horse talks to his brother (who was furious about the "Powder Trick") on the horse. We got to know that the man on the horse is going to be the next owner of "Peaky Blinder".
It is a story about 101 years back to our times. Although the dressing style of these men were brilliant. Undoubtedly Europe was the most progressive nation in terms of fashion (maybe in terms of chaos also). Now in the next scene we see a train running towards and then I see a face that I suddenly recognized just by his eyes. He was none other than "The Dinosaur Man" (Sam Neill, protagonist of "Jurassic Park Series"). As the dino man stare at the "Prime Robbery Suspects" file, we get to see the details about the brother of the man on the horse and the man on the horse himself. There names were neatly written from a typewriter in the file, "Arthur Shelby" (played by "Paul Anderson") the founder of the Peaky Blinders, "Thomas Shelby" (played by "Cilian Murphy") the winner of two gallantry awards in World War 1. In the next seen we see a man who was leading a strike with a bunch of men cheering for their leader. Also the director does a really good job by revealing the names of the main characters in the prime robbery suspect file carried by the dino man. So next we see who this man is, he is described as , the 'agitator' named Freddie Thorne (played by "Iddo Goldberg"). . In the next scene we get to see that Thomas "tommy" Shelby goes to a bar and meet Freddie where he pointed out the similarities between him and Freddie. I was just waiting for the mention of "Winston Churchill" as he was the major historical character in all over the British mainland (also he was "the secretary of state for war" and "secretary of state for air" at that time). Jus when I thought, the name came out of Freddie's mouth and then I thought weather they will mix Churchill with all of this or will they just mention him? As the story progressed we see from the eye of the dino man that Birmingham is nothing but a pool of corrupted people who are scared of the Peaky Blinders. Than a lady is introduced by pointing to a young lad and slapped him. We got to know in the next scene that they both were none other than the part of "Shelby" family or "the peaky blinders". Till now the dino man has not spoken a single word out of his mouth, only his expression was adequate for saying it all. Now he address a bunch of cops that this city is filled with all the corrupted people who are afraid to stand against the "Peaky blinders", and he introduced a battery of other men whom he trust. I loved his line "I don't trust any of you, because you have to earn my trust..." . Also a family meeting between Shelby's took place and we got to know that Thomas "tommy" Shelby is hiding something from his family. As the story rolls forward The dino man, charged "Arthur" Shelby and tortured him for the information on the robbery. But as he was unaware of any of it and The dino man concludes he is telling the truth he let him go. We see a lady in a green dress (which was again a magnificent full length dress carried by a confident woman. He goes to the same bar where Tommy meets Freddie, and asked for a Barmaid Job and eventually got it by displaying her worth. The shelby's got a sister who is having a romantic affair with Freddie, which I suspect he taking advantage of getting to know the inside family meetings of Peaky Blinders. Thomas then told the old lady which is having a strong position in "the peaky blinders" about the crate which is carrying a whole lot of ammunition and machine guns which by mistake has gotten into the hand of Thomas "tommy" Shelby. When the old lady confronted tommy that he has returned the Ammunition to the police he revealed that he had hidden the ammunition under his captivity. Which I think is a good move as it will boost the power he already have over Birminghim. Moving forward we get to know that the Barmaid is nothing but a spy planted by Campbell to find out about the operation of "peaky blinders", I don't found this surprising as I got a feeling that this woman is not what she is showing. As the story progresses we get to know that Thomas "tommy" Shelby is having nightmares about the war with his two soldiers , one of them was Freddie and one of them is having regular panic attacks. The friend who was having panic attacks killed an Italian and now Thomas "tommy" Shelby showed the Italian's brother that he killed his friend by firing a gun on his head. It was like an orchasterated song. This TV show is a very peaceful treat to eyes (which is very ironical because the show evokes violence at every second it airs), moving forward we see that he only faked his soldier assassination (as he lives!! Which was a surprising moment for me!!) to give him another job in London. Now tommy comes to his office and his brother Arthur with rage accused him that his "powder trick" worked and the horse won the race, which then he with his magnificent character told his brother that yes he is going to win all the races and when we are ready he is going to lose, this captivates me with the acting skill of Cilian Murphy. In The last scene I was confused whether the air was filled with the constant ash of wood which is filling the air of Birmingham every now and than or was it the snow. Whatever it was it was perfectly suited as the Barmaid (who is a spy) and Tommy shared a moment of eye contact and than with style Tommy faded into the screen. Looking forward to the story of Peaky Blinder, where it is going to end....