I will be analyzing the popular Netflix show Peaky Blinders by Steven Knight. The show is quite popular with a 93% on rotten tomatoes over its 6 seasons.

A brief overview of the show, it is a British show on Netflix which follows the Shelby family in Birmingham, England. This family in many ways is not like most, especially because they run a powerful gang. Through the show we see how the family rises through the ranks while also seeing many of their struggles during the journey.

Move One:

The most interesting part of the show Peaky Blinders is the time period that it is set in which is 1919. This time period is significant because it is right after WW1 and is in England which is one of the nations heavily involved.

Move Two:

An important detail which may seem like a small one but is quite significant is flat caps that they wear in the show. The hats are often used as a weapon because they have razor blades attached to them, this is done in order for the gang to assert dominance over people. Additionally it is used as a sign of unity between the gang and is a symbol to show that they are part of the Peaky Blinders, throughout the show we see that people who are directly a part of the gang wear similar hats, unifying them to everyone else.

Move Three:

We see some repetition in the show when we see flashbacks through the main character, the main character of the show is a man named Thomas Shelby. Shelby fought in WW1 and since being back has constant flashbacks to a specific moment where he was almost killed in a tunnel. This memory often repeats when he is trying to sleep and he really can’t get through it, additionally Shleby deals with the death of his wife and in both instances he results in substance use in order to feel calm.

Move Four:

From the previous paragraph we see that as a former soldier Tommy Shelby has a lot of PTSD from the war and as a result he uses opium to try and get past it. Similarly after the death of his wife he resorts to excessive alcohol use. I believe this purposefully done to show the severity of WW1 on many soldiers and how many of the soldiers that returned home from the war really were never the same and could not recover from it. 

This is very important because it is something that is real and has happened, a lot of times soldiers will come back from war and won’t seek and receive necessary help with their mental health. As a result a lot of veterans falls to drug use as a way to cope with the terrors of war 

Move Five:

I believe that an important thing to continue to look for in the show is whether you believe Thomas Shelby is a good or bad person. This is quite a tough question because he is the head of a gang and oftentimes has killed many, however we do see throughout the show that he gives back quite a bit to his community and protects them. This question is especially quite difficult because when we hear of organized crime leaders we often believe them to be criminals and nothing more, but in Peaky Blinders we see people that are much worse than Thomas Shelby who are not even in organized crime and actually in politics. 

This also leads me to a second thing to look out for in the show and that is to consider the politics in the show and how this may connect us to our own country. In the show we see a lot of corruption in England especially within their parlament, we see politicians doing everything they can to try and get and consolidate more power. This idea could be used for governments today where we see in many countries things are hidden from the public because politicians want to try and keep their power.