REVIEW: Peaky Blinders Season 6 (2022)

Television Reviews

The highly acclaimed BBC and Netflix series Peaky Blinders recently released its 6th and final season, marking the beginning of the end for the story of Thomas Shelby. For those unaware, season 6 is not the end of Peaky Blinders. News has swirled for some time that a film will follow season 6, and now that news has been confirmed. The tragic death of Helen McCrory and a year-long delay due to COVID-19 prompted the show’s creatives to combine their plans for seasons 6 and 7 before ending the story in a film. Knowing that season 6 is not the end of the story, certain allowances may be made for its lack of a cohesive wrap-up.

Peaky Blinders has been an incredibly popular show for many years, its stellar writing and performances intriguing audiences and immersing them in post-WWI gangster England. However, some fans have become disillusioned with the final three seasons, which saw the Shelbys turn away from their gangster roots to become politicians and wealthy aristocrats. Though the writing and performances have been maintained throughout this transition, some fans prefer the initial era of the show when these characters were simply street-level thugs. For those who liked this transition into politician over gangster, season 6 is a welcome addition to that era. Inversely, for the fans who were more at home with the first three seasons of Peaky Blinders, this season may be somewhat conflicting.

**Spoilers**

Another point of contention that may divide fans of this series is that season 6 fails to develop the supporting characters as much as previous seasons, instead focusing almost entirely on Tommy Shelby. The writing still excels at this, but if fans were hoping for their other favorite characters to get more attention, they might find this season disappointing. Any reaction to this decision is entirely subjective, as the writing is solid nonetheless. The preference of fans will decide which approach they prefer.

This character study of Tommy surrounded the final moment of season 5, which ended with Tommy pressing a gun against his head, ready to end it all. Season 6 is all about Tommy dealing with the emotional repercussions of this moment and the reveal that his Aunt Polly was killed because of him. This whole season was always going to be about how he frames that moment in his life. It is an excellent character study that asks interesting questions about PTSD and the toll of leadership.

Tommy is intriguing because he is not driven by anything specific. He is not a greedy individual. The later seasons have seen him prioritize his politics and helping the working class, to a certain extent, but these things do not drive him. It is his ambition that drives him. Not ambition for gain, development, recognition, or anything like that; it is ambition for its own sake. He feels like if he stops or becomes stagnant, he will have to face reality and PTSD and look at himself honestly for the first time in his life.

The disease he is diagnosed with in the middle of the series forces him to finally reevaluate himself in the way that his ambition has been holding off. His drive has been preventing him from going on a journey of self-discovery. This is why he was so ambitious, not because he wanted anything in particular. Tommy has had all the power and money he could ever want in the last couple of seasons. Shelby has come so far from just the local Birmingham gangster he was in season 1. It is a fascinating arc where ambition serves no other purpose than to distract Tommy. It is an intriguing way of approaching a character and a major part of why he is so beloved.

The disease Tommy expects to die from would have been a good ending for his character because he would never go out in a blaze of glory. To see him die of a disease given to him by his daughter, one of the only things that kept him grounded in this reality, would have been a heartfelt, tragic, and poignant end for the character. After his daughter’s death, he slipped further and further into madness. His daughter was the only thing, besides Annabelle Wallis’s Grace, that ever got him out of his shell and bypassed his ambition. His daughter was one of the only people who made him vulnerable. That vulnerability is what would have gotten him killed, and it would have been a fitting death for his character..

As it turns out, it is completely understandable and justifiable why the writers did not carry through on Tommy’s death from this disease. After all, the character arc with the Nazis isn’t over, as the villains are still at large and unhindered. There is still work left to be done, but the disease is still an interesting arc to explore in the meantime.

The inclusion of the Nazis into this series could have been disastrous. If less talented writers handled this, they would make the Nazis generically evil so Tommy would look good by comparison. However, these writers have more sense than that. The Nazis are developed and complicated characters that create a foil for Tommy while not making him implicitly good. They aren’t just evil for evil’s sake; the writers explain perfectly why these villains are evil. This series could have easily gone down a rabbit hole of “Nazi bad” and lost all that had made the series so great. 

With the historical turmoil relevant to the era combined with excellent writing, including fascists as the primary antagonists of this series ended up being a net positive. With such complex villains, incredible writing and performances, and a well-explored character study of Tommy, season 6 can be forgiven for ignoring many of its other prominent characters.

This is not the end for the Peaky Blinders or Thomas Shelby. Fans must still wait in anticipation for the upcoming release of the Peaky Blinders movie. Production has not yet begun, so a release date of late 2023 through 2024 is most likely. Until then, season 6 is a passable — if not enjoyable — addition to the franchise to tide fans over till that epic conclusion. Again, the fanbase divides between those who liked the transition from local gangster to politicians versus those who prefer the early series will be the central point of discourse regarding season 6. Otherwise, Peaky Blinders has again proved why it is one of the best series on television currently, standing in stark opposition to the general mediocrity which has become the norm of late.