With two episodes released in some regions, the final season of Peaky Blinders is proving its quality. But also, the power of narrating a story of violence that combines aesthetic and discourse elements with enormous intelligence. What will be the season that closes the story also makes something clear: the way in which the program dialogues with violence.
The reason? The way to understand the essentials of a group of characters that gravitate around the perception of good and evil in a unique way. Unlike so many other series, Peaky Blinders it is not interested in the redemption of its emblematic figures. From In fact, what you want is a formal and essential reconstruction of the look of the modern antihero.
And that, of course, has a direct relationship with the way in which Peaky Blinders shows violence. During its first seasons, the shootings, knife fights and extravagant deaths were controversial high points of the plot. But over time, and as the series matured, the violence became more specific, linked to how its characters perceive power.
The crime drama set in Birmingham traverses new spaces on the influence of how to express force and aggression. He does it, without leaving aside his careful visual discourse. But the fact that Shelby is now more connected to political string-pulling than daggers doesn’t stray from the center of the series.
Peaky Blinders is a story about brutality, the subversion of the system and the rebellion of street criminals from an exceptional time. But if in its previous seasons the program progressed through clashes between rival gangs, now the terrain is politics and terrorism.
The gangsters in the middle of the political scene
By the time the Shelbys faced Luca Changretta in season four of Peaky Blinders, the violence in the series was a point of contention. So much so that several specialized media wondered if the program wrapped brutal deaths and bloody executions in an air of sophistication.
Of course, the questioning does not seem to make much sense when analyzing the concrete fact that Peaky Blinders Explore the brutality of the criminal world. But the unease comes from his nuance in doing so. The show has been distinguished by scenes of shootings, beatings, executions and murders that dazzle for its careful cinematography and amazing visuals. Also for making the underworld more grotesque an intricate emotional and even claiming argument. And as the Shelbys change tactics, and advance in their ability to increase their influence, the point becomes more noticeable.
Already in season five of Peaky Blinders, the big question of whether it exploited explicit violence as a resource to uncomfortable levels brought some public comment. In fact, the late star Helen McCrory went so far as to defend the series’ need to be “disgustingly violent.” She did so amid criticism that the show’s brutal plot might normalize similar behavior in young viewers. In an interview with Digital Spy, the actress who played Aunt Polly for five seasons gave her take on the controversy. “I think it’s disgusting, gratuitous violence. And it should be,” McCrory explained. For the actress, the perception of the extreme in the series was a way to provide a realistic context. But especially, to dialogue with the idea of the series as a complicated scenario.
Also actor Aidan Gillen, who plays Aberama Gold, had some thoughts about the show’s graphic violence. “I think that [el programa está] full of people without moral codes”, he also told Digital Spy. “I think probably when it comes to an end, we will see that violence has consequences,” he added. But with the two premiered episodes of season six of Peaky Blinders it is obvious that the series continues with its vision on the evil of the new century in a neutral way. For better or worse, the series refuses to give moral meaning to its harsh debates about the nature of brutality in its best scenes.
Peaky Blinders and the insistent debate about its importance
With just four chapters to go until its end, Peaky Blinders still one clever combination of arguments and narrative lines. Also, a direct challenge to the way in which the collective consciousness of the criminal field is deepened and questioned. With the Shelbys in a new stratum of power and the show asking questions about the origins of contemporary evil, the story is more complex.
What can we expect for its outcome? An unexpected redemption? A new insight into the brutality of his story? It only remains to wait.