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Think back to 2022, when the BBC had a big hit in period drama Peaky Blinders was concluding its sixth and final season. Lovable local gangster Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) was tricked into believing he was about to die of syphilis, becoming a recluse in the process.
However, this was all a lie, as Tommy located the doctor responsible but failed to kill him. In that moment, Tommy learned the ultimate lesson in grace and his legacy was forever changed (and, more importantly, left at the top).
At least that was the case until the new Netflix movie. Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man. We've picked up who's left of the gang in 1940, with Tommy's eldest son Duke (Barry Keoghan) involved in a plot to thwart World War II. In short, he is helping the Nazis distribute counterfeit money across the country, enriching him to the tune of £70 million in the process.
I'm not kidding when I say I never want to watch Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man again.
Look
It breaks my heart to be the bearer of such bad news after an agonizing four-year wait, but let's delve into what went so wrong. More than anything else, it's the actual plot that The immortal man has decided to develop.
Fans have long been waiting for a spectacular return of Tommy Shelby, wanting more of the same explosive energy we got during the original series. Instead, Tommy has become a man incredibly insecure about himself.
He has good reason to be, as fans will discover in the first 20 minutes. But unfortunately, all of this makes for incredibly monotonous viewing. It's easy to summarize the whole movie like this:
The first 45 minutes Shelby continues to say “No, I can't go back to Birmingham” to the few people who were available to listen. The middle 25 minutes show Tommy at his best, punching and shooting bums who don't respect their elders. For the last 40 minutes, we're back to misery as Tommy has pretty much given up the ghost.
Our original crew has also practically dissipated before our eyes. by the time The immortal man In the end, we're largely left with new or B-plot characters, none of whom we give a damn about. That's not amazing news if the BBC intends to develop a sequel series in the future…
At its core, it's absolute dread, which isn't exactly what you want to sit back and convey after a long week. Tommy's ending in season 6 was also much more fitting, and I really wish it was still his last hurray. The immortal man It ends suddenly, sadly and with little resolution for the characters we dedicated almost a decade to.
Not everyone else is a perfect fit either.
When we talk about period dramas, the term “iPhone face” is sometimes used. This describes someone who looks so modern that they simply know have seen an iPhone, so it doesn't fit well into a story set in the past. Barry Keoghan suffers from something I'll call the “iPhone haircut.”
With a trendy fade and more sticker-style tattoos than I could count, Keoghan's style completely takes us out of the 1940s moment. Thanks to salty burn, Eternals, air master, The Banshees of Inisherin, Crime 101 and the next four Beatles films, the man is absolutely everywhere, so perhaps it would already be difficult to buy him as anyone other than a modern actor.
Still, it speaks to the disjointed feeling that The immortal man hosts, a mosaic of old and new that meets a no man's land in between. There is light to be found in the darkness, including multiple moving tributes to Helen McCrory's character Polly Gray and, ironically for something so bleak, the best lighting in a Netflix movie I've ever seen.
Overall, though, these minor victories don't make up for the duller, more depressing outlook. My advice? Look The immortal manThe trailer before bingeing. Peaky Blinders season 1-6 again. Trust me, it's a much better use of your time.
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