A Thousand Blows

The experience is one of energetic abundance rather than chaos. If you are left wishing there had been more time to get to know some of the marginal characters – well, what a rare sensation that is, compared with wishing you weren’t watching padded ciphers drifting round a barren plot.

It is rollickingly good. The performances, major and minor, are excellent.

From the first episode, creator Steven Knight (“Peaky Blinders”) creates a sense of familiarity between the characters that feels unlike anything we’ve recently seen on television. .... With each episode, it becomes clear that you’re watching something special, the show fantastically blending a sharpness and earnestness throughout its six-episode run. When the final episode comes along, it’s impossible not to be left wanting more.

She [Mary Carr (Erin Doherty)] steals whatever she wants, including the show and probably next year’s Bafta statuette. It is a sensational performance in a captivating, lawless stampede of a TV show.

There's no doubt the show deserves - demands, in fact - attention. The characters are as instantly compelling in the way that sprawling HBO dramas manage, the performances are very, very good, and the story hurtles along wonderfully. .... A Thousand Blows is about as good a 6-episode run as I've seen in some time.

The costumes, production design, score, and tableau are equal to the razzle dazzle of “Peaky Blinders.” While there isn’t the galvanizing gangster family saga fueled by charismatic Cillian Murphy’s kingpin Tommy Shelby that propelled Knight’s series to top 100 status on the IMDB TV charts, “A Thousand Blows” lands its punch, making for killer television.

The series’ thoughtful worldbuilding is bolstered by impressively detailed sets and costumes, and a willingness to be almost painfully honest at times about the dark underbelly of the Victorian period when it comes to race, class, and gender.

To be honest, the season-one finale isn’t much of a knockout, ending things on a low point for our challengers. But a “To Be Continued” title card and an action-packed teaser affirms that there is indeed plenty of fight left in this promising, bloody-knuckled bunch.

Although much of the show feels predictable, radiant performances — especially from Kirby, Graham and Doherty — lend it a sense of freshness and verve. There’s a fieriness to everything, and at just six episodes, also a breathlessness.

This six-parter stands on its own two feet and never feels derivative or unimaginative.

The result is a show that is lavish yet purposeful, bringing to life a world slipping inexorably from bare fists to boxing gloves, from savagery to the illusory modernity of Trump's beloved MMA. Like a pay-per-view fight night, A Thousand Blows manages to be bruising yet joyous.

These first six episodes pack a lot of punch – as do the performances of Kirby, Graham, and Erin Doherty – with an unfiltered look at 19th century London through the eyes of the veterans and newcomers vying to make their name on the city’s streets.

Like any series, there are dips and flows to be had, but inevitably things ricochet towards quite the roller coaster of final episodes that are worth sticking with the show for.

Though not always a total knockout, A Thousand Blows certainly packs a punch – courtesy of excellent lead performances, a gripping plot, and a fascinating historical setting.

“A Thousand Blows” builds to a climax as secrets get revealed and motivations become circumspect. It’ll leave you dangling and begging to jump into its ring once more.

A charismatic force of nature whose fury is almost elemental, [Graham’s] rarely been better, and he’s the best reason to tune in to Steven Knight’s latest underworld drama.

A Thousand Blows does a good job of tying its stories together well, and tries to keep the action going in the process.

A raft of superb performances aside, “A Thousand Blows” is not particularly subtle, nor does that even seem the idea. Its worthwhile sociopolitical points and allegiances — it stands with women, immigrants and the poor, for natural dignity against mere manners — are writ large; its emotional entanglements are operatic, its heist narrative the stuff of pulp fiction.

Mid-series on, the plotting starts to churn and flag (it turns out that another six-part instalment is imminent). When it comes into focus, A Thousand Blows is a full-blooded show, crackling with incident and fine performances.

After the first few episodes sets the series up by introducing all its distinctive elements, the second half of the season feels increasingly like, well, a TV show rather than a glimpse into the pages of a book of hidden history.

A Thousand Blows does manage to stand out as a mostly competent period piece in a sea of Bridgertons filled with anachronistic eyeshadow and an unwillingness to commit to the bit.

Steven Knight has proven himself a worthy storyteller, a master of the craft, and an undeniable artist, but with “A Thousand Blows,” it’s evident he’s unsure which brush he should use to produce his vision.