Peaky Blinders

Set in North England's industrial city of Birmingham in the years after World War I, Peaky Blinders has been called Britain's answer to Boardwalk Empire. This TV gangster drama stars Cillian Murphy as Thomas Shelby, who applies the lessons of warfare in an effort to evolve a crime family into a major criminal enterprise. Sam Neill costars as his nemesis, an inspector from Belfast who is brought in to clean up the corrupt and ineffectual police force, and stamp out the IRA presence in Birmingham. The series title comes from the name of Shelby's gang, so called because they sew razor blades into the peaks of their caps. Created and written by Steven Knight, this is a sharp, smart, and gritty show, a vividly realized period piece that is set in a volatile culture where the IRA and Communist union organizers are both targeted as terrorists; Italians and Gypsies fight to keep their piece of the underworld; and the cops are as thuggish as the crooks. The shadow of the Great War hangs over all: the friends and family lost, the women who ran things while the men were away and now aren't so quick to hand the reins back over, the victims of shellshock reliving the hell of war with every loud noise, and the disillusioned working class men who fought for their country but came back to poverty and hard times. And even though it is set close to a hundred years ago, the soundtrack is full of energetic modern rock songs from The White Stripes, Nick Cave, and others. Compiling all six episodes from the 2014 first season, extras include a behind-the-scenes featurette. Highly recommended. (S. Axmaker)