A Thousand Blows - Season 1

We're not hanging on the ropes yet at A Thousand Blows. Fortunately, we don't get a headache from all those blows to the head. Expectations are high in advance. This is mainly because the name Steven Knight is prominently promoted. The man behind Peaky Blinders and SAS: Rogue Heroes, among others, ensures that A Thousand Blows is eagerly awaited. It does not reach the quality of the first-mentioned television series, but can certainly compete with the second.

A Thousand Blows is set in a time when being a criminal still had a romantic connotation.

A Thousand Blows is set in a time when being a criminal still had a romantic ring to it. Stephen Graham plays the boss of a bunch of roughnecks. This Henry 'Sugar' Goodson is not only the boss of the neighborhood, but also a gifted boxer. He punches his way into the ring with everything he has. In those days, he didn't do it with gloves, but with his bare hands. That makes his café with boxing ring notorious and his relationship with his brother Edward 'Treacle' close, but also explosive.



Another difficult relationship Sugar has is with Mary Carr. Excellently played by Erin Doherty who also plays a role in the acclaimed Adolescence. Mary has her own gang. The gang consists of all women. It makes for a completely different dynamic than a gang with only men, but it does not make her less ambitious. Mary has a big goal in mind. She needs the necessary help to achieve that, but she does not get it easily. Especially not because her infamous mother does not want to help. That only makes Mary more determined to achieve her goal.

It is a costume drama with more criminal behavior, gross violence and blood.

Mary comes into contact with two friends from Jamaica. Hezekiah (Malachi Kirby) and Alec (Francis Lovehall) want to make it in London. Hezekiah wants to work as a lion tamer, but soon discovers that the East End has other plans for him. His ambition shifts to becoming the best boxer in the world. Because of this, and because of his relationship with Mary, he quickly becomes an opponent of Sugar. When Hezekiah gets the chance to show himself to the elite of London, who promote a counterpart to boxing (with gloves on), he takes his chance. Alec ends up on a more unfortunate path because of Hezekiah's choices.



A Thousand Blows manages to portray the atmosphere of the past well. It is a costume drama with more criminal behavior, gross violence and blood. That makes it different from many other similar series. The story is quite well put together. The different storylines always come together well. The ending is a complete whole. That is remarkable because it is already certain that there will be a second season. A preview of this second season can even be seen at the end of the last episode.

What this series lacks is the brute force and flashy actions of Peaky Blinders. It all remains just too sweet and beautiful to really convince. If A Thousand Blows had had a bit more of that sharpness (also textually) and the dynamics had been a bit higher, this series would have scored a few more points. Now I give it a nice seven and a half. Still worth it, but (not yet) the top that it could have been in potential.