Explosive
Summary
I hope A Thousand Blows finds an audience as it’s got some great characters and regular fight scenes keeping things tense and interesting. There are only 6 episode so far but it looks like the best is yet to come.
Plot: Inspired by the true life stories of a group of characters battling for survival in the brutal East End of London in the 1880s. Hezekiah Moscow and Alec Munroe, best friends on the run from Jamaica, find themselves thrust into the criminal underbelly of London’s thriving bare-knuckle boxing scene. As Hezekiah finds fortune and fame through the art of pugilism, he attracts the attention of the infamous Queen of the Forty Elephants, Mary Carr, who sets about exploiting his talents to further her criminal enterprise. Meanwhile the menacing and self-declared emperor of the East End boxing world, Sugar Goodson, determines to destroy Hezekiah whose ambitions to fight in the West End threatens everything he has built. What ensues is a battle of the old world against the new.
Review: Peaky Blinders is one of my favourite recent television series so when I heard the creator of that, Steven Knight was doing another period piece called A Thousand Blows, I had a feeling it would be right in our wheelhouse. I’m happy to say I was correct as this series has some fantastic characters, a grimy atmosphere similar to Warrior and Peakies while also have some brutal fight scenes.
Our lead Hezekiah Moscow and his best friend Alec have come to London from Jamaica to make a name for themselves and create a new life. It doesn’t take long for them to step on the toes of local gangster Sugar (Stephen Graham) who is nearly beaten in a fight by Hezekiah. Along the way Hezekiah befriends Mary (Erin Doherty) who is tough as nails but has a soft spot for him. She has her own plans for making a name for herself in the East End while trying not to upset other local syndicates.
It’s also nice to see Jason Tobin from Warrior in a key role and he’s always a welcome addition to any cast.
The first 6 episodes of A Thousand Blows are well paced and there is always an underlying threat of violence; Stephen Graham is at his terrifying best as the psychotic Sugar and I think this will be one of his most memorable roles to date. I love Mary who despite her toughness is still appealing and is an expert in self-preservation. Malachi Kirby is perfect as Hezekiah bringing the right amount of swagger to the character while keeping him sympathetic.
There is a mini trailer after the 6th episode for the rest of the series and it looks like it’s going to have more action with some practical looking explosions too, so I will be there for that.
The only gripe I have with the show is that I hate the music; tastes are subjective so it may not bother most people, but for some reason it drove me nuts and was annoyingly intrusive.
Overall, A Thousand Blows is a hard hitting yet entertaining action drama with entertaining characters and plenty of bloody fist fights. The music is a little annoying at times, but aside from that this is damn good television.