Why The Women Of ‘Peaky Blinders’ Are The Real Badasses Of The Show

I’ve praised Peaky Blinders to no end, but I haven’t yet discussed the driving force behind what I think makes the show so successful and unlike anything you’re currently watching on the telly: Its women.
If you’re just now hearing about the show, let’s set the scene. The series, which is set in post WWI England, follows Tommy Shelby (played by Cillian Murphy) and the rest of the ruthless and feared Peaky Blinders gang—we know, goofy name—the inner circle of which is made up of his family members. The Shelbys and the Blinders control the racetracks in Northern England, making them one of the wealthiest families around in a poverty-stricken, post-war country. Creator Steven Knight based his series on the real Peaky Blinders gang, known for their gambling and violence, and put his own dreamy twist on it. Between the contemporary soundtrack, undercut hairdos, and stylized slow-mo, each episode feels as if you’re being told the darkest, most badass history lesson ever.

The women of Peaky Blinders make up the breadth of the supporting cast and are all involved with Tommy Shelby’s operation in one way or another. They’re ruthless in their own unique ways, in addition to being far more tactful than the men who run the streets of Birmingham. The men of Peaky Blinders are obsessed with status, while the women each represent a future free of the muck. Though they don’t always get along, each heroine is a feminist role model all on her own and transcends her place in time.

There’s Grace Burgess (Annabelle Wallis), a hired operative of the British government instructed to get as close to Tommy Shelby as possible and take down his business. Though they end up finding love in a hopeless place, Grace manages to dupe Tommy, break his heart, leave him, shoot her boss (who was also in love with her), escape to New York, and marry a banker before coming back to Birmingham two years later to resume sleeping with Tommy. It’s easy to label Grace as a liar, a cheat, a troublemaker—in a lot of ways, she’s sort of a less vindictive Cersei Lannister—but the most enthralling and infuriating part about Grace is that she does whatever she believes is best for her. It’s refreshing to see a brilliant woman be openly selfish on screen.

Then there’s Tommy’s Season 2 love interest, May Carleton (Charlotte Riley), who’s an insanely successful horse trainer and widow living all alone in her castle-like mansion in the London ‘burbs. When Tommy comes a-knockin,’ May answers by training his filly for a race and jumping into bed with him. But again, it’s for her own gain. May has it all, but is far more attracted to the idea of Tommy Shelby than she is to the man himself. The world of the Blinders is a thrill ride she would never normally take and why shouldn’t she?

Which brings us to Tommy’s sister Ada (Sophie Rundle), who wants so desperately to get off the Blinders ride that she gives up her last name. A widow in Season Two, Ada is overjoyed to finally be her own woman, free to raise her son on her own, and to give him the quiet upbringing she never had. Ada’s shining moment however, was in Season One, when she rolled her infant into the middle of the street and placed him there until the Blinders ceased fighting with their then rivals, Billy Kimber’s clan. Rundle gives one of the most intense, poignant speeches of the series (and there are a lot of them) as she backs away from the stroller:

“Most of you were in France. So you know what happens next. I’ve got brothers and a husband here, but you’ve all got somebody waiting for you. I’m wearing black in preparation. I want you to look at me. I want you all to look at me! Who’ll be wearing black for you? Think about them. Think about them right now. Fight if you want to, but that baby ain’t moving anywhere…”

Last but not least, there’s Polly (Helen McCrory), or Aunt Pol as she’s often called. Polly is a force not to be reckoned with, as she ran the Blinders’ operation while the men were away at war. She’s tough as nails, yet supremely broken, having her two children taken from her after they were born; a wound that never healed (until her son, Michael, comes back into her life in Season Two). Polly does whatever she can to keep her remaining family together — meaning anything — and God help whoever gets in her way. She’s the mother hen, the queen bee, the leader of the pack, but without the razor-brimmed cap. Polly runs the show both literally and figuratively and is the guiding light in a city of darkness. When the men are pre-occupied with who they’re going to rob or kill next, Polly is the stand-in captain, steering the ship when it veers off course. Though he never explicitly says it, Tommy knows his empire would be nothing without his aunt.

While the cast is predominantly men and there’s plenty of sex, drugs, rock n’ roll, and stylized violence, but Peaky Blinders is very much a show about women and disrupting women’s roles in a post-war society. I’ve said it before, but to reiterate the point that the supporting cast, particularly Polly, could keep the show running if Tommy were to be offed. That’s how important her and the rest of the dames are in this series. Cheers to you, Steven Knight, for giving the media landscape strong, realistic, intelligent female characters we can’t wait to see next season.
Watch Peaky Blinders on Netflix.
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Photos: BBC/Netflix