Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man is a moody, stagnant encore for the Shelby clan

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

I'll be honest, I was only an ocassional viewer of the six seasons of the TV series but by any metric, the arrival of The Immortal Man should have been a triumphant victory lap for a franchise that redefined the modern British period drama. Instead, this latest entry feels less like a sharp razor to the cap and more like a blunt instrument, struggling to justify its existence beyond brand extension.

While the production remains undeniably handsome—dripping in the familiar, soot-stained atmosphere and high-contrast cinematography we’ve come to expect—the narrative foundations are surprisingly brittle. For a series built on the razor-thin margins of survival and the complex psychology of the Shelby clan, this chapter feels strangely hollow, trading character depth for a series of stylistic tics.

The primary issue lies in the pacing. Directorially, the film (or special event, depending on your platform) leans heavily into the "cool factor." There are slow-motion walks and heavy-handed musical cues aplenty, but they serve a script that feels spread dangerously thin. The plot is circular and repetitive. We’ve seen Thomas Shelby in various states of existential crisis before, but here, the stakes feel manufactured rather than earned. What can I say about the dialogue? What once sounded like street-level Shakespeare now teeters on the edge of self-parody.

Ultimately, The Immortal Man is a project strictly for the die-hard "Peakies." If you are already invested in every breath Cillian Murphy takes as the haunted patriarch, there is enough fanservice here to keep you occupied for a couple of hours. However, for the casual viewer or those hoping for the narrative rigour of the earlier seasons, it’s a disappointing stumble.

It’s a gorgeous, well-acted piece of television that unfortunately has very little new to say. The Shelby Company Limited might still be open for business, but the creative returns are diminishing.