Why Men Should Watch Peaky Blinders

By Leo Gray

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I am not saying to act like Thomas Shelby. The man is messed up and should not be idolized but let’s discuss why men should watch Peaky Blinders. I’m warning you now, spoilers, I watched it on an illegal website, so I didn’t wait for the American release.

Thomas Shelby is a man that demands attention and respect in every situation. He is someone who sees the world and all its interactions like a chess match, and in this arena, he is a master at it. All throughout the series, we see Tommy assert dominance in business and social settings; however, he knows the time and place to do it. He knows he, the patriarch of the family has, has to keep a particular image to himself. This is something men struggle with. The heads of families often have to keep a certain idea or front to them, and if they falter, it feels like the entire family with crumble.

We see Thomas struggling with this. Holding his anger or genuine emotions to play the long game in certain situations. He tells people how it is. We see this change in the relationship between Thommy and Finn. In the first half of the series, he kept Finn in the dark on many things, but as the series progressed, we see him tell Finn that he is a general and needs to act like it because he’s a Shelby brother. We see Thomas make allies with people who are not to his benefit to gain the support of the public or political ties that he needs, primarily with the socialist party, which he becomes part of about halfway through the series. We also see him like this with Michael after Polly’s death, playing the long game for nearly four years with him.

I am not saying go out and join a political party or go to any extremes that Thommy does, but I think it teaches us an important lesson, not all enemies need to be treated like them. Many times our enemies can help us.

Thomas Shelby is the perfect example of Robert Greene’s 48 Laws to Power. If you read that book, you might understand Tommy more and why he does what he does, but even if you don’t, just watching the show helps us to understand Tommy because everything has a payoff.

Thomas does nothing that isn’t given consequences, whether good or bad. All of it comes back around, and that shows how amazing the script and story are for this show, as well as the character of Thomas Shelby.

This one is short because I don’t want to tell you how to view Thomas. I think that defeats the purpose, and everyone has different opinions about him. But my two points I want to drive home with Tommy and why I think every man should watch Peaky Blinders is because Thomas teaches you to have to use your enemies for your good, and he teaches us how to play the long game.

Not every enemy needs to be treated like one, and not every move needs to be made right away.