Between “Peaky Blinders,” “A House of Guinness,” and now Hulu’s “A Thousand Blows,” creator Steven Knight seems to have the market cornered on gritty, grimy tales of the dark side of the United Kingdom at the turn of the century. “In these tales, “Blows,” in particular, was one of last year’s standouts, a soot-covered, fleet-footed tale of battered boxers and dashed dreams among three characters making their way through the underground of London’s East End: Jamaican immigrant Hezekiah Moscow (Malachi Kirby), whose dreams of becoming a lion tamer quickly pivot to moving up the bare-knuckle boxing world; Sugar Goodson (a hulking Stephen Graham), a rage-filled pugilist who sees his fighting days running out; and Mary Carr (Erin Doherty), the wily leader of an all-female criminal gang, whose fortunes and heart flit between them both.
Split over six hour-long episodes, season one of “A Thousand Blows” breezed by like a flurry of punches, breathlessly charting this trio’s intersections through crime and familial intrigue and the familiar rhythms of jealousy and revenge. And its finale left our characters at a very, very low point; nearly all of them had lost someone, or something, important to them, and many of them had to lose their entire identities along the way. Season 2 sees our protagonists trying to pick up the pieces of such devastation, charting new courses and hatching new schemes to not just survive, but build their way back up to the top.
Despite being filmed back-to-back with season 1, this new batch of episodes picks up about a year and change from the explosive events of the first season. Our main characters are still licking their physical and emotional wounds. Hezekiah is slowly climbing the ranks in bare-knuckle boxing fights on offshore barges (where he can fight safely, away from the prying eyes of the law, still looking for him after killing the “Brooklyn Gent” in last season’s climactic fight). Sugar is as down on his luck as ever, the aging brute roaming the streets looking for his next drink. His brother, tavern owner Treacle (James Nelson-Joyce), is left broken and battered after the brutal beating Sugar gave him last season, and his family is scattered. Mary (Erin Doherty), for her part, is also abandoned by the Forty Elephants gang after being ousted as Queen, now pulling off petty bank robberies with her sole remaining ally, Alice Diamond (Alice Shaw).
Everyone’s in mourning for the lives (and people) they used to have: Hezekiah for his dead best friend, Alec (Francis Lovehall); Mary for her position in the Elephants (and her budding romance with Hez); Sugar for both Mary’s heart and his place at the top of the East End’s boxing scene. Chinese innkeeper Lao (Jason Tobin) is still on the run after the murder of a Chinese diplomat last season, never to be seen again. These first few episodes stumble a bit to reset the game board and get our antiheroes back on their feet; many are obsessed with revenge and filled with pain, or desperately trying to get back what they feel is theirs. (“I need you back as the man you once was,” Mary tells a bearded Sugar early in episode one, and “A Thousand Blows” seems to use that as its mission statement this season.)
Over the course of these next six episodes, all three will find their fortunes and mettle tested in new ways. Hez sees a chance to avenge Alec’s death, and his decision sets off a chain reaction that both risks innocent lives and gives Mary a chance to reassert dominance in the Elephants; Mary juggles that newfound responsibility against her shaky leadership and the impending death of the gang’s matriarch; Sugar and Treacle wage an emotional battle for the fate of their starkly fractured family. And we can’t forget all the boxing; even as this season delights more in “Peaky Blinders”-esque gang brawls, so much narrative and emotional action still happens in the ring, as Hez sees a chance for enfranchisement at the hands of Literal Prince Albert (Stanley Morgan, seen here not in a can), who will grant him ownership of the Jamaican town he once escaped if he successfully teaches him how to box.
The show remains as elegantly and intensely staged as ever; period costumes and sets range from the dirt and grime of the East End streets to the ornate palaces and mansions of Prince Albert’s estate. Federico Jusid’s clicking, gasping score remains propulsive, ticking us along our character’s inevitable fate with all the steadiness of a metronome. No matter what you’re seeing, whether fog-covered cobblestones or elegant ballrooms, “A Thousand Blows” is still one of the best-looking shows on TV.
And the performances, oh the performances; Kirby and Doherty both acquit themselves handsomely as outsiders scrambling to negotiate or battle their way past blinkered white men to take what’s theirs. Graham, meanwhile, is a powerhouse just as he was last season, even as Sugar shakes off getting his proverbial bell rung by life. Resentful as he is of the other two lead characters (“You have everything I ever wanted, and you have the gall to tell me that you don’t want it,” he laments to Hez), Graham sneaks in layers of pathos beneath that Cro-Magnon forehead and brutish glower. His Sugar is a man made for violence, and reaping all the consequences of that single-minded pursuit.
There’s much to be said for the supporting cast, who take a bit of a backseat this season; some standouts include Robert Glenister as a malicious, sexist gang leader Mary and Hez both reckon with in episode 1, and Sugar’s soft-handed nephew Thomas (Will Bagnall), who tries to stop up to the plate in his uncle’s fighting ring. But really, the central appeal is that trio of actors, the sumptuous sets and costumes, and pacing that floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee. It may not feel as fresh a fighter as it did last season, but I’d be willing to bet “A Thousand Blows” still has a few rounds left in it.
Full series screened for review. Currently streaming on Hulu.
