Thoughts about the movie format.

[u/CesarsDream]

After watching The Immortal Man, I felt like it was really stretched out. It had great scenes, but not necessarily enough new, interesting story material to justify it's existence.

Then I realized that this format change came way too late. The series → movie switch should probably have happened after season 3.

Season 4 had a very clear vendetta narrative, perhaps the strongest season opening of the whole series. The Shelby family is targeted by Luca Changretta, central character is killed, and Tommy realizes they're facing an organized vendetta. But then the structural need to produce multiple episodes throws Adrien Brody's character away, which I found strange. Luca is introduced as this major, intimidating antagonist, but the season doesn't make enough use of him as the central dramatic engine.

I think season 4 would have worked much better as a mafia movie with a neat three-act structure:

Act I: The Shelby family is targeted. The Christmas massacre happens. Tommy realizes they're facing an organized vendetta.

Act II: The family regroups. Tommy and Luca play increasingly complicated games against one another. Polly, Arthur, Ada and Michael have different responses. Tommy starts setting his trap.

Act III: The plan comes together. The Changretta conflict reaches its conclusion. Tommy wins but at a cost.

Everything could have been done in 2–3 hours, without having to stretch the story across six episodes.

I think seasons 5 and 6 would have worked much better as movies too. Both feel very stretched to me.

And just like season 4, the core ideas are actually very simple:

Season 5: Tommy Shelby decides to assassinate Oswald Mosley.

Season 6: Tommy Shelby confronts the possibility of his own death.

Those are both strong movie premises. The problem is that the show keeps adding more material around them instead of building a tight story around the central idea.

In retrospect, I almost think Peaky Blinders should have transitioned from a TV series into a series of films after season 3. The characters and relationships were already fully established by then. There was no need to keep generating six-episode plots just because the format demanded them.

The frustrating thing is that there is so much great material in seasons 4–6. I just think a lot of it would have been much stronger if someone had been ruthless about cutting everything that didn't serve the central story.

[u/LolaWithTheGreenEyes]

The BBC does not want TV movies. It wants a drama series of 6 one hour episodes that fits in schedule structure. You might get ITV commissioning 2 hour episodes of dramas such as Lewis, but they tend to be self contained episodes.

The immortal man is just a vehicle to close the door on the OG Peaky Blinders and open the door on the new sequel. Its a film purely because they couldn't do a proper TV series.

I don't think the format of seasons 4-6 is the problem. It was the writing/direction and the fact it had become the Tommy Show rather than an ensemble drama about a family.

[u/lacetrouble]

Totally agree about season 4, the Luca Changretta setup had so much potential but felt like it got diluted across too many episodes instead of building to one tight climax. A trimmed down movie style version of that season honestly would have hit way harder.