The plot thickens as Steven Knight’s new series hits its midpoint. Here’s our A Thousand Blows episode 3 review.
A Thousand Blows, the latest period drama from Steven Knight, hits its halfway point with episode 3. We’re now well into the adventures of Hezekiah (Malachi Kirby), Sugar (Stephen Graham) and Mary (Erin Doherty), all of whom are fighting for survival in the brutal East End of London.
The episode starts with a bang as a bomb goes off in Greenwich. Episode 3 is by Coky Giedroyc, a director we’re very fond of. We even put one of her films, Greatest Days, on the cover of Film Stories magazine. Her perspective is welcome in an episode that largely focuses on Mary’s plans and her past.
Much of A Thousand Blows has focused on boxing, as the name might imply. In Episode 2, Mary unceremoniously broke Hezekiah’s hand, forcing him to pull out of a rematch with Sugar, certain that it would kill him whether he won or lost. As you can imagine, Sugar takes the news well, calling Hezekiah a coward for not stepping up and fighting. See, Sugar needs this match; his reputation has been badly damaged after Hezekiah got the upper hand in their last bout, and he needed some outside help in defeating the newbie.
It’s not all going badly for Hezekiah. Mary takes the young boxer on a trip to the West End where boxing is rising as a popular sport among the upper classes. Men in tuxedos love to watch other, much younger men punch each other and bet money on them. Mary encourages Hezekiah to start boxing in the West End where the real money is. Hezekiah might have come to London to become a lion tamer, but if he can tame the crowds in the West End, his life will drastically improve.
Mary also visits her mother, a former leader of the Forty Elephants gang, and an absolutely terrifying woman. She’s now teaching young girls to become expert thieves, but it seems she trained her daughter a little too well as Mary goes ahead and steals a wooden horse right from under her mother’s nose. Mary’s still planning her next big job, which includes stealing goods from the Queen of England herself. It’s still not entirely clear what the plan is; Knight is slowly sprinkling pieces of information across the episodes, but A Thousand Blows is a little too slow at times.
Three episodes in, A Thousand Blows still struggles to find a balance between the three different storylines. Hezekiah and Sugar’s stories seem most interconnected and, quite frankly, interesting, with Mary being the outsider. There are hints of romance between her and Hezekiah, but it’s simply not that compelling when the other themes are so juicy. Knight clearly has his eyes set on bigger things, but the romance feels like an awkward addition, something that’s maybe expected in a series like this but doesn’t really have a place.
I still can’t shake the feeling that A Thousand Blows also lacks focus. Graham and Kirby are the carrying forces of the series and I’m intrigued by how Sugar especially will be able to adapt to a new world. While episode 3 certainly moves the plot forward, I’m not sure it’s doing so with enough urgency.
Perhaps A Thousand Blows is slow-burn a series that would have benefited from weekly releases rather than dumping all of its episodes on Disney+ at once.
All episodes of A Thousand Blows are available on Disney+ from 21st February.
