Mary faces a problem while Hezekiah finds success in A Thousand Blows episode 5. Here’s our review.
Things finally got moving in episode 4, which was by far the strongest of A Thousand Blows, Steven Knight’s Disney+ drama series. With only two more rounds to go, though, A Thousand Blows faced an uphill battle of going from good to great, from forgettable to memorable – and dear reader, it looks like we’re on the right track.
After robbing all the silver given to the Chinese Emperor, Mary (Erin Doherty) should be on top of the world. Except it’s not silver, just silver-plated, and the gang went through all that trouble for nothing. Not to mention, they got Mr Lao involved and he ended up killing one of the delegates who was responsible for the death of his family, forcing him to go into hiding. In retrospect, the whole night was a bit of a disaster, but an entertaining one for us to watch.
I’ve mentioned before that A Thousand Blows lacks some balance. On one hand, you get a series about boxing in Victorian London. What’s not to love? It’s men beating the crap out of each other. On the other hand, this is also a series about a prominent gang of female thieves. There’s a particular feel, especially in episode 5, that the Forty Elephants deserved their own show rather than having to share the screen with a couple of East End boxers. Both narratives are equally interesting, so why cram them into one, six-episode miniseries?
In the West End, Sugar (Stephen Graham) is now competing in the ring against other boxers and it’s not just the gloves that Sugar has to get used to. In an early match, Sugar downs his opponent and has to be ripped off of him by the referee. For Sugar, the thought of stopping when someone’s knocked down is a completely foreign concept.
The crowd may have loved him at the pub, screaming his name, but they certainly don’t over in the posh end of London. Even as Sugar is announced the winner, they look down on him, barely managing to applaud or congratulate him. Is there anything more devastating than realising that you’re not loved?
In the ring, Sugar is an animal, doing whatever it takes to win and to not just beat but kill his opponent. Graham is magnificent in the role, injecting the character with pathos and wrath that never reduce Sugar to a simple villain. Instead, this is a man who needs purpose in his life, needs validation and is seeing it slip through his fingers as his brother Treacle is advertised as the next big thing. For Sugar, this is betrayal of the highest order.
Treacle and Sugar later confront each other in the pub. “Boxing is changing and you’re not,” Treacle tells Sugar. He has a point, but it’s not something Sugar is ready to accept. Finally, A Thousand Blows is getting into the meat of the story; episodes 4 and 5 feels miles away from the dreary, slow first half of the series.
We wouldn’t dream of spoiling anything, but the ending to episode 5 of A Thousand Blows is quite something. Knight ups the ante here and episode 6, the grand finale, has a lot of pressure on its shoulders to bring this to a satisfying, explosive close.
All episodes of A Thousand Blows are available from 21st February.
