Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man has been on Netflix for four days, and the verdict is clear enough to call. Cillian Murphy's return as Tommy Shelby — directed by Tom Harper from a Steven Knight script — holds a 91 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert's review conceded the film is "deeply faulted but with ultimately redeeming qualities" and called watching Shelby suit up again "genuinely thrilling." [1][2]

This paper noted in its March 23 edition that the film anchors Netflix's strongest March release slate in its history, alongside One Piece Season 2. That assessment holds. The Immortal Man is the platform's most-watched title this week.

The film picks up the Shelby saga where the BBC series ended in 2022, adding Barry Keoghan, Rebecca Ferguson, and Stephen Graham to the ensemble. It premiered in select cinemas on March 6 before landing on Netflix on March 20 — the same limited theatrical-to-streaming model Netflix tested with Glass Onion. [3] Decider's review praised the additions while noting the film "knows exactly what it is." That is accurate. It is a two-hour extension of a show that understood how to turn postwar British gangsterism into prestige television, and Murphy remains the reason it works.

-- CHARLES ASHFORD, London