A Thousand Blows

A Thousand Blows is a Hulu original series based off the real life stories of a group of people battling for survival in the most brutal part of East London in the 1880's. Two best friends, Hezekiah Moscow (Malachi Kirby) and Alec Munroe (Francis Lovehall) on the rum from Jamaica find themselves thrown into the criminal world of London's bare-knuckle fighting scene. As Hezekiah continues to win and find fame and fortune, he attracts the attention of the Queen of the Forty Elephants, Mary Carr (Erin Doherty), who then works with Hezekiah to further her criminal empire. Then there's the boss of the East End boxing world, Sugar Goodson (Stephen Graham), who is determined to destroy Hezekiah because he's threatening everything Sugar has built. What happens next is a battle between the two of them. This is one of the early surprises of 2025 so far.

I ended up enjoying A Thousand Blows much more than I expected to. I've been looking forward to it ever since I first saw the trailers. I'm a fan of this genre so I was going to give it a chance no matter what. It ended up not only meeting my expectations but exceed them. This series is created by Stephen Knight, the same guy who created great shows like Peaky Blinders, See, Rogue Heroes, All the Light We Cannot See, etc. The writing is very good but what makes this series work so well is the acting. The three leads, Malachi Kirby, Erin Doherty and especially the ridiculously underrated Stephen Graham are what makes this series a must watch. Graham is such a good actor, you might know him from Boardwalk Empire, Peaky Blinders, Gangs of New York, The Irishman, Band of Brothers, Taboo, Pirates of the Caribbean, Bodies, Venom and so many other great movies/shows. He was great in all of those. I can't say enough about what an underrated actor Graham is. If you're a fan Stephen Knight's other work then give this a chance... I promise you won't be disappointed.

When the theme started playing along with the visuals I immediately thought this was a Guy Ritchie masterpiece, absolutely fabulous series that not only gets all the costumes spot on but the dirt and grime of the Victorian streets as well. Attention to detail is amazing.

Then of course we have the fantastic Stephen Graham and an equally talented Erin Doherty in the mix, and to be fair, every other individual is a stand out in this sensational series.

Bring on season 2, I hope it manages to be no less than what's gone before, never looked forward to a series as I have with this one. My only regret is I wish it had more episodes.

The sets, scenery and costumes are fantastic even the actors who are some of my favourites especially Erin Doherty and Stephen Graham, however something felt off with this series? Not because I'm expecting it to be peaky blinders, absolutely not it's, it's own show, but it felt far too disney if that makes sense? The writing/directing mainly and this doesn't reflect the actors. I guess this is meant to be the part characters are simply introduced to build upon the storyline they've given us as the preview they've shown at the end looks more gripping! I just hope that's the case as I really want to like this more. I just found myself slightly underwhelmed at present.

Stephen Graham just keeps knocking out these dark, gritty roles that he pulls off really well. Binge watched this series tonight after watching the trailer on tiktok over the last week or so.

The main characters are engaging, you find yourself cheering for the "bad guys" more often than not to get out of situations and scenarios they have found themselves embroiled within.

Glad to see its been renewed for a season 2 and look forward to seeing what other stories are in the pipeline. It has a peaky blinders feel to it that i didnt realise how much i'd missed. I'd definitly recommend giving it a watch.