A Thousand Blows Season 2: Was Jack The Ripper Woke?

We are no longer used to series that come back every year, the fault of a few productions which have enjoyed making us wait for ages before delivering their sequel. And yet, A Thousand Blows returns almost a year to the day after launching on Disney+ through us. We are delighted to see Steven Knight’s series make its return, especially since we had the feeling that its release had not made the noise it deserved. So this time, to give him more of a chance to convince you, we decided to go more francomatic. We don’t even apologize for it and above all happy new year.

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By the way, why are we talking about good old Jack again?

Previously on A Thousand Blows

A Thousand Blows is a series of Steven Knightthe father of Peaky Blinders, series that has become the emblem of a virilist culture on social networks, the trappings of a masculinism that never stops looking in the rearview mirror (excellent series despite that). The funny thing is that there is a constant in Knight that we find in these two shows and also in his recent House of Guinness : In this world of men, women are often the ones with the most power.. From there to say that Knight does not have the audience he deserves…

In the East End of London at the end of the industrial era, the destinies of three characters will intersect. Jamaican Hezekiah gifted in boxing; Sugar Goodson, a local chef ruling the roost in the underground fighting ring; and Mary Carr, the leader of the Forty Elephants, a famous gang of thieves.

A Thousand Blows season 2: Was Jack the Ripper woke? — © Disney+

Season 2 opens with our trio in bad shape. Sugar has fallen into alcoholism, Hezekiah frequents illegal fights and Mary is more than ever under the thumb of the “king” of the Forty Elephants. Brief, this second batch promises to be even darker than the previous one. And as real events of the time can be talked about in the middle, or real characters, the crimes of a certain Jack the Ripper resonate.

A series that embraces its feminine side

The first rule of Fight Club… Some would say the strength of the first season was in the ring, in the gloves of Hezekiah, aka Malachi Kirby. Others can target their opponent, violent them Stephen « Sugar » Graham. The real ones know that the real driving force of the plot is in the eyes of Erin DohertyGraham’s comrade in Adolescence.

The actress eats up every scene in which she appears, eclipsing her male colleagues not only by her presence, her charisma and her depth of play, but also because Mary is the nerve center of the story. It is she who shakes up the established order, who saves men from their demons or makes them plunge into them. And this season 2 revolves more than ever around her and her “daughters”. Without them, there wouldn’t really be a common thread, which is also a problem – this season seems to be setting up a long-term narrative, without worrying about the lack of present interest.

BAlthough Mary’s shot isn’t the most captivating, it’s undeniable that the female figures carry the series. Even when they appear for a short time, they immediately have an impact on events. Because the real issue is the attempt at emancipation of the latter from a society which at best underestimates them, at worst intends to crush them. The same concern that inhabited almost every female character in Knight, all series combined.men never being presented as models, far from it.

Determinism yes, colonialism too

Another theme dear to Knight, determinism. If we stay with just the three series mentioned – which could share the same universe – they deal with characters seeking to overcome their social classes. We can talk about ambition, but it’s more about overcoming societal norms that push us into boxes. Prisoners of what we see of them, our protagonists use violence, shenanigans, politics, in order toforce the world to see them, consider them.

A Thousand Blows has this particularity that it goes slightly further than that. The figure of Hezekiah was the show’s way of telling the racism English, including towards their colonies. We particularly remember a sequence where the man who thought he was hired to be a lion trainer was in reality only thought of as a savage in a cage. In this season 2, the arrival of Prince Albert Victor (who really existed) allows the clandestine boxer to frequent the British nobility and to directly confront them with both poverty, but also with racial exploitation.

Although many claim otherwise, art is political, the world of series is part of it and Steven Knight is not the last to give his opinion through his productions. Except thatA Thousand Blows is undoubtedly the show in which the author slips in these subjects most head-on, with the least detour. If we focused on two specific facets, we could cite many others, such as wealth gaps and the survival of the poorest. However, the first season already said a lot on the subject and this second batch is only an extension of it.

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Not everything is well controlled and the plotA Thousand Blows season 2 sometimes seems to be stalling. We finish the six episodes without having had any net added value regarding the rest of the story and it’s of course what she says at the margins that she shines the most. A light that pushes us to keep a warm place for it, among our best series available on Disney+.

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