Peaky Blinders, Netflix
The premise: Peaky Blinders is a gangster drama set in post World War I Birmingham England. It follows the Shelby family as they rise from abject poverty in the upper class through various nefarious heists. Tommy Shelby (played by Cillian Murphy) is the head of the crime family, and runs all sorts of illegal activities with the help of his brothers and his aunt. He’s stoic and dreamy, and is wildly ruthless in pursuit of legitimizing his family’s business. You also get a few episodes of Tom Hardy as a rabbi who isn’t above gratuitous violence, and it’s probably the coolest show about post-war England in existence.
Tommy and the Shelby clan start out as back-alley bookies and bartenders, but soon they take over their corner of Birmingham (by violence, of course), and they are running the town and all its shady business.
Why you’ll love it: Like I mentioned, it’s super cool. It’s set to a modern soundtrack that includes Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, The White Stripes, The Raconteurs, and Johnny Cash. It’s a bare knuckle look at Birmingham in the 1920s and it’s everything you love about gangsters, prohibition, stoic dreamboats, and family politics. You will absolutely fall in love with Tommy Shelby, although you’re going to want to shake him by the shoulders every time he acts cold or withdrawn. Trust me, though, it’s part of his charm. There are a lot of plot twists that you definitely won’t see coming, and Tommy performs like any 21st century antihero: broody, internalized trauma, yet sweet and gentlemanly.
How to watch: You watch all three series on BBC Two or on Netflix.