Finished a full series watch and I'm left feeling like the show was cursed.
I loved the show but it feels like we were robbed of a proper conclusion due to Helen McRory's tragic passing and the unfortunate issues with Paul Anderson behind the scenes.
The whole production felt incredibly tight until season 6 but then the writing had to be adapted to work around these unforeseeable changes and whereas I thought they did a decent a job rolling with the punches, the ending we got just doesn't feel consistent with the rest of the show.
The chemistry of the Shelby family and the feeling that it was them against the world is where the magic was for me. Yes, they teased the "will they, won't they" of betrayal within the family, but usually they came out on the other side stronger and more unified than ever. But by no fault of their own, the show runners had to abandon that in S6 and the movie.
I'm curious to hear your theories of how the story likely would have ended if not for these unfortunate circumstances behind the scenes. If the full cast and characters were at Steven Knight's disposal for the entirety of the shows run, what would have been?
Some stream of consciousness thoughts, ideas, and questions that came to mind:
- I know they wanted to stay historically accurate where possible, but damn did I want to see Mosley get his comeuppance. Also the Billy Boys. After getting so much of payoff in earlier seasons of the big bads getting destroyed, we got so blue-balled on these villains.
- If Tommy didn't actually have that terminal disease, what was causing those seizures? Extreme stress/anxiety I suppose?
- Arthur got done so incredibly dirty. I always thought he was the character that loved Tommy the most and should have gone honorably. He could have died protecting Tommy, or even gone off to fight in WW2 or something to close the loop on his own trauma.
- Polly was low key the most important character in terms of making the Shelby family chemistry work. I didn't realize this until she was gone.
- I personally could have done without Duke existing as a character. I actually like how he's written and the performances from both actors were great, but he kind of came out of nowhere and was injected as a main Shelby too quickly for my liking.
Thanks for reading. I was compelled to write this out because I was absolutely enthralled with this show but suddenly my binge is done and the show is over for me, and not on ideal terms. What a ride though.