Hulu’s Bold “A Thousand Blows” Is the Most Riveting Series of the Year

Before we’re introduced to the characters and concept of Hulu’s new series “A Thousand Blows,” we’re told that “The following is inspired by real characters who lived and fought together in London’s East End.” These characters, despite the slight differences between them, all harbour a darkness within them, ranging from childhood traumas to the murder of loved ones. It festers inside each of them, threatening to seep out and destroy their lives as the series unfunfolds. Yet it’s these wounds that eventually bind them together, signaling that with each other, they may be able to survive the brutal world they’ve been spat out into. 

From the first episode, creator Steven Knight (“Peaky Blinders”) creates a sense of familiarity between the characters that feels unlike anything we’ve recently seen on television. The show centers on Hezekiah Moscow (Malachi Kirby), a Jamaican man who moves to London after he is promised a job at the city Zoo. He is joined by his friend Alec Munroe (Francis Lovehall), and in a pub that night, they meet Mary Carr (Erin Rachael Doherty), who runs the Forty Elephants, an all-female crime syndicate. Mary has secrets of her own, including a tether to Sugar Goodson (Stephen Graham), a boxer with an angry streak and a reputation that threatens to swallow him whole. 

Hezekiah soon learns that the zookeeper had no intention of giving him a solid job, instead wanting him to be the spectacle in a cage. In desperate need of money, Hezekiah decides to take on Sugar in a fight. But, to everyone’s surprise, the fight doesn’t go entirely in Sugar’s favour. As Hezekiah lands a blow that splits his opponent’s eyebrow open, the camera gets tighter, almost becoming one with the bodies of the men on display. It follows their movements as they twist and grapple with each other before one of Sugar’s goons pulls Hezekiah’s leg so he stumbles and loses the fight.

From here, a rivalry is born. Sugar’s position as the best fighter in East London has become challenged, as has his financial security and the reputation he built for himself and his family. “When Sugar gets mad, the river gets hungry,” Hezekiah is told, and each shot of Sugar reflects just how fragmented his psyche is. His age is getting to hi,m and the abuse he continues to put his body through is slowly breaking down the armour he spent years building around himself. With each explosion from Sugar, Graham’s beady eyes flit back and forth from his opponents to the crowd, laser-focused as he lets out growls similar to a caged animal. Though Graham’s career is expansive, it’s impossible not to view this staggering performance as a career highlight. 

As Hezekiah, Kirby also commands the screen as if he’s been a leading man for decades, carrying a sorrow beneath the character’s eyes that slowly seeps into the narrative. Paired with Graham, the two are a match made in television heaven. When they squabble, the score swirls like a tornado, groaning as if it’s alive and infusing the show with an intensity that becomes suffocating. Violin strings bleed in like shrieks from the characters, mirroring their situations. “It’s like looking in a mirror,” Sugar growls at Hezekiah when he asks why Sugar hates him. “And there can’t be two of us.”

While Sugar is almost desperate to self-destruct, Hezekiah is desperate to make a life for himself. Unlike his adversary, Hezekiah isn’t intimidated by his otherness in Victorian London, instead finding solace in his relationships with Mary and fellow immigrant Lao (Jason Tobin), two people who are also othered by the city’s population. The intimate relationships in this series, whether romantic or platonic, make it stand out amongst those of the same kind. The distinctive molding of genres allows these characters to attempt to survive the brutality of this world in any way they see fit. Mary is at the head of this, trying to forge her survival through a grand scheme in which she quickly wraps Hezekiah and Lao. 

The three of them, along with Sugar, are not afraid to directly engage in conflict with members of the British upper class, and the series handles its commentary with admirable deftness. In a world where representation is often weaponized simply to get eyes on screens, “A Thousand Blows” stands out as a thrilling and heartfelt examination of race and class in 19th-century London. With each episode, it becomes clear that you’re watching something special, the show fantastically blending a sharpness and earnestness throughout its six-episode run. When the final episode comes along, it’s impossible not to be left wanting more, and I can only hope that these magnetic performers are given a chance to resume these roles for years to come.

Full season screened for review. Premieres February 21st on Hulu.