10 Problems Nobody Wants To Admit About Peaky Blinders
6. Many Characters Arcs And Secondary Storylines Are Underwhelming Or Don't Go Anywhere
Arthur's bouts of mad rage in season 2, Aunt Polly going from being one of the few members of the family with brains into a party-gal version of mystic Meg, and whatever the deal is with Linda, all of these are just a few choice examples of some of the more underdeveloped and underwhelming sub-plots.
Starting with Arthur, he brutally beats a boy to death in the ring at the boxing club, gets a bit upset about it and contemplates killing himself, has a sniff of cocaine and hey presto, he is back to normal. No drug addiction, no comeuppance, no major epiphany that sends him on a path to redemption. Nothing comes of it at all.
Polly meanwhile served as a senior but supporting member of the Peaky Blinders, as a voice of reason, until she faces the gallows along with her nephews at the start of season 4. Polly has a near-death experience which she claims grants her the gift of foresight, although its hard to tell seeing as she develops a massive drug habit at the same time, and we see her character change dramatically into a much more flamboyant and devil-may-care persona.
But once again, there is never any explanation or justification as to why this happens.
Arthurs wife Linda went on a similar spiral in series 4, going from a pious woman who dominated her husband, into a cocaine-snorting delinquent, and it isn't that the change itself wasn't an interesting one but again, there was no explanation or even the subtlest exposition to reveal how this happened.
The constant stream of incoherent and inconsequential storylines that we see from the supporting cast only serves to slow down and detract from the plot of each season, and does nothing to service the characters or story any further.