Obsessed: The Podcast Why This Oscar Winner Returned to His Darkest Character
Mar 19, 2026
Rebecca Ferguson, actress joining Peaky Blinders on film, and Cillian Murphy, Oscar-winning actor who plays Tommy Shelby, join critic Nick Schager to discuss the Peaky Blinders movie and crime TV trends. They talk casting, integrating a new role into a beloved world, storytelling formulas that keep viewers hooked, theatrical ambitions, and what it means to close Tommy Shelby’s story.
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Why Crime TV Is Everywhere
- Crime TV endures because streaming platforms need reliable, flexible genres they can remix into many subgenres.
- Nick Schager lists gangster shows, procedurals, cat-and-mouse thrillers, and whodunits as repeatable wells for streamers to exploit.
Long Form TV Lets Characters Breathe
- Long-form TV reveals a character's humanity by giving time to show motivations and moral ambiguity.
- Nick Schager cites The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, Peaky Blinders, and especially Twin Peaks as examples of TV deep character work.
Big Names Elevate Familiar Crime Formulas
- Star-studded formula shows elevate familiar crime templates by letting actors 'chew the scenery.'
- Schager says Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis lift Scarpetta's procedural scaffolding into something juicy and watchable.