However familiar its building blocks, the U.K. gangster drama is positively bursting with irrepressible energy, and it's proof that, whatever a show's premise, capable execution is everything.
Imagine Boardwalk Empire relocated to England and revamped as outright pulp instead of prestige TV, and you'd have something pretty close to Steven Knight's historical gangster drama
For a sprawling soap opera that packs in Roma curses, shell shock, hash pipes, Chinatown prostitutes and gang members sporting the 1919 version of a half-shaved boy-band haircut, it doesn't have quite enough juice