'Peaky Blinders' has been a terribly uneven show.
With its first two series, the Brummie crime drama bubbled with tremendous potential as Cillian Murphy's Tommy Shelby battled Sam Neill's bitter Ulster born Chief Inspector Campbell.
Then, it lost its way with a disappointing third series featuring Paddy Considine's anti-Communist priest Fr John Hughes.
Steven Knight's show got back on track with the introduction of Adrien Brody's New York Mafioso Luca Changretta in a typically bloody but thrilling fourth series.
However all that good work unravelled again with a rather pedestrian fifth series which saw the introduction of Sam Clalflin's real life English fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley.
Although to be fair to Knight, there was an impression in the penultimate series, like a lot of beloved dramas, he was constructing narrative arcs that would be resolved in the final series.
But that has only raised stakes for the final series, with audiences expecting a humdinger of an ending.
If there has been one constant, though, it is that each series has impressed visually and boasted a smart indie rock soundtrack.
This has undoubtedly helped make 'Peaky Blinders' a worldwide hit.
Yet despite the efforts of Cillian Murphy, Helen McCrory, and guest stars like Tom Hardy, Anya Taylor Joy and Aidan Gillen, it somehow hasn't managed to feel like the classic it promised to be.
Much has been made of the fact that series six is the final outing for Murphy's character - well, at least on the small screen.
In its final TV outing, Knight has stuck to writing each episode with Anthony Byrne returning to the director's chair after helming Series Five.
And in the end it is Byrne's stylish handling of the final series that makes the greatest impression.
In previous series, Tommy Shelby bested a sadistic Ulster cop, Cockney gangs and the Mafia.
He has waded into the murky world of military intelligence spying on fascists and crossing paths with Winston Churchill, Sir Oswald Mosley, the legendary trade unionist Jessie Eden, the IRA, the Triads and various Russians.
Tommy has lost the love of his life - his first wife, Anabelle Wallis' Grace and married an ex-prostitute, Natasha O'Keeffe's Lizzie.
His brother John was cut down in a hail of Mafia gunfire, after falling out with him.
At various stages he has somehow avoided death at the hands of thugs working for Noah Taylor's Darby Sabini, the Ulster Volunteer Force Father Hughes' henchmen, Luca Changretta's Mobsters and the infamous Glaswegian sectarian gang, the Billy Boys.
Along the way, he has also become a Labour MP while pretending to flirt with fascism.
The stench of death is strong throughout the final series of 'Peaky Blinders,' with the opening episode returning to Tommy's failed suicide attempt during a foggy 'Macbeth' style scene to the revelation that Helen McCrory's Aunt Polly has been bumped off by the IRA.
Polly's offscreen death was forced by the sudden passing last year of the actress who played her, the excellent Helen McCrory and Knight handles this delicate challenge well.
Finn Cole's Michael, Polly's son, is incensed by her killing but blames Tommy.
At the burning of her body in a Gypsy caravan, he swears revenge on Tommy and sets about plotting his downfall with the help of Anya Taylor Joy's Gina Grey.
Like Michael Corleone in 'The Godfather' saga, Tommy is now focused on the Shelby Corporation going legit and has even given up alcohol.
With prohibition ending in the US, he sets up a meeting off the coast of Canada with Michael and some business associates of James Frecheville's Boston gangster, Jack Nelson including Peter Coonan's Dublin accented thug, Connor Dunn.
Always two steps ahead, he stage manages the arrest in the US of Michael for the possession of opium and sets about trying to persuade Nelson to open up his territory to the opium trade, leaning on Gina to deliver the deal.
A family trip to Canada is postponed by his wife Lizzie when Tommy's young daughter, Orla McDonagh's Ruby falls ill.
Believing it may be a gypsy curse, Tommy returns to Britain but is relieved to hear when he gets back that Ruby is recovering.
With the fascist leaning Jack Nelson keen to go to the UK and make contact with his British equivalents, Tommy sees an opportunity to line up all his enemies and undermine the hard right from within.
He, therefore, dangles the prospect of Nelson meeting Mosley, his mistress Amber Anderson's Diana Mitford and eventually Charlene McKenna's IRA leader Captain Swing.
But he also sews the seeds of revenge by secretly meeting his old business associate, Tom Hardy's Alfie Solomons to inform him about his uncle Charlie's murder at the hands of Nelson in the Cotton Club.
While Michael, Gina Grey and Nelson continue to plot Tommy's death, Paul Anderson's Arthur struggles with heroin addiction.
Arthur is still lost after the disintegration of his marriage to Linda.
In the wake of Polly's killing, Sophie Rundle's Ada uncomfortably takes over the role of matriarch, desperately trying to keep Arthur on track.
Tommy also discovers he has another son, Conrad Khan's Erasmus 'Duke' Shelby who he fathered during a one night stand with a gypsy girl.
When Ruby's condition takes a turn for the worse, his marriage to Lizzie becomes strained as he struggles with his child contracting consumption.
Instead of waiting by her bedside and letting the doctors do all they can to save Ruby, Tommy sets off on a quest to track down his late brother John's Gypsy wife, Aimee Ffion-Edwards' Esme and discover if his daughter is cursed.
But that quest and the machinations of Michael, Nelson and Mosley also bring Tommy's own mortality sharply into focus - spelling the possible end of the Peaky Blinders.
As with all beloved shows from 'The Sopranos' to 'The Wire,' 'Breaking Bad' to 'Game of Thrones,' the stakes are high for both the writer and director as they try to ensure their show ends on a high.
How you draw the curtain on a show can be critical to its legacy, which is why 'Breaking Bad' is generally acknowledged to have done things well and the final season of 'The Wire' was a bit of a let down.
Knight conjures up a decent finale, relying on Byrne's superb direction, Matthieu Plainfosse's dazzling cinematography and Nicole Northridge's captivating production design.
Much of its success is down to Byrne who delivers arguably its most cinematic season - the camera movements of Tommy Shelby's first encounter with Jack Nelson in a cathedral are a bravura display of his and Plainfosse's skill.
But he is also greatly assisted by Murphy's central performance which draws out Tommy's increasing vulnerability and suggests the hourglass may be fast running out for his character.
Not everything works in the final season - Knight's insistence on shoehorning global political developments into a classic gangster tale still doesn't quite convince.
However the show is at its strongest when we are trying to anticipate the booby traps Michael and Gina, Nelson, Captain Swing, Mitford and Mosley are setting.
There's no doubt Helen McCrory's presence is missed and Anderson's Arthur for much of the series seems a little one note.
Taylor Joy, Hardy, Rundle and Finn Cole are on song, though.
Other regulars like Ned Dennehy, Packy Lee, Harry Kirton and Ian Peck as Curly are solid.
It's good to see Ffion-Edwards back as Esme and Kate Phillips as Linda, while O'Keeffe really seizes her chance to shine as Lizzie is given her meatiest role in the entire series.
When he appears towards the end of the series, Emmett J Scanlan is effective as the obvious weak link in the Shelby's Corporation's dodgy betting operation, Billy Grade.
Of the new characters, Peter Coonan impresses on the few occasions when he is onscreen, bringing the same kind of menace he showed in RTE's Dublin gangster drama 'Love/Hate' to the part of Dunn.
Conrad Khan also makes a good impression as Duke.
Stephen Graham is typically impressive as a Liverpudlian docklands trade unionist, Harry Stagg when he turns up.
However his role seems so low voltage and incidental, you cannot help wondering why Graham took it on.
Maybe he just wanted to have 'appeared in Peaky Blinders' on his CV?
However it's a curious appearance by one of England's best actors - managing to be both delightful and disappointing at the same time.
Frecheville's ruthless Boston gangster Jack Nelson is maybe a tad too icy to really engage audience and he doesn't hold up as well as Adrien Brody's menacing turn as Luca Changretta in Series Four or Sam Neill's Chief Inspector Campbell in the first two series.
Meanwhile Claflin and Amber Anderson as the fascist power couple, Oswald Mosley and Diana Mitford are so odious and self-serving you never quite comprehend how they can command a large following.
As usual, Series Six delivered a cool soundtrack, with music from Anna Calvi, Joy Division, Thom Yorke, IDLES, Count Basie, Lisa O'Neill, Gilla Band, Sinead O'Connor, Patti Smith, The Smile, Marilyn Monroe, Luciano Pavarotti and, of course, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Ultimately, though, the success of 'Peaky Blinders' final season hinges on the credibility of its scripts and how it eventually signs off.
While Knight's ambition for the series once again threatens to get the better of him just as it did in Series Three and Five, he just about keeps the show on tracj.
The finale is well executed but again, Knight has a lot to thank his director Anthony Byrne for.
It's so well done, you can envisage how the Shelby saga may continue in either a spin-off show or a movie.
And either or both look very likely.
How are we to judge, though, the full 'Peaky Blinders' saga?
Visually, all six series were a huge success.
The show's mixture of early 20th costumes, its stylish use of grimy urban settings, its epic cinematography and editing and it's sexy indie rock soundtrack were groundbreaking for a BBC drama.
Murphy, McCrory, the Cole Brothers, Anderson, Rundle and O'Keeffe, gave it dramatic heft.
But their performances were buttressed by stellar supporting or guest performances from the likes of Sam Neill, Annabelle Wallis, Aidan Gillen, Tom Hardy, Anya Taylor Joy, Charlie Murphy, Charlie Creed Miles, Simone Kirby, Peter Coonan, Noah Taylor, Stephen Graham and Adrien Brody.
The show wobbled on many occasions and it often lost its focus when Knight tried to unconvincingly link the Shelby's fortunes to world events.
That tendency to veer into deeds of global derring do stretched the show's credulity and prevented it from becoming a truly great gangster drama.
In English football terms, 'Peaky Blinders' was it like a mid-table Premiership side with lofty ambitions of playing in Europe - a bit like Everton or Aston Villa in the past and West Ham right now.
Like West Ham, Everton and Villa, it has had some terrific players and an attractive style.
But it could also be sloppy and had a tendency to leak goals at the back.
At times, 'Peaky Blinders' also came perilously close to relegation.
It occasionally came close to a top four finish - never quite making the grade like Leicester City.
Knight's show was creative but for all its lofty ambitions, it never quite managed to join 'The Sopranos,' 'Breaking Bad' or 'The Wire' in the Champions League of great TV dramas.
Nor could it establish itself in that company as quickly as 'Succession'.
No-one should fault a series like 'Peaky Blinders' for having ambition and it should be acknowledged it gave us some dazzling moments of real tension.
Ultimately, though it couldn't match that ambition.
Nice try, though.
(Series six of 'Peaky Blinders' was broadcast on BBC1 from February 27-April 3, 2022)
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