Overall I enjoyed this series - it's good, but it could have been a small screen classic ! Let me elaborate.
The storyline had potential - Irish crime family battles rival organisations to keep afloat and retain it's "Business" set in the photogenic city of Dublin, the cast is excellent, with the fabulous stand out performances from Clare Dunne, Charlie "Daredevil" Cox, Ciarán Hinds and Commitments star Maria Doyle Kennedy being the standouts. The negatives, well it seems to have suffered with budgetary constraints, the Kinsella gang seem to be short of gang members to run a convincing gang where their crew seem to consist of around a dozen on-screen members and their houses seem quite modest (and vulnerable) considering their income and their cover car dealership is bereft of customer and seemingly run by 2 staff members, The plot has a few annoying flaws as in when you've just stolen your main rival's complete stash of contraband I can't believe they would decide to have a party and sit around for several hours celebrating giving their victims ample time to plan their revenge and even going about their business with virtually no protection (no bodyguards or back-up) The photography is a mixed bag with some excellent sharp captures combined with numerous blurry dark scenes reminiscent of a VHS of the 1990's, the music on the whole is a compliment to the visuals barring a handful of scenes and I wish directors would hold back on the use of drones - Yes we get it, you've got drones! Now keep to the story.
Now the unnecessary.... There is nothing gained by making the head of the family a secret gay character, in-fact it's completely implausible, similarly giving Michael Kinsella (Charlie Cox) a mixed race daughter just seems odd and it looks like the producers have done this to appease their potential critics who might have complained of a lack of "diversity" In conclusion, it could have been so much more if it was given a bigger budget, more work on the storyline to fix the inconsistencies and better quality control on the visuals.
This is based on the first series as I have yet to view series two.
The storyline had potential - Irish crime family battles rival organisations to keep afloat and retain it's "Business" set in the photogenic city of Dublin, the cast is excellent, with the fabulous stand out performances from Clare Dunne, Charlie "Daredevil" Cox, Ciarán Hinds and Commitments star Maria Doyle Kennedy being the standouts. The negatives, well it seems to have suffered with budgetary constraints, the Kinsella gang seem to be short of gang members to run a convincing gang where their crew seem to consist of around a dozen on-screen members and their houses seem quite modest (and vulnerable) considering their income and their cover car dealership is bereft of customer and seemingly run by 2 staff members, The plot has a few annoying flaws as in when you've just stolen your main rival's complete stash of contraband I can't believe they would decide to have a party and sit around for several hours celebrating giving their victims ample time to plan their revenge and even going about their business with virtually no protection (no bodyguards or back-up) The photography is a mixed bag with some excellent sharp captures combined with numerous blurry dark scenes reminiscent of a VHS of the 1990's, the music on the whole is a compliment to the visuals barring a handful of scenes and I wish directors would hold back on the use of drones - Yes we get it, you've got drones! Now keep to the story.
Now the unnecessary.... There is nothing gained by making the head of the family a secret gay character, in-fact it's completely implausible, similarly giving Michael Kinsella (Charlie Cox) a mixed race daughter just seems odd and it looks like the producers have done this to appease their potential critics who might have complained of a lack of "diversity" In conclusion, it could have been so much more if it was given a bigger budget, more work on the storyline to fix the inconsistencies and better quality control on the visuals.
This is based on the first series as I have yet to view series two.