Ireland has always been known for its larger-than-life characters and wicked sense of humour. But there’s also a deeper, darker quality that’s slowly wound its way into their big and small-screen stories, a quality that’s now manifested into a full-blown genre known as Celtic Noir.
Whether dealing with themes of race, class or fractured families, this compelling brand of storytelling has succeeded by resisting the urge to sugar-coat its themes and always staying true to what sets these films and shows apart from their counterparts.
Perhaps it’s the geographical isolation, or the lingering trauma from the country’s troubled past, but whatever secret ingredient makes these programs so engrossing, it’s clear that this genre’s continued success is more than just the luck of the Irish.
Love/Hate
Sometimes referred to as Ireland’s answer to The Wire, this hugely popular series ran for five seasons and takes place within the seedy underworld of Dublin. The drama centres around Darren (Robert Sheehan), who is reluctantly pulled back onto the wrong side of the law along with his partners in crime Tommie (Killian Scott, The Fall) and Nidge (Tom Vaughan-Lawlor). Darren must quickly learn to carve out an increasingly volatile existence where friendship is forged in blood and violence is around every corner.
Love/Hate makes for addictive viewing, as we can’t help but cheer for these characters despite the questionable company they keep – chief of whom is the deliciously evil John Boy, played by Game of Thrones’ Aiden Gillen, who coincidentally once featured in The Wire.
Stream free On Demand
Love/Hate
series • Drama
MA15+
series • Drama
MA15+
Blue Lights
A good crime drama is nothing without the occasional rookie cop story, and Blue Lights features no less than three probationary constables who are thrust headfirst into a murky world of drug wars and undercover operatives. As they battle red tape and a mounting workload, the challenges of tackling corruption and making a difference on the streets reveal themselves in often painfully stark detail. The series is effective because it doesn’t shy away from the often soul-destroying nature of true police work. Its warts-and-all approach and three-dimensional characters (including another Game of Thrones alum, Richard Dormer) make for compelling viewing.
Stream free On Demand
Blue Lights
series • Crime drama
MA15+
series • Crime drama
MA15+
Clean Sweep
Starring Charlene McKenna (Bloodlands, Peaky Blinders) and Barry Ward (The Fall), what makes this series unique is that it’s told from the point of view of the killer, who just happens to be the wife of a local detective. Life as a stay-at-home mother is thrown into turmoil when a fresh case threatens to uncover Shelly’s murky past and the detective begins to close in on a suspect much closer to home than he suspects. The series is made even more intriguing for the fact it’s loosely inspired by a true story, proving that in Ireland even the tallest tales have some semblance of truth.
Clean Sweep is streaming at SBS On Demand from 12 January, for a limited time (double episodes are also airing late Monday nights on SBS from 12 January).
Upcoming On Demand
Clean Sweep
series • Crime drama
MA15+
series • Crime drama
MA15+
Guilt
Two brothers. One dead body. A crime that just won’t stay covered up...
There’s an old saying: two can keep a secret if one of them is dead. Which is a bit of a problem for Edinburgh brothers Jake (Jamie Sives) and Max (Mark Bonnar), because Guilt has barely begun before the pair – driving home through Edinburgh after a few too many drinks at a wedding – run over and kill a man. Not a promising start, and as this twisty noir comedy unfolds things get darker and the stakes get higher.
Noir comedy is a tricky thing to pull off: get too silly or pile on too many laughs and the tension goes right out the window. Guilt makes it seem easy by bringing the comedy naturally out of the odd couple pairing at the heart of the story. These brothers are opposites who clearly loathe each other, but now they’re stuck with each other like never before – which becomes a plot point when Max’s wife Claire (Blue Lights' Sian Brooke) starts wondering why they’re hanging around each other so much.
All 3 seasons of Guilt are streaming at SBS On Demand.
Stream free On Demand
Guilt
series • Drama
MA15+
series • Drama
MA15+
Share
