The Dry

Hilarious, sad, funny real. This drama/comedy about a recovering alcoholic from a dysfunctional, middle class , Dublin family, nearly passed me by.

Every episode is finely crafted.

Laugh out loud at times. Painfully cringy at others, but so worth a watch.

A lot of the characters are a bit over the top to highlight comic & dramatic value.

It's so well acted and scripted. Can't believe this flew under the radar. It's one of the best Irish programmes in years.

Really relatable in some circumstances and not in others, but brilliant.

This is so binge worthy. Give it at least 2 episodes and you will be hooked!

What a great show and for once shows what being an alcoholic is like and how meetings are. The characters are all very realistic and it shows what a dysfunctional family are like but being that they all love each other.

... but the first thing I did was laugh.

I think to enjoy this series you have to have enjoyed Shameless. Some describe this family as clichéd but that falls short. Dysfunctional doesn't cover it either.

The main character returns home and to her completely over the top family members in an attempt to maintain her fragile, six-month sobriety. She couldn't have made a worse choice.

The eight-part series details everyone else's shortcomings as well as her own, making you want to reach for a drink yourself. But it is very well done, humorous, gritty and for someone who finds the theme close to the heart, very difficult to watch in parts.

It is the woman's sponsor who is the lone voice of sanity and some hard truths. The series is very well done, very well written and very well acted.

Some would like to see additional seasons but I think what had to be said and done was accomplished in these eight, half-hour episodes.

I enjoyed this original and quirky Irish comedy penned by Nancy Harris. Roisin Gallagher is perfect as Shiv the recovering alcoholic who returns from London to the bosom of her Dublin family hoping for a fresh start and finding an initial mix of bewilderment and scepticism from family members all facing their own unique challenges. Ciaran Hinds is superb as Tom, the paternal head of the family as is Pom Boyd as Bernie. Janet Moran excels too as Shiv's force of nature sponsor Karen. The piece as a whole is at times hilarious and at others quite tender and it's non judgmental lightness of touch and tone feels refreshing.

Set up to be a semi interesting tale (if not particularly original), with a reasonably interesting family dynamic.

But loses its way almost instantly. Horrible brother. Horrible ex. Idiot sister. Idiot lead. Thick mum. Selfish dad.

No pleasing or empathetic characters to root for. No one. Not one.

Oh yeah no laughs either. None. Someone put a lot into the structure but needed to rewrite this with a bit more acid. It's just weak.

Then it goes all mawkish at the end of S1 like who cares about Carl, if he's anything like the rest of the family then he was probably a selfish wastrel like the rest of them.

Don't waste 3hrs. Go watch a classic movie or two.