Dublin Murders

Irish folklore: check Whodunnit: check Complex characters: check Twisty romance: check Cop banter: check Awesome accents: double check

This was really good, watch it - don't listen to the negative reviews.

This show has been very up and down by pretty much every metric. The pace seems to speed up and slow down, with long stretches of very little happening but then new developments frantically thrown into the mix. I understand the producers crammed two books into one series which accounts for the weird pacing, and two investigations happening (which gets confusing and they bog each other down). The script also had some well-written funny moments, but then the very next scene will feature horrible dialogue. Hard to blame the actors, who do a good job in the main, but a lot of their emotions seem turned up to 11 all the time, which is exhausting and not hugely realistic. The characters' behaviour is downright bizarre at times. Coppers lose their rag constantly and seem to have no idea how to run an investigation that is remotely effective or follows any kind of professional standards. The plotting is also all over the place and requires some pretty major suspension of disbelief over daft left turns and enormous coincidences. All that said, I find myself needing to watch the final episode to see if they can wrap it all up in a way that isn't either a total cop-out or just a daft resolution that comes out of left field.

To the person who reviewed this and didn't even watch it. You base your review on the plot description, you people are ruining IMBd for everyone else. Please don't review titles if you have not even watched it. Good start to this show.

I really do not understand the negative reviews here. I may be a little biased as I am a Tana French fan and find her books some of the best crime novels around at the moment. However, I am not a Sarah Phelps fan after the mess she made of the Javier Falcon novels when she adapted those for TV. In this case, though, she seems to be on to something. The books are slow burners with a psychological tinge that eats into the dialogue and sets up the characters and their relationships. The relationship between Rob and Cassie is rendered pretty well. They have also included a couple of things that are not in the book that seem to work well. Frank stalking Cassie is a logical way to link to the next instalment and a great way to introduce a wonderful character. Well, two episodes in and it all looks good to me. For those that are looking for a standard police thriller kind of thing, don't bother. It was not written that way and the TV show looks pretty close to the book, so far. For those that like twisted, heart-wrenching, psychological drama, stay with it. I can already see that this is going to stay pretty close to what the author intended.

If I hadn't recently read both books I think this would have been even more confusing. This series takes liberal adaptations in order to shoehorn both stories concurrently into one series. There is a nice symmetry between the storylines, of abandoned children and the aftermath. And loss.

I'm a big fan of Tana French, especially "The Likeness" so I'll focus on that story line; I enjoyed seeing how others envision the characters, and above all, that manor house of Whitethorn. The novel lets you worm your way into Lexie's head and it's seductive. However, film gives us those atmospheric images of Ireland: lush green, dark and sinister woods, and that manor house. The dialog, the Irish slang and accents are terrifiic; fast, sharp, and wickedly smart.

Read the books, especially "The Likeness."