Clean Sweep

I think there is some hometown cringe going on. I thought it was a very good show with a complex plot and complex family relationships .I thought the main character was excellent. We grew to know and love her and her children. We were invited into a real family, doing believable things. I cared for the characters.

Dealing with cystic fibrosis without grandstanding it, just quietly demonstrating the work required was noble and nowhere were issues overstated.

For me not living in Ireland, the scenery and different way of doing things deepens interest. The intertwining of the past and present keep the tension at a fairly high level. At several points when you feel the crime is about to be solved, they wriggle out of it but always in a believable way, easing the tension momentarily but not for long.

Did think it ended without a real resolution but I thought that was because a second series was planned. Is this not so?

My Review - Clean Sweep Streaming on SBS on Demand

My Rating 7/10

Clean Sweep is an Irish six-part thriller television series created by Gary Tieche and starring Irish actress Charlene McKenna in the role of Shelly Mohan a housewife and mother of three children .

Her apparent life of calm domesticity is turned upside down when her chaotic past and criminality comes home to haunt her.

Shelly makes an irreparable decision and commits a horrific act in fact a murder when Charlie Lynch, a man from her troubled past, contacts her.

Then when her husband Jason who just happens to be the Garda detective assigned to the murder case Shelly has to retrieve incriminating evidence at the crime scene.

Jason Mohan the husband played by Barry Ward is a womaniser who is never at home and romantically involved with his partner Fiona. He thinks if he can crack this case a promotion to Sergeant is guaranteed.

I found the story at times far too improbable to be true but it's a well acted and well produced series .

If you can get past its many credulity-stretching twists and its frequent excursions into the just plain silly area of to many convenient coincidences I think you'll enjoy Clean Sweep.

Created and written by Gary Tieche my main criticism of his otherwise reasonable script is the fact that why would anyone with a past like Shelly Mohan marry a Garda detective in the first place then after committing murder or was it self defence gain access to her incriminating evidence .

On the plus side the lead actress was brilliant,a shame that does not apply to the rest of the cast. The two youngest kids were fine but the older son can't act to save his life,also the female detective based in London was portrayed like a cartoon character. I found the plot involving the characters from England to be confusing and there were times i did not know what was going on. Will be interesting to see whether or not there is a second series,but not really sure if it warrrants one. Overall it just about held my interest but there are far better series out there to watch,but if you have nothing better to see it is not a complete waste of time.

This is an excellent drama series that starts slow and builds. And then builds again. I rarely have any expectations before I watch any new drama series as this can open one to disappointment. So I kept an open mind. And can safely say that I was completely engrossed from start to finish. The acting was on-point throughout with a superb and commanding performance from the lead actress, Charlene McKenna: this is HOW you act! The direction was very clever but please be patient - it is like pieces of a jigsaw that comes together at the end. The script too was extremely well-written and easily passes the test of believability.

But it is the very final scene between the lead actress and her detective husband that brought in equal measure a smile and tear to my eye that copperfastened for me, how a proper drama should be made.

I highly recommend. Enjoy!

I enjoyed this, partly, I think, because I'd never seen an Irish police thriller before. The main plot was gripping and well acted. I thought the ending was very well executed and certainly doesn't need to imply a second series, as some reviewers have said.

On the negative side, I found the family soap opera a bit tedious. The stories with the three children had nothing to do with the main plot. It's as if there were two competing programme ideas and someone had the not-so-bright idea of putting them both into one.

The English police scenes did not ring true at all and the histrionic outburst near the end was bizarre. Why was the superintendent (?) in charge of the case referred to as the "commissioner". It made no sense. The accents weren't always quite right either.