Fair City

My God, this series is *awful*. It makes almost *any* other soap look like high art. It is on the "bad" side of "so bad, it's funny".

The acting is mediocre, at best, the story-lines unexceptional, but the *dialogue*: the script-writers should be burnt alive on a pyre of the future scripts. Occasionally, I really feel sorry for the actors who have to deal with such wholly implausible dialogue: a friend reckons that more experienced actors would tell the director to stick it where the sun don't shine, and I can't disagree -- it's just dreadful, dreadful, dreadful.

In fairness, there are a few green shoots of acting talent, but they are doomed in the dark, weedy, untended mire that is "Fair City": if they want to flourish, they need a transplant to much more fertile ground.

Recently a friend of mine who was visiting Ireland from Italy asked me to explain why so many Irish people laughed when they talked about the TV show Fair City. Judging by people's reaction to it he thought it must be brilliant new sitcom. I thought it would be best to show him an episode so he could see for himself why it had people doubling over laughing. Surprisingly the unbelievably poor quality of the show was not lost in translation. The story line, acting, and sets are universally recognised as pure unadulterated sewage.

The majority of people that commented on this already are completely within their right to express their disgust at the fact that this is shown on Irish TV and paid for by the Irish Tax payer! The one person standing up for the show so ardently obviously has some connection with it because nobody could be so naïve to think that the complaints are unwarranted.

If Edward D Wood Junior had ever had the opportunity to make a soap opera, he would have made Fair City. That is perhaps the best way to describe it to people outside Ireland. The sets are like something off a children's TV with the walls of every house or apartment painted blue, red, orange or green. Wallpaper does not exist in Fair City. The walls even shake when a door opens or closes… it's a shambles. There are only 5 places a character can be in the show, the Shop, a House, an office, the bistro, or the pub. There is no room for manoeuvre, every episode; these are the places the characters will be.

The "actors" are unique in the world of TV as they are perhaps the only actors to regularly be overshadowed by the performance of the set. The walls actually move more than some of their faces. The Irish state television RTE, regularly use these same actors as "celebrity" guests on their second rate talk shows. Its an absolute disgrace that people in Ireland can be on up to 40% rate of tax and be expected to enjoy listening to "Bella" from Fair City ( perhaps the most well known character and even then nobody knows his real name), talking about himself to another substandard product of RTE Ryan Tubridy! Everybody knows Irish TV is a closed shop ripe with nepotism and scarce on talent. Fair City is the perfect example of this. Friends and family getting jobs they clearly don't have the talent or intelligence to do. So don't listen to Miss (touched a nerve) eventsbydonna, you have a right to express your anger at this TV crime. Fair City and all the people responsible for it should be brought to justice! We deserve and demand a better return from our taxes!

This is used as a form of torture in my house. If you misbehave you have to watch an episode😪

If this series wasn't paid for by the public it would've been cancelled in its first week!!!! Seriously it's CRAP!!!!!

Fair City used to be good, but in recent times it really has went down hill. Issues like clerical sex abuse, brother/sister incest, drugs, suicide and teenage drinking have been brought in, just for the sake of it. Also the stories are becoming far too sensational, with another recent one involving the school principal's girlfirend having an affair with a student, who is dating her daughter.

This is a total change for the character, who originally was really straight laced and strict

Another thing that really annoys me is the fact that characters can just disappear for months on end. One of the characters, Stephen, has been missing for at least three or four months now. Maybe even since before Christmas! Storylines just concentrate on a group of characters for maybe a week or two, until its all changed and we are onto another group of characters. There's no real continuity.

Unless it gets a major overhaul, Fair City could be axed despite still being highly rated it just isn't the show it once was.