Kin

This is a well-crafted tale of family, loyalty, crime and vengeance set in present day Dublin.

Clare Dunne, Aiden Gillen and Ciarán Hinds are - as always - excellent.

I lived nearly all of my life in Dublin. They didn't have to dream this idea up, or write the plot. IT HAPPENED.

What they had to do was change things round so the script writers didn't get shot themselves. There was/is a huge gangland feud in Dublin with about 15 contract killings at least over the years. Google Hutch-Kinahan feud if you don't. The Hutch gang was a tight ship. They were the older players, built around Gerry Hutch, called "The Monk" because he only wanted non drinkers, and kept a low profile. When the Kinahans muscled in on his territory (for selling drugs) he ordered a killing, which ended being 2 killings. The Hutch gang was virtually killed off. Gerry Hutch ended doing his own killings and is going down for murder now. Everyone who isn't dead is running scared. The police have Daniel Kinahan unable to exit the UAE or some other tiny Arab State. It's been on tv here and it's too gritty for my taste by far, but you most folk would enjoy it. It got a prime time slot and went down well.

...because this is an excellent series, with great performances, realistic action and a good plot. None of your Hollywwood ten minute fight scenes; the violence is short, sharp and decisive. The first season held my attention throughout and I looked forward to very episode, even though I could see the ending coming a mile off. (You could could look at it as the copying of a great ending to a great movie or just a nod to that movie. I wasn't sure about season two, but warned to it after the first couple of episodes. I'm not fond of endings that leave parts of the story hanging for next season, but in this case I'll forgive them because it was, otherwise, the perfect finale to the main plot line.

It's intense, gritty, stylish, and cleverly written. There's a whole crew of fresh faces, and a few very welcome familiar ones. Expertly done!!

I personally thought the second season was better than the first. The character of Bren brought this series to life and made it much more gritty. I wasn't keen on the relationship with Michael and his estranged daughter in either season. The acting and dialogue just wasn't working and was slow and repetitive. Ciaran Hinds in the first season was also good and the camera screen just loves his presence. Obviously can't go into details with the storylines because it will spoil this but I thought the character of Eric also did a great Job in both seasons. Overall I preferred the second season of this series.