House of Guinness

In the wake of the passing of the head of the Guinness family the offspring - three brothers, one sister - are left to pick up the pieces, whilst being forced to address their own issues & failings amidst the backdrop of an Ireland on the brink of revolution and retribution. Highly stylised and with a modern soundtrack out of kilter with the historic setting this has more than a passing resemblance to Peaky Blinders. Good cast, the ever reliable James Norton and relative newcomer Emily Fairn (wonderful in The Responder) stand out in particular. It looks great and It's enough to hold the attention but feels a bit forced and for me, doesn't quite gel. That said I wasn't a fan of the aforementioned Peaky Blinders and I think that did quite well...!

House of Guinness is a new show from Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders). It has that same look and feel as PB. It's about the Guinness family after its founder dies in 1868 and leaves its empire in the hands of his four children, each with problems and secrets of their own. It may start slow for some but stay with it because after the first couple episodes it really picks up. It's a good period series about power, greed, betrayal and back stabbing. Bottom line is while House of Guinness isn't nearly as good as PB, it's still a pretty good show that's worth watching.

'House of Guinness' successfully navigates a tricky path. It would have been very easy to cross over from drama to soap opera, but this series does not. I also don't care that they have invented some characters, Sean Rafferty (James Norton), or fudged dates. This is not a documentary.

The acting is quite good with Anthony Boyle (Arthur Guinness) being particularly strong. Also, Jack Gleeson (Byron Hedges), Michael McElhatton (Potter), Niamh McCormack (Ellen Cochrane) and Louis Partridge (Edward Guinness).

There are some unusual accents, but such is life. I look forward to Season 2.

I was really curious about the Guinness family ever since I visited the Republic of Ireland and our tour guide told us that they were loved and respected by Irish people. Tbh until that they Guinness was just a beer brand to me which I really love and of course nobody can be loved by 100%. So watching their story with a good cinematography together with some good performers was enjoyable. And I am a sucker for sound of Irish flute, so I hyped whenever I heard it BUT I was really annoyed whenever I heard techno and rap music even though I mainly listen those two. Maybe the idea behind is to get attention from new gens but still it just ruined the atmosphere. My second dislike was the Netflix scenes. You know what I mean. The substance, the intimacy and the community which I really love everyone and everything BUT whenever Netflix includes these topics "nearly all the time" they just feel like ads and loose the meaning😔 Sorry for my English.

I was looking forward to this for a couple months when I saw it was from the creator of Peaky Blinders. It took a couple episodes to get into but once I did, I really enjoyed it. It looks like Peaky Blinders but that's about as far as similarities go and if you're not looking for a Peaky 2.0, you should enjoy it. I agree with other reviews though, the music does not fit it and I hope they change it in season two.