House of Guinness

Been looking forward too this show for a while. Watched a couple of episodes today. It's a good story, decent actors & the scenery is excellent. What disappoints me is the modern take of putting modern music in a historical show. Hip hop & up beat tunes have no place in a series set in the 19 century. It completely ruin the feel of the historical time.

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.

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' 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 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.