Red Rock

I will keep watching despite my huge irritation regarding McGonigle getting away so long with his heinous behavior on this show. Even I would know how to use my smart phone to record conversations and video of important liaisons depicted in this series. It's completely unbelievable that a cop would be too incompetent in this day and age to take proactive steps after being almost beaten to death. Come on!

Before I started watching Red Rock I had seen a headline using a quote from an actor in the series saying they couldn't wait to be "knocking Fair City off their perch" with this new show. I taught this was mad as Fair City bad and all as it is, is still the main Irish soap opera around. After watching the first 6 episodes of Red Rock, I am sure it will knock Fair City "off their perch".

As the show opens with the death of a young man from a local feuding family we are drawn into every detail going around about the death as if we were members of An Garda Síochána. The show has so far shown how close the community is and has indicated at what the future holds with locals in corruption, law breaking Gardaí, the re-igniting of feuding local families the 'Kielys' and 'Hennessy's', behind closed doors relationships and the hopes and dreams of some members of the Gardaí being crushed.

While the show is still in it's early days and TV3 has commissioned the continuing drama for the next two years with 160 episodes to come. I hope to be for a long-haul of excitement, with every episode already ending on the note of the typical soap cliffhanger.

At 25 minutes or less an episode it breezes along. 2 feuding families and a Garda station with varying degrees of competence and corruption. As a soap it knows how to suck you into love/hating the characters quickly, and by episode 20 you really want the bad guy to get his, and by episode 30 he may be close to doing so. Will they drag it out some more? To keep us on our toes we have the good guys continually showing their clay heels, strong characters with holes, and a truly white trash family vying with one not much better, merely richer. Can cops be really as dumb as Westlife and Paudge? Will Sharon get justice or will she tell them all to shove it?

Very entertaining.

I *hate* soap operas. I hate daytime drama. I wouldn't be caught dead watching an American soap opera and had I known Red Rock was a daytime drama, I would never, ever have even downloaded the first episode.

Let me say, I'm truly grateful I didn't know, because this is a great show. It's a lot more NCIS than it is Days of Our Lives.

I've given up watching anything American other than sci-fi shows, and have been scraping the depths of my Amazon Prime account for great international shows. Red Rock is definitely, wonderfully binge-able watching. The characters are flawed and real. The relationships are complex, and nobody is television "perfect." No blonde bombshells with vapid, overworked makeup, here. The cast seems to have been chosen because they have their own faces, and because they can...gasp...actually act. Villains you love to hate, lovers you love to love..Shakespearean tragedies...Red Rock has them all.

Episodes are like chips, you can't eat just one. Only 25 minutes long, I'll watch one episode and find myself, hours later, on episode 25. It's not deep or intellectual, but Red Rock will keep you entertained for hours and hours. I highly recommend it.

Why do I watch Red Rock? Why do I look forward to the next episode? Well, this show is crisply paced and it's fairly well acted. Ultimately, I have to like (at least one of) the characters, and I have to root for someone. Here, Red Rock is solid. From Garda Cleere to Det. Tyrell to Supt. McKay, Red Rock features regular folks -- they all have issues, just like I do -- whom I'd want as neighbors here in New England, folks I'd be honored to sit down and share a pint with in Ireland.

Of course, there's evil in Red Rock, and the police, plus some of the other townspeople, do battle in back alleys and hallways, on street corners and mobile phones, sometimes with criminals and sometimes with each other.

It's the details -- looks of anguish or triumph, phrases packed with anger or angst, with big, broad troubles like murder and pedophilia sharing the canvas -- that make this drama pop. For a soap opera, it surely seems real to me, so I care.

Well done. There's room for growth to be sure, but I want to see more. (nearly 8 out of 10)