Small Town, Big Story

What a great show with brilliant Irish humour, really made me laugh. With a super cast. I Really want to see another series please Chris O'Dowd.

Christina Hendricks & Paddy Consadine lead a wonderful all star cast and Chris O'Dowd is also just brilliant and hilarious.

It's a really unusual story line but it really works and the humour and one liners throughout are perfect and the characters who make up the town are just wonderful.

It was refreshing to watch something really different for a change.

I would certainly recommend this and would be delighted to see another series to see how it all develops.

Top marks from me x.

I really wasn't sure what to expect, but with Chris O'Dowd as creator/writer/director/producer/cast member, I knew I was going to be in for an off-beat treat. It has a fantastically surreal and absurd storyline which is underpinned by dry and quippy Irish humour. Many of the brilliant one-liners and daftness in various scenes had me howling with laughter. There's some very sweet and poignant moments too. The cast is fab with a few familiar faces. The ending wasn't quite what I thought it would be, but I hope this means a 2nd series might be a possibility. Or maybe a good place to leave it? We'll see. It's a shame about the mixed reviews. The so-called tropes some have mentioned are clearly intentional and ironic. If you like a bit of mad with pathos, then you'll love this! Give it a wee go so!

Hollywood producer Wendy Patterson (Christina Hendricks) goes back home to Drumbán, Ireland which she has picked to shoot a big movie. She has a secret connection to local doctor Séamus Proctor (Paddy Considine) after an incident during the Millennial celebration. She hasn't been back in over 20 years.

Chris O'Dowd is the show creator and has a fun supporting role. It's a little odd that Christina Hendricks is playing a returning local. Most people do return to their old accent, but she's probably not going to do Irish well. She is my main issue with this show. Her character has so much resentment that it's hard to have fun with that. I would rather have someone like Aya Cash who is funny when she's angry. I like Paddy Considine's scared acting. Big Jim McDaid needs to be a little funnier although he does have a nice sweet side. I love what Jemima Rowlands adds to his character. This is mildly fun in an off-centered sci-fi premise.

Christina Hendricks and Paddy Considine are great in this, along with Susan Lynch and other cast members, but the script flatlines and the comedy doesn't quite get there.

O'Dowd's direction and script make it a bit wooden and clunky. You are always waiting for the killer laughs, the key character moments, the unique Irish craic, but it never arrives.

It's watchable, but it will leave you with a sense of unfulfilled potential. Key relationships just take too long to establish, some great character potential is lost because the moment of spark is missing in the script. The actors are forced to act on, dragging out the awkwardness that's not necessarily good for the character, and leaving the viewer frustrated at the missed opportunity to take them further into the storyline.

The cast saved whatever elements of this that made it watchable but they clearly struggled with O'Dowd's flat script.

There just wasn't that link between comedy, plot and irishness that often makes these types of series work.

I think there's an age old lesson that O'Dowd has forgotten here, don't try and do everything yourself. Sometimes you need a critical friend (or two) on the project and this felt that it was the result of nobody being able to say "try that again" to the the ubiquitous O'Dowd.

Maybe a fresh director and a good script adaptation would revive it.

I hope so, there was something in there that O'Dowd just couldn't tease out.

I hadn't read anything about this show and had no idea where it was going but as the show developed the characters of the town come more to life and getting to know the characters may slow the pace at the beginning but you really need to understand their motivations. Six episodes was not enough as I was just starting to get into it, questions were being answered but there are still more questions. You should give this show a chance and I would say it's much better binge watched in order to keep pace going. I really hope there is a season 2 of this as there is so much potential now that we know the town, there is more room for the story to evolve.