I have something of an obsession with Ireland, mainly with its literary output, though its low corporate taxes are also devilishly attractive. I cannot explain it in novel terms; to say I like its black humor is to repeat what everyone says. To expound upon the weirdness its twisted relationship with Catholicism has produced is to act the bore. If you’ve been paying attention, you know that generational repression and suffering often produce a sort of strangled wild cultural guffaw, and so it is with Ireland. But though I cannot think of anything new to tell you about why I am drawn to stories about and by the Irish, I can direct you to two new series that will scratch the Irish itch.
The Lovers (Sky Atlantic/AMC+): Two people meet. They are instantly attracted. They fall in love, even though there are reasons (he has a serious girlfriend, she’s suicidal) why they shouldn’t. A classic premise, but somehow never a tired one. What makes this iteration unique is its dark Irish humor. Seamus (Johnny Flynn) is a British TV broadcaster is sent to Belfast to film the new political talk show that could be his big break. He is instead chased through the streets by local hoodlums after they overhear his paternalistic reporting on their personal troubles. In his attempt to elude them, he jumps over the back garden fence of Janet’s (Roisin Gallagher) house, only to find her crouched against that fence with a shotgun in her mouth. They get to talking and something within them both recognizes messiness, unhappiness, and a pale thread of hope. The Lovers is propulsive; I couldn’t stop pressing play on the next episode. It reminds me a bit of The Bear in its ability to pack that much character-driven action into sub-30 minute episodes. And although it is pitch black, at times, there are so many moments of triumphant, survivalist humor. To keep laughing is to keep living, for these characters.
Watch if you like Derry Girls or James Joyce’s letters to Nora Barnacle.
The Woman in the Wall (BBC One/Showtime): If The Lovers starts with an aborted suicide meetcute, The Women in the Wall starts in an even darker and funnier place. Lorna, a woman who lives in a small Irish town, has been sleepwalking. She wakes in her nightgown, curled up on a wet road, three cows standing behind her like sentinels. There’s some blood on her nightgown and when she gets back to her house, there’s a knife stuck into a painting of Jesus. Lorna, it turns out, is a victim of a Magdalene Laundry, where she had her child taken from her. Years later, she suffers from flashbacks and sleepwalking, often losing time and committing violent acts of vandalism against Catholic symbols. The residents of her small town, including other survivors, just consider this something she does and see no reason to stop her. But when a priest is murdered in Dublin and his car turns up outside Lorna’s small town, things start to come to the light. Unfortunately, Lorna also wakes up one day to find a dead woman in her house, so the police attention is particularly unwanted. Although the material is incredibly painful, there is a grim humor to this series as well that keeps you present in the story. Ruth Wilson gives an incredible performance and the topic is one more people should know about, as it is a recent bit of history few seem aware of.
Watch if you like The Fall but way funnier and with way less murder.