Tall Tales and Murder review – this Irish version of The Wire makes for mile-a-minute TV
You definitely won’t be bored by the TV take on the first of the Dublin Trilogy novels. But you might well feel confused by this Bonnie and Clyde-style caper through...
By Hannah J Davies · The Guardian Culture
You definitely won’t be bored by the TV take on the first of the Dublin Trilogy novels. But you might well feel confused by this Bonnie and Clyde-style caper through gangland Ireland (featuring Aidan Gillen) Tall Tales and Murder is likely to elicit varied responses from viewers, but boredom will surely be low on the list. This Irish caper – based on the first of the Dublin Trilogy novels by Caimh McDonnell, and written for TV by Stuart Carolan – moves at a mile a minute, taking in disgruntled gangsters; a dysfunctional care home; buried treasure; bedroom cuckoldry; a Paul Mescal lookalike contest and much more. Billed as a Bonnie and Clyde-style escapade, there are hints of Channel 4’s offbeat hit The End of the F***ing World , BBC Scotland’s thriller Guilt , and even a less elaborate Da Vinci Code in this tale of ill-gotten, church-adjacent gains. It comes with much prestige attached, too: Carolan is the man behind Irish TV hit Love/Hate, and the series was co-created by Chris Addison of The Thick of It and Veep fame. And yet, I’m still unsure that the above mix makes for particularly standout television. It’s entertaining, sure, but in the same way that whiling your day away on TikTok is entertaining, watching weird little vignettes while being hit with a continuous drip-feed of dopamine. Tall Tales and Murder pummels you with a multitude of characters, themes, plots, moods and twists, and feels like reading a choose-your-own-adventure book from cover to cover rather than skipping to the relevant pages. To watch is to gorge on an all-you-can-eat buffet of drama and comedy and action, but perhaps not to feel particularly satiated by any of it. Continue reading...