This week's TV: Don’t give up on Frank of Ireland after 10 minutes — this is the good stuff
Domhnall Gleeson as Doofus, Brain Gleeson as Frank, Liz Fitzgibbon as Nicola in Frank Of Ireland
Are you into Wormhole Binge Views? You’re lured in by a show about how milk production is ruining the planet, and four months later you’re on Season 2 of a different show, illustrating how the fashion industry is bad for koalas. You think you’ll never get out until someone sends you the trailer for a popular South Korean soap opera, so you hop into that hole instead.
I’m in a Wormhole at the moment — it’s called France. I’ll watch anything French right now because they are making the best TV in the world. In the past year we’ve binged on Spiral, Versailles, and Le Bureau des L é gendes (a must if you can get your hands on it.) Now we’re on (Netflix). It’s been around for a while but the idea of a comedy-drama set in a talent agency didn’t float my boat. I can still remember the pain of , possibly because it was American and there is a small gap in the middle of American shows where genuine humanity should be.
is all about the humanity. It rests on four agents and their assistants in a Parisian movie-star agency. Good people do terrible things, terrible people do good things, it’s shocking and unpredictable and there is no moral at the end. The plot is completely driven by the whims and moods of the people involved, which makes it feel like real life.
It doesn’t hurt that they use the roof-terrace of the office block, with its Paris panorama, for every second scene. They usually have a real-life guest actor every week, which makes it feel a bit like .
Which brings us to the real strength of . It’s hilarious, as funny as at times, particularly when they go off-piste with risqué plot-lines like Christopher Lambert making eyes at a girl one-third of his age. It’s funnier than the goofy bits in and because the characters are fully-rounded, and fully-rounded makes for better laughs.
won’t change the world or the way we think about television. That’s a relief, because we have more than our fill of Big News at the moment. If you’re looking to escape into a wormhole with some flawed rogues in a gorgeous city, then watch this show. And after that, try something from South Korea.
It turns out the Irish can get involved in funny, warm TV as well. I didn’t laugh once in the first 10 minutes of (Channel 4 Thursdays 10 pm and All 4). And then I laughed every 30 seconds after that. It’s one of those shows where you have to get in the mood, a bit like . Once you’re in that mood, you’d laugh at anything, up to and including Brian Gleeson’s character Doofus kicking a woman in the nether regions. (It happens in a Mixed Martial Arts cage, which somehow makes it ok.) Don’t give up on after 10 minutes — this is the good stuff.
