TV review: Kin — they look like a family that runs a chain of coffee stops out of hipster horseboxes

Clever plot in episode one as a hot-headed feud with a local drug dealer kicks off — everyone is furious with each other, which is never a bad thing in a family crime drama

Clare Dunne and Emmett J Scanlon in Kin. EMBARGOED until 09/11/2021

Kin (RTÉ One Sundays and RTE Player) has two problems. The Sopranos and Gomorrah. Make a show about a crime family and you are going up against two of the greatest TV dramas of all time. It’s hard to stop people comparing your effort to the story of an Italian-American crime gang in New Jersey, or an Italian mob in the forlorn suburbs of Naples. It’s even harder to come out on the right side of this comparison. You need peerless plot-lines and sticky characters that you keep thinking about after the show is over. But more than that, you need to look right.

Kin just doesn’t look right. It tells the story of a Dublin crime gang, the Kinsellas. Kudos for using a name that throws a nod towards a notorious real-life crime family in Dublin, but that’s about it in terms of authenticity.