Darklands? The new Love/Hate?

The Late Late Show

The upcoming gangland series Darklands on Virgin sounds promising. Will this be another Love/Hate? As a person who enjoyed Love/Hate during its run from 2010 to 2014, I have found Irish gangland set TV has been a little thin on the ground from that period until now. Indeed, no Irish produced TV drama has really caught my attention. The series that caught my attention post-Love/Hate such as The Handmaid's Tale, Peaky Blinders and Better Call Saul (Breaking Bad spinoff) have ALL been non-Irish.

Darklands seems to tick all the right boxes so let's hope this will be a return to form when it comes to Irish drama. That it is not on RTE (of late, RTE have been very squeamish about violence as Taken Down, Striking Out, Finding Joy, Rebellion, etc. have shown) may help. Not getting my hopes up by Darklands does sound like it has potential.

JP Liz V1

Darklands starts on Monday the 7th of October at 9pm on Virgin Media One, created by Mark O’Connor (Cardboard Gangsters)

Virgin Media’s director of content Bill Malone says its less like Love/Hate and more like another European based crime series.

“I would say it’s for me similar to things like Gomorrah"

endacl

Probably won’t be anywhere near as good as love/hate. Hope for the sake of all involved that it’s not as $hit as cardboard gangsters.

donkeykong5

There was and will only ever be one LOVE HATE. it was exceptional.

freshpopcorn

So, is anybody watching this?

freshpopcorn

freshpopcorn wrote: »

So, is anybody watching this?

Watching it at the moment. Acting and Dialogue a bit hammy to be honest but then again Love/hate was probably as bad at the beginning only I didnt notice it. Completely different pace to Love/Hate though which set out its stall from the off.

The Late Late Show

The Late Late Show wrote: »

The upcoming gangland series Darklands on Virgin sounds promising. Will this be another Love/Hate? As a person who enjoyed Love/Hate during its run from 2010 to 2014, I have found Irish gangland set TV has been a little thin on the ground from that period until now. Indeed, no Irish produced TV drama has really caught my attention. The series that caught my attention post-Love/Hate such as The Handmaid's Tale, Peaky Blinders and Better Call Saul (Breaking Bad spinoff) have ALL been non-Irish.

Darklands seems to tick all the right boxes so let's hope this will be a return to form when it comes to Irish drama. That it is not on RTE (of late, RTE have been very squeamish about violence as Taken Down, Striking Out, Finding Joy, Rebellion, etc. have shown) may help. Not getting my hopes up by Darklands does sound like it has potential.

Well it will top that sorry list anyway thats guaranteed.

donkeykong5

donkeykong5 wrote: »

There was and will only ever be one LOVE HATE. it was exceptional.

As for its ugly bastard sibling Taken Down

Mr.Crinklewood

Anyone getting deafened by the wine sponsored add thingy?

BurnUp78

Acting and dialogue are laughable so far..

BurnUp78

BurnUp78 wrote: »

Acting and dialogue are laughable so far..

At least Amy Huberman isnt in it

Bit of a weight difference with those two fighters :rolleyes: Research not done

Hoboo

They could have at least got someone who didn't look 80 kilos

Gwynplaine

That fat lads accent is atrocious. Is he trying to be the Fran?

freshpopcorn

It's a little dead so far!

JaimeLannister

It's easy to be critical! But i'm enjoying it so far for what it is. The likeable young lad being set up for the tragic storyline it seems

rob316

Great making amateur mma look like the ****ing wild wild West. Really annoyed paddy holohan lent his gym to this and I saw Chris fields at the weigh in there.

rob316

Your man has tried so hard to sound like fran.

donkeykong5

Mr.Crinklewood wrote: »

Anyone getting deafened by the wine sponsored add thingy?

Thought it was just me. Cheers.

snipey

Love Hate has us spoiled, this is not great

Must say the MMA choreography is impressive. Top marks here.

Blanco100

Jesus this is crap. some basic research would have helped.

Having the kid cutting weight in his sweat suit in order to fight a lad in his 30s with a gut.

Its essentially Dubs trying to act like parodies of Dubs which comes out hammy. The difference with Love/Hate is that the characters had presence about them.
It left you on edge as to what they were going to do next or what was going to happen next.

whiskeyman

I never did see love hate.
Just flicked this on for the craic.
Enjoying it so far. The Irish factor keeps me watching. Yeah, it's a bit cringy, but some effort gone into it from the looks of it. They'll need a good hook to keep me watching for next week though.

Fitz*

Having a weight cut the same day as a fight...hmmmmm.

But I'll keep watching! I'm giving it a chance.

rob316

Blanco100 wrote: »

Jesus this is crap. some basic research would have helped.

Having the kid cutting weight in his sweat suit in order to fight a lad in his 30s with a gut.

This **** is detremential to amateur MMA which has been cleaned up massively. I'm really disappointed as leading figures in Irish MMA are endorsing this and the officials in it are real imma officials.

whiskeyman

whiskeyman wrote: »

I never did see love hate.
Just flicked this on for the craic.
Enjoying it so far. The Irish factor keeps me watching. Yeah, it's a bit cringy, but some effort gone into it from the looks of it. They'll need a good hook to keep me watching for next week though.

If you are enjoying this you'll absolutely love Love/Hate.

castletownman

Drug deal going down in broad daylight?

Suuure.

obi604

Gwynplaine wrote: »

That fat lads accent is atrocious. Is he trying to be the Fran?

His accent is doing my head in. Would nearly turn it off entirely due to his accent.

Blanco100

rob316 wrote: »

This **** is detremential to amateur MMA which has been cleaned up massively. I'm really disappointed as leading figures in Irish MMA are endorsing this and the officials in it are real imma officials.

ill be honest dont really give a sh*te about MMA its the bad writing that bugs me

This springs to mind so far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcVDZiBtX1M

Man Vs ManUre

Am away this week but looking forward to this when I ever home.
I always wondered why there wasn’t more Irish gangland drama as the subject matter isn’t exactly going away. I understand that love/hate had to end as they all wanted to move on, but it was the best thing RTÉ ever produced so why just drop it?? We had to put up with that Amy Huber man lawyer drivel instead.
I think this tv3 show will be poor just becos they will try to just make it similar to that red rock show they had for few years which had a bit of a gangland theme to it.

rob316

rob316 wrote: »

This **** is detremential to amateur MMA which has been cleaned up massively. I'm really disappointed as leading figures in Irish MMA are endorsing this and the officials in it are real imma officials.

Yeah but the the character who is an MMA fighter is a good kid who goes down the wrong track. Thats where they appear to be going. MMA is really just a sideline. That said, the writing is appalling so far.

Hoboo

Fat bird beats up 3 lads. I'm out.

Hoboo

Hoboo wrote: »

Fat bird beats up 3 lads. I'm out.

And not a bouncer in sight. Especially with the demographic in that club they'd be on top of that like a rash in real life you'd imagine

Man Vs ManUre

Seems they are inspired by Cardboard Gangsters. And that was a really great Irish movie if recent years. Tho I guess this VM show will be god awful just like red rock.

tototoe

If you want to see truly appalling tv, its on rte 2. Billionaire b+b

Holy sweet mother of f...

castletownman

In fairness though, the father plays a shady character very well. Even if he is typecast at this stage.

whiskeyman

Wha? Who was that guy?
Meh, not sure I can watch another hour. Just not enough to keep me for next week.

freshpopcorn

It would be good if the mother was the mastermind criminal!

Man Vs ManUre

tototoe wrote: »

If you want to see truly appalling tv, its on rte 2. Billionaire b+b

Holy sweet mother of f...

Is that a repeat I saw that before.
It’s dreadful but the presenter from Monaghan or Cavan is sexy!! But awful concept of a show we all wanna be super rich. And she comes across as a kinda hoe who will do whatever she has to do to be part of the wealth.

A Dublin version of Killinascully so far. Completely and utterly laughable. Im imagining the writers of this to be West Brits arty farties who seen one episode of Fair City and decided to use this as their template.

Actually to be fair i think the young actor (MMA fighter) is not too bad. The advertising for this show is top notch but when you look under the bonnet you have a pig in lipstick. Terrible, Terrible, Terrible! Ill give it a skip. Roll on tonights episode of the Deuce.

AMKC

I enjoyed that. Thought it was quite good unlike the crap film I seen today which not very nice at all and really If I could get my money and time back I would take it.

castletownman

castletownman wrote: »

In fairness though, the father plays a shady character very well. Even if he is typecast at this stage.

Ironically he is the sensible dad in this show.

selassie

Boring and slow, no idea why a telly show about this subject matter would start off like that.

Dice75

Deleted User wrote: »

A Dublin version of Killinascully so far. Completely and utterly laughable. Im imagining the writers of this to be West Brits arty farties who seen one episode of Fair City and decided to use this as their template.

Actually to be fair i think the young actor (MMA fighter) is not too bad. The advertising for this show is top notch but when you look under the bonnet you have a pig in lipstick. Terrible, Terrible, Terrible! Ill give it a skip. Roll on tonights episode of the Deuce.

Wicklow version.

donkeykong5

Gonna watch episode 2 on virgin now. It's not as bad as red rock. But no where as good as love hate.

secman

[Deleted User] wrote: »

A Dublin version of Killinascully so far. Completely and utterly laughable. Im imagining the writers of this to be West Brits arty farties who seen one episode of Fair City and decided to use this as their template.

Actually to be fair i think the young actor (MMA fighter) is not too bad. The advertising for this show is top notch but when you look under the bonnet you have a pig in lipstick. Terrible, Terrible, Terrible! Ill give it a skip. Roll on tonights episode of the )


One of the writers is Shane Coates brother, the Westies guy who was killed years ago.
The heavy guy with the deep Dublin accent is actually from North Inner city and in real life he couldn't be anymore different in looks and sound to the character he is playing.

Appalling stuff.
Apart from using your Dad's van for a 500k drug pick up the young lad ratting out his brother to AGS was as unbelievable.
Utter sh1te.

Fitz*

Wait, is the bald lad meant to be Scouse?!

FitzShane

FitzShane wrote: »

Wait, is the bald lad meant to be Scouse?!

Yup