(TWO STARS)
The House of Guinness is a period drama created by Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders), set in Dublin and New York in the 19th century, and it follows the fortunes of this powerful, famous family after the death of patriarch Sir Benjamin Guinness.
Juicy, you would think. Billed as ‘a cross between Succession and Downton Abbey’ how could it even fail? Or be boring? Well, ahem, how do I break this to you…?
Each episode (there are eight) opens with what amounts to a disclaimer.
The disclaimer tells us: ‘This is a fiction based on true stories.’
It would have to make you wonder what you were watching.
I spent half my time Googling whether the Guinness family did have violent run-ins with the Fenians (no) or were subject to arson and blackmail (no) or whether they employed a sexy fixer who would one day be played by James Norton (no).
The House of Guinness is a period drama created by Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders), set in Dublin and New York in the 19th century, and it follows the fortunes of this powerful, famous family after the death of patriarch Sir Benjamin Guinness (pictured Ann Skelly)
Left to right: Fionn O’Shea as Benjamin, Louis Partridge as Edward, Anthony Boyle as Arthur and Emily Fairn as Anne Guinness
So what are we watching? A soap opera, and a lacklustre one at that? That’s what it felt like.
We open in 1868 with the death of Sir Benjamin, who had built the brewery, founded by his father (I would have liked the story to start there) into a global success while bringing the family untold wealth.
Sir Benjamin has four children. They are Arthur(Anthony Boyle), the eldest, Edward, (Louis Partridge) who is the most able, Anne (Emily Fairn), whose character may be the most interesting but is criminally neglected, and Benjamin (Fionn O’Shea), who is a drunk and is absent from the narrative for such long periods I often forgot he existed.
However, as he’s an annoying caricature, I did not much mind.
We build to the reading of the will. Who has been left what? Will they all bevying for control? At each other’s throats? That was the expectation.
That was the billing. But it never materialises. Arthur and Edward have been left the business to run together.
Arthur doesn’t want to go into the business. He wants to go into politics. But as Edward is happy to run it himself there is no friction there.
Ann didn’t expect to inherit significantly while Benjamin is God knows where.
The drama series was billed as ‘a cross between Succession and Downton Abbey’
The drama boasts Knight’s trademark swagger, dark style and sweeping ambition, yet many have questioned whether it reaches too hard for atmosphere at the expense of substance (Niamh McCormack as Ellen Cochrane)
It’s hardly Succession, particularly when we also see how philanthropic the family are.
And it’s hardly Downton Abbey either. It is lavish and the production values are tip-top but we don’t even get a ball until episode three.
We follow their individual lives via the soapy storylines. Will Edward marry the right girl now he’s fallen in love with the wrong one? Will Arthur be outed as gay? (Arthur was probably gay for real; that much is true).
Will Anne…actually, we’re not asked to care about Anne which is a pity, as she was far less one-note. Every character gets their own subplot.
Rafferty, the sexy fixer played by James Norton, gets his own subplot. It also takes on the larger world and, in particular, the Fenians fight for an independent Ireland, bloating the narrative further.
Cutting out subplots and the Fenians, and grounding the story in the daily rhythms of one family and their business, would have been more involving, and have made it tighter.
It is slow, or at least it seems slow. Stuff happens but when you’re not much interested in that stuff time can stand still. It has its moments.
I perked up when Arthur’s marriage had to be brokered. But these moments are few and far between. It also seems hackneyed. Or, to put it another way, it’s so Steven Knight it often feels like self-parody.
We follow their individual lives via the soapy storylines. Will Edward marry the right girl now he’s fallen in love with the wrong one? Will Arthur be outed as gay? (Louis Partridge as Edward pictured)
It does have a decent cast, but they can’t breathe life into such poorly written characters or breathe life into lines like: ‘He’s an empty barrel on the tide of history’ (James Norton as Sean Rafferty)
Do we have modern pop and rock on the soundtrack? We do. Do we have neon intertitles? We do.
Do we have the abundant use of the f-word? We do.
Just when you think it can’t get any more Steven Knight along comes a bout of violence in slo-mo.
The rot probably first set in with Guy Ritchie but isn’t all this a bit stale now?
It does have a decent cast, but they can’t breathe life into such poorly written characters or breathe life into lines like: ‘He’s an empty barrel on the tide of history.’
Or: ‘It seems no-one in our family can be with the one they truly love.’
Plus there are no real stakes to the proceedings.
There is blackmail and arson and police raids on gay joints but nothing ever sticks.
I wish it had played it straight, focusing more on the history of the company – how did this ‘porter’ take over the world, when there are plenty of other beers? – as well as the events that actually happened.
One last thing: irritatingly, the final episode end son a cliffhanger. We’re not, it seems, done.
