EVERYBODY'S TALKING ABOUT JAMIE (KIN)

In the Dublin gangster drama 'Kin,' everybody's talking about Jamie.

The Jamie in question, however, doesn't dream of being a drag queen.

Jamie Kinsella, as played by Cian Fitzsimmons in the eight part RTE and AMC drama, is a bright teenager who is being badgered by his mum, Clare Dunne's Amanda about university.

She wants him to declare what course he would like to do and which university he wants to attend.

He's waivering about whether he actually wants to go.

Jamie, however, is a member of the Kinsella family - a small scale southside of Dublin crime gang that peddles drugs.

At its helm is Aidan Gillen's sharp suited Frank and his trusted lieutenants and nephews, Emmett J Scanlan's Jimmy and Charlie Cox's Michael, his hotheaded son Sam Keeley's Erik "the Viking" and Maria Doyle Kennedy's Brigid 'Birdie' Goggins.

A family run criminal enterprise, Amanda launders money through her car dealership while her husband Jimmy, Erik and Frank keep the drug proceeds flowing.

At the start of Peter McKenna and Ciaran Donnelly's drama, Michael is released from jail.

It is his wish that he is given a legitimate job, so he can apply for access to his estranged teenage daughter Hannah Adeogun's Anna Areoye.

Amanda arranges for him to work in her dealership.

The Kinsellas are, however, small fish swimming in the same pond as a more powerful gang run by Ciaran Hinds' Eamon Cunningham.

Cunningham's gang have international crime connections and Eamon likes to dictate who swims in the pond and where.

So when Ben Carolan's hitman Glen Wright shoots one of Frank's dealers at the behest of Lloyd Cooney's Caolan Moore, all hell breaks loose among the Kinsellas.

Erik wants to retaliate, fearing not to do so makes them look weak.

Frank orders him not to retaliate, fearing it will plunge his family into an unwinnable turf war it is ill equipped to fight and which will ultimately leave them much weaker.

The Viking, however, ignores him - borrowing a car from Amanda and getting into an altercation with Moore on a city centre street while driving with his girlfriend, Yasmin Seky's Niki Murphy.

Erik later drives the car to a housing estate where Moore and his gang are having an outdoor party and opens fire in a drive-by attack.

A furious Eamon gives the go ahead for Erik to be killed as a message to the Kinsellas.

However the attempt on Erik's life outside a city centre gym goes awry when Jamie, who is waiting with Michael to pick him up, is gunned down instead.

The Kinsellas want to take Caolan Moore's life but Eamon refuses to give them his blessing for any form of punishment.

He leans on Frank, Jimmy and Amanda instead to take 150,000 euro in compensation but Jamie's parents refuse.

Amanda and Jimmy, it seems, have other plans.

Despite Frank's reluctance to avenge Jamie's death and take on Eamon and Caolan Moore, they suck Michael into their plan.

The resultant turf war proves costly to both gangs but it also exposes internal tensions, historic family grievances and it unleashes a cycle of violence that is difficult to stop.

Can the Kinsellas survive an onslaught from Eamon Cunningham's gang?

Is someone in the gang feeding information to Eamon about the Kinsellas' whereabouts and activities?

How will the rest of Dublin's criminal fraternity take to the Kinsellas taking on a much more powerful gangland figure?

McKenna and Donnelly and their directors Diarmuid Goggins and Tessa Hoffe serve up the slickest drama RTE has ever produced.

With its drone shots of the city flying over the quays and Dublin 4 and James Mather's cool cinematography, the Irish capital has rarely looked as impressive on the small or big screen.

You can clearly see the benefits of collaboration between the Irish national broadcaster and a major US player like AMC - a bigger budget, a well known Irish cast, smart production design and tight, focused scripts.

And while 'Kin' riffs on some familiar themes and characters from the gangster genre, its Dublin setting nevertheless seems fresh and authentic.

Inevitably, Irish audiences will compare it to RTE's successful drama 'Love/Hate' and it holds up very well.

International audiences will understandably reach for the measuring stick of HBO's 'The Sopranos' and while it seems unfair to aim that high, McKenna and Donnelly's series could well turn out to be among the very best of the genre if it is allowed to grow beyond one series.

While the ratings on RTE this autumn have certainly been impressive, it will be the ability of 'Kin' to resonate with audiences in North America on AMC+ that may ultimately decide its fate.

Of the well known faces, it has to be said Gillen and Hinds are as compelling as ever.

The former is full of nervous energy, keeping you guessing about Frank's motives and whether he has the cojones to run a crime family.

Hinds is simply terrific as a manipulative thug, quick to throw his weight about and prey on his rivals' weaknesses.

Dunne arguably steals the show.

Amanda is the richest female character ever to be created for Irish television and she impressively grabs her moment in the spotlight, with a convincing portrayal of a grieving mum and a ruthless businesswoman.

Cox is hugely sympathetic as the reluctant and sensitive Michael, while Scanlan turns in his most commanding work to date as the grieving and insecure Jimmy - even if he still suffers from an occasional tendency to mumble onscreen.

Keeley rises to the challenge of playing Frank's hotheaded son and brings a vulnerability to the gangster bravado as the possibility of prison looms.

Seky is impressive in her debut role, holding her own with an experienced cast while Maria Doyle Kennedy plays her part of the matriarch to perfection.

Fitzsimmons, Adeogun, Carolan and Cooney all contribute, as does Keith McErlean as Eamon's right hand man Con Doyle, Mark McKenna Jr as Amanda and Jimmy's other son Anthony, Ryan Lincoln and Thommas Kane-Byrne as Kinsella gang members Kem and Fudge, Fiona Bell as Eamon's ex-wife, Denise McCormack as a grieving woman whose husband is caught in the feud and Esosa Ighodaro as a Garda detective Liz Cullen.

Francis Magee also has a memorable moment as Michael and Jimmy's imprisoned dad, Bren.

During a prison visit, the former Kinsella gang leader gives Frank the dressing down to end all dressing downs in a well written sequence that reveals much about the family's past and points to where the show may potentially go in the future.

The high point of 'Kin' arguably comes in the third episode which is intelligently written by McKenna and fantastically directed by Goggins, as Jamie's funeral unfolds in the presence of Eamon.

Riven with high emotion and tension, Hinds brings real heft to these scenes as Eamon tries to work out in sideline conversations with various members of the Kinsella family if they are intent on disobeying his order to leave Caolan Moore alone.

By the time 'Kin' reaches it dizzying and thrilling climax, you feel it has earned the right for another series.

That may be out of RTE's hands but it would be a crying shame if 'Kin' isn't given the opportunity to further develop or the budget that will require.

Having set the gold standard for Irish TV drama in terms of production values, it deserves another shot with a similar budget 

'Kin' shows in its first season what can be achieved through collaboration with international broadcasters.

The question is will RTE be allowed to build on it?

If you're in the US and Canada, spread the word. 

If you're living outside of Ireland and North America, demand to see it.

This is one gangster drama that after one series is just too promising to die.

('Kin' was broadcast on RTE1 in Ireland from September 12-October 31, 2021 and was made available for streaming in the United States and Canada on AMC+ on September 9, 2021)

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