Quirke
Quirke
| 16 February 2014 (USA)

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SEASON & EPISODES
  • 1
  • Reviews
    Thehibikiew Not even bad in a good way
    Solidrariol Am I Missing Something?
    Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation
    Allissa .Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.
    crw1 It'd be a lot more palatable if they didn't continually light up and dwell, linger, on cigarette smoking. Surely financed by a tobacco group. 'Authentic' they say. I say, if the story was any good, it wouldn't need that so-called (smoking-justifying) 'authenticity'. Ruins it for me.
    jk-692-236394 Honestly I do not know they expect to get viewers on a regular basis with only 3 episodes? It did not play like a mini series or long movie. Was it suppose to? It is well done. Different and interesting. The acting was good. But I was sure this was a TV series. Three episodes does not make a TV series. I guess it was not meant to be more. This is from Wiki. Quirke is a British-Irish crime drama television series that was first broadcast on BBC One and RTÉ One in 2014. The three-part series is based on the books by John Banville, writing under the pseudonym Benjamin Black, and was adapted by Andrew Davies and Conor McPherson. I would like to see them actually turn this into a real series.
    theredmare Another top notch offering from the BBC. (2 episodes in) Wonderful, atmospheric settings and unusually artistic cinematography, a gripping back story and marvellous, marvellous acting. A very good insight into life in Ireland in the 50's also.Quirke, the outstanding Gabriel Byrne in one of his better efforts ever, is an alcoholic pathologist in Dublin in the 1950's. Quirke, an orphan of unknown parents, was adopted into the wealthy Griffin family. A family where not is all what it seems, and where people love and hate each other at the same time, and harbour secrets, some of them quite terrible. (like a lot of real families). While Quirke tries to help find out what happened to bodies who used to be people with the help of a jaded garda inspector, we unravel his past life episode by episode, and watch his life unravel as well.It is compelling stuff, I can only highly recommend it. Preferably from the start. While produced by the BBC, it's an all irish cast and location. It looks a million dollar, it's original, the characters are interestingly complex, and it's just very, very good.It feels very much like the Maigret series with Bruno Cremer, only better (!). Note that the solving of the mystery is only a part of the drama, most of it revolves on the interplay of the family, their problems and their secrets, and the telling of life in a Ireland 60 years ago, with its obedience to the catholic church, treatment of women etc...therefore you can enjoy it even if you aren't fond of murder mysteries. It is nearly an anticlimax to come to the end and have the murder solved (sometimes rather too conveniently - hence the 9 instead of 10 - very small complaint) , so engrossed are you in the actual story in its entirety - you want it to go on!Do not expect CSI or NCIS, it is as far removed from those shows as possible.I did not read the books, so that I have no idea how accurate is the adaptation, but I can guarantee the story is perfectly clear and simple to follow, unlike some adaptations that require former knowledge of the written medium to understand anything at all.I also highly recommend it in HD with a good sound system. The terrific atmosphere deserves that.Contains smoking and drinking. [;-)]Edit: Episode 3 is a straight 10/10. Very emotional, and even improved from the other two on all fronts, if that was possible. Classic television in the making. - I just read the first two episodes were adapted by Welsh screenwriter Andrew Davies and the third by Irish playwright/director Conor McPherson. Now it makes sense and it actually shows.
    sluggr-2 I kept watching, just hoping it would get better. Three A-list principals, it just has to be good, right? IMHO, the writing was on par with a Quincey MD episode, the acting was either forced or flat, and the writing, editing, and directing abrupt. Just because it had the atmosphere of Foyle's War or The Bletchley Circle did not make it so. Glamour and style do not make up for a lack of substance. There were so many blatantly obvious hints about the "event which might be considered by some a twist" that by the time it arrived all I could say was "well duh-UH!" In fact, twist is too strong a term, as is reveal. Think of this as being on the opposite end of the spectrum from an Inspector Morse.