The scenery is probably the only element of this three-part series that isn't bleak and grim. Set in 1880s Northern Ireland, Beth lives with her wealthy, landowner/quarry owner stepfather, Billy, who is a depressed, occasionally violent, frequently drunk, lecherous and bitter man. She falls in love with Liam, a local Catholic tenant farmer and pro-Parnell Republican who convinces her to assist a plot to procure dynamite. Matthew Rhys as the bitter Billy delivers the most passionate, believable performance. Ann Skelly as Beth veers from wooden and expressionless to histrionic overacting with long, boring monologues. Jamie Dornan's Liam is mostly sour and cold-it's hard to work up much interest in his character. Would have preferred him to be more charming and seductive to believe that Beth, who is in her 20s and well educated, would want to do anything to be with him. He looks good, of course, but has absolutely no personality.
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PeachesIR28 December 2021
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blue-raincoat19 December 2018With so many first class actors (with the exception of the female lead who was pretty dire throughout and couldn't even manage a Northern Irish accent) this mini series should have been great, but sadly it failed due to too slow pacing and an unsympathetic and unfathomable main character (Beth).
Matthew Rhys and Jamie Dorman were excellent. The period detail was great. It was atmospheric and engaging - up to a point, but really this could easily have been condensed into 1 hour 30 minutes (instead of 3 long hours). Having the main character Beth talking aloud to herself to explain plot points/feelings was clumsy and lazy scriptwriting too, by the third episode the character had lost all believability. A real pity, as this could have succeeded with some major editing and a more skilled female lead. -
bukovics-babett8 February 2019The plot is very plain. It was painfully slow and empty. I can't recommend it, but I gave 5 stars because the music, the picture and the scenery was quite enjoyable and the characters weren't black and white.
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ruvindu-tharushika19 May 2019It's good but, the ending is not satisfying. Location and sound mixing 👌
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Hallelujah28931 July 2021Death and Nightingales really has a lot going for it with an interesting kind of plot and a great cast of actors who are all very present and good in their roles.
But the third episode which is final part of the miniseries manages to unravel the goodwill I felt for the protagonist which is the main reason for the low star rating. The problem is that the other actors Matthew Rhys and Jamie Dornan give many kinds of signs in their expressions and what not that they are redeemable characters. And I did not feel Ann Skelly (though I like her) really had enough motivation for it to make sense to do what she did or for us to root for her. I believe this is probably the fault of the script or the novel it adapts from for the poor decisions Ann Skelly's character makes or her near non existent decision making process. But at any rate Ann Skelly can't quite pull of her character's melodramatic and novelistic morbid way of speaking, probably largely because the rest of the series isn't stylistic like that so it seems acutely peculiar at times.
But otherwise I think at times they almost pull off a hard to pull off story, I mean beyond the failure of episode 3. I think this series did a decent job for what it is. Very atmospheric with a repetitive but fitting soundtrack.
Watch just to enjoy the performances that you can. Enjoy the ride but don't expect much in the way of a meaningful conclusion. -
derek-eynon7 February 2019...with some good performances, and some excellent scenery and photography, but (and this may be a spoiler) it lacks an ending. This is a pet hate of mine. If you can't think of an ending, don't film the thing. I am assuming there is no season 2, as it is based on a stand alone novel.
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I like to drive. Some drives are peaceful, others not so much. This show is a long, boring drive through a desert on your way to a desert. When you get there, you ask yourself "why did I drive through a desert only to arrive at a desert". Then you slowly lose consciousness due to dehydration and realize that you never should have gotten in the car to begin with. See where I'm going here? You're welcome.
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c-kelsall28 November 2018Death and Nightingales is apparently based on a book by 'the greatest Irish novelist you've never heard of', Eugene McCabe. Cartainly I hadn't, but if this is a faithful adaptation, maybe he's got something after all. As bodice-ripping dramas go, there's enough mystery and surpressed passion to give Wuthering Heights or Jamaica Inn a run for its money. Excellent performances from the whole cast, although Michael Smiley was woefully underused in the opening installment. I can only assume he has a bigger role to play yet. I was annoyed to see a schoolboy error in referring to Mercy as Beth in the cast list initially, but happily that has now been corrected! Anyway, to end on a positive note, the atmosphere in this production is fantastic, the Irish scenery is put to superb use in creating the aforementioned, and I was utterly absorbed from start to finish.
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jelencesb16 May 2021Ann Skelly really gave such a performance!
I m not for period drama but for her acting itcwas really worth investing time. -
bjarias2 November 2021... several things work against the program ... it's a very bleak story filmed in extremely dark settings so you can barely distinguish what's going on half the time ... add language dialects unintelligible a majority of the time without the aid of subtitles ... and a story told in three parts that easily could-should have been two.
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An excellent and captivating drama. A fascinating exploration of a young woman's plight at the hands of a tempestuous father and exploitative lover who only wishes to use Beth as a means to support Republicanist terror in England. Wonderful dialogue and haunting Irish music creates a chilling atmosphere. Beth is beautiful, vulnerable, brave and enduring and ultimately a symbol of judgement over the wickedness perpetrated by the men she encounters in her tragic life.
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borninthewrongcentury22 June 2021This could have been more pivotal and enticing but it missed the mark. It just became slow and brooding and then just strange and left you with an empty taste. Nothing fulfilling.
Mediocre script, poor direction. It could have been much better. -
wbprops28 June 2021Right down the toilet. Wish I could Unwatch this. What a shame to end it like that. No sympathetic characters whatsoever aside from Mercy the maid but they never tell you what happens to her. The ending was a real let down-dont watch it.
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susi-233-68738822 December 2018Skelly, Rhys and Dornan heavily invest in their formal Theater training for a deeply emotional rendition of Eugene McCabe's historical novel of the same name.
The agonizing dialogue will either put one off immediately or serve to capacitate an intense immersive process into the emotional auras of that time. -
Headturner121 March 2020A decent watch. I came for Dornan but Rhys was the standout.Poor script. No clear cut story and they should of showed more back story. I didn't see anything that Rhys did for her to hate him so much and he cared so much for her despite her mothers indiscretions. Confusing things going on, not enough to make me think her so in love to steal and run off and the ending wasn't an ending but I still watched all episodes so it was a decent watch.
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ikginger11 December 2018"Death and Nightingales" mini-series - the best I've seen the past couple of years. Allan Cubitt and his excellent cast made it worth all possible awards.
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lindaclark-898-90200923 June 2021I like all the actors but in other shows. What a waste of the picturesque scenery, buildings and actors. A thin 2 arc plot that goes basically nowhere. The 1st plot line is between, Billy Winters, who is tricked into marrying a woman who is pregnant by another (man?). Daughter Beth knows Billy isn't her father, and when she asks who her father is, Billy says he doesn't know it is one of two men. Beth's mother dies, when Beth is young and Billy continues to raise her as his own. As the years pass, Billy starts to see Beth, not as a daughter, but as a love interest. After drinking, Billy visits Beth in her bedroom who then escapes to sleep with the maid. The maid is a friend and confidant to Beth. The maid tells her brother the policeman.
Billy is well off and has tenant farmers and a stone quarry. This is the second story arc. Billy was mean to Beth's mother and beat her and threatens to disinherit Beth. One day a man shows up at Billy's house and asks him to spy on his tenants as there have been bombings in London by Irish dissidents. He blackmails Billy by threatening to tell everyone of him beating his wife. The man shows a report from the maid's brother as to Billy's beating his wife and being, too friendly to Beth. The law is checking on all sources for dynamite. One of the men in the quarry befriends Beth after learning Billy keeps gold at the house. The gold is needed for the bombs. Liam plans with Beth to steal the money and run away but in fact only wants the gold and plans to kill Beth after she robs her father. On the night of her planned escape she gives her father a drug for horses to knock him out. She grabs the the gold and leaves only to be stopped on the way by a mute man. He forces her back to the house and draws a diagram to show her Liam has dug her grave. She's devastated and puts the gold back at which time Billy enters the room. Billy beats her and forces her to leave with nothing. Beth misses the rendezvouses with Liam and instead waits at his house. Beth is pregnant and knows Liam planned to kill her so she tricks him into getting in a boat to leave for a new life. Beth knows Liam can't swim and knocks him out of the boat. Liam drowns and Beth returns to Liam's cottage where Billy finds her and wants her, thus starting the same scenario as before. Three stretched out episodes to tell this tale that could have been told in one. A great deal of the story is at night with bad lighting for the eerie effect I guess. A waste of talent. -
texasreaderstacy27 June 2021Expected more from this. It was so slow, weak base story. And needed closed captioning to understand most of what they were saying. But what really blew it was that WTF ending!? Wasted 3 hours of my day ....
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lorristanley16 December 2018I enjoyed this movie but if there is only 3 parts and that is it I am disappointed on how they ended it. Is there more?
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piercehiggins11 December 2018It got worse and worse. I was expecting a few leprauchans to appear. An embarrassment of s series. Avoid
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ron-e-wilson29 November 2018First episode great though I think I can see the twist. by the way previous reviewer wanted to know wnho was playing Mercy. it si in the listing but the have the wrong character name. Actress is Charlene McKenna but character list has her as Beth instead of Mercy
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At first I thought maybe it was just slow moving, and that something interesting & uplifting would happen soon .... but it never did. The story was depressing and grim to the very end. It failed to inspire empathy even for the abused main character since she was cold and frankly, a little odd. All the other characters were predictable and one-dimensional as well. Only the maid Mercy shows some warmth, but when she behaves unkindly, too, the viewer is left with literally no one to like or admire.
This series was dark, dull and with no redeeming life lesson to justify such an overly-long and painful slog through their miserable lives. Not recommended. -
Gracie9624 May 2021Probably more enjoyable to watch paint dry. Not worth the time or effort of staying up. Very slow-horrendously slow. I cannot finish this series and cannot recommend it.
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burtonkym25 September 2021Sooooo I LOVE to binge watch shows/movies in general! But when it comes to Romance, Mid-Evil Time, Drama category .....this is in a top category!! I like to of course, find a show I can watch season to season....& THIS IS THE ONE! But.....at the mean time there is only one season. But on a serious matter...its a MUST SEE(: