Review: Irish series Tall Tales and Murder promises much but drowns in excess

Tall Tales and Murder, a six-episode Irish crime comedy shown on the BBC, is based on the first novel in Caimh McDonnell's Dublin Trilogy. Stuart Carolan, known for the Irish series Love/Hate, adapted it for television, and Chris Addison, associated with The Thick of It and Veep, is a co-creator. The Guardian's reviewer is only partly won over: the series is never boring, but it may leave viewers confused.

The story

At the centre is Bridget (Ella Lily Hyland), a care home worker with great patience and a tendency to hoard. She looks after residents including Rose (Sheila Flitton), who has dementia. Her boss is the no-nonsense matron (Aisling O'Sullivan). Through a police officer, Bunny (Brian Doherty), Bridget meets local troublemaker Paul (Casey Walsh), who joins the home's night staff. Sparks fly between the two.

The plot escalates when a mysterious patient (Aidan Gillen) wakes from a coma and revives an underworld feud over a cache of Celtic gold. Further threads include disgruntled gangsters, buried treasure, infidelity and a Paul Mescal lookalike contest.

The reviewer's verdict

The reviewer likens the experience to scrolling TikTok: plenty of characters, themes, twists and moods, but little sense that any of them is fully developed. Praised elements include the chemistry between Hyland and Walsh, a carefully handled storyline about Paul having been abused as a child, the performance of 93-year-old Flitton, and Philippa Dunne as the gangster Ma Baker.

On the downside, the care home residents, initially presented as central, are quickly forgotten, and an important early plotline is never resolved. The deaths of two characters feel like padding for the early episodes. The gangland violence is described as by-the-numbers. In the reviewer's view, a series that opens with gripping mysteries becomes more overwrought with each episode and wanders into too many tangents.