Irish Blood Season 1

Alicia Silverstone is in top form as a hugely successful and no-nonsense divorce lawyer, whose private life not only lies at the opposite pole but is about to confront her with some shocking home truth in this engaging Irish crime drama.

Meet Fiona Fox (A. Silverstone) who, together with her assistant Tess (Djouliet Amara), runs an elegantly decorated office in Los Angeles, where she works as a much in demand divorce lawyer due to her fierce and ruthless nature. On the private front, however, things don’t look quite as peachy (and that’s an understatement), thanks to a traumatic childhood when her father Declan Murphy (Jason O’Mara) abandoned her and her mother Mary (Wendy Crewson), who also lives in LA where she runs a successful bakery and cake shop. Once day, while Fiona is in the middle of an important phone call to a client, Tess delivers a package to her desk which not only leaves her baffled, as it contains a card from her estranged father (who she and her Mum have no heard of since thirty years) and an Irish phone number scribbled on it. When she calls the number (time difference, anyone?), it’s a woman instead of her father who answers and, with a muffled voice, delivers the cryptic message ‘Blackbeard holds the key to the treasure’. Now Fiona is not only angry that her dad finally felt the urge to get in touch with her after such a long time, she’s understandably intrigued…and decides to book a trip to Emerald Island, if only to confront her dad and let him know what a bastard he is.

With Tess in charge of the office, Fiona crosses the ponds but has no intentions of spending more than a couple of days at most in Ireland. If only she had an idea what lies in store! Upon arriving at Dublin airport, she makes her way to Co. Wicklow, where her father has his office. To her surprise, a party seems to go on (following a surreal dream sequence in which he has an imaginary argument with her now elderly dad) and she helps herself to a drink, asking where Declan is. When someone shows her the room in which Declan is supposed to be found, she’s shocked to the core when she finds her dad in the room alright, albeit dead and in an open coffin! An old woman called Isidora (Dearbhla Molloy), who turns out to be Declan’s mother, introduces herself. Fiona realises that the apparent party going on in the other room is in fact not a party but a wake, complete with booze, Irish-themed music (Thin Lizzy’s ‘The Boys are back in Town’ was one of Declan’s favourite tracks) and memories of the deceased. She introduces herself by name only but doesn’t reveal that she is Declan’s estranged daughter, simply because his family have no idea who she is either. During the wake, she also makes the acquaintance of Una Murphy (Simone Kirby), Finn Murphy (Stephen Hogan) and Musa (Leonardo Taiwo), who runs the local boxing gym. Oh, and there’s also a briefcase which belonged to her late dad, which she retrieves following the aforementioned ‘Blackbeard holds the key to the treasure’ clue. Inside the briefcase are numerous objects, including a special super-heroes toy which Fiona’s das once gave her as a present when she was young, and which she threw back at him in rage for having deserted her mum. Sifting through the various objects and notes, Fiona grows increasingly suspicious over the her father’s apparent cause of death: suicide by jumping from a cliff.

She decides to stay longer in Wicklow than planned and truly opens a Pandora’s Box, as increasingly, she suspects foul play rather than suicide. The local police Sergeant is stone-deaf, not to mention patronising, when Fiona suggests that foul play may have been involved in her dad’s death but she gets unexpected support from young and somewhat quirky Garda Roisin Doherty (Ruth Codd). Meanwhile, she also reveals her true identity to her late dad’s family, who embrace her with open arms except Declan’s mum Isodora, who initially displays hostility towards her but the two make up in time. Fiona is further supported by Musa, who is clearly smitten with her and soon enough, a tender romance is on the horizon. Investigating the clues which Declan’s briefcase holds deeper, Fiona suspects that her father may have been involved in seriously shady activities involving horse theft and insurance scams but as of yet has no proof. Enter Johnny McIntyre (Vincent Walsh), the local baddie who soon turns out to be a serious threat to Fiona, leaving no stone unturned in hampering her investigations, even if it means murder. With all this going on, it’s little wonder that back in LA, Fiona’s mum Mary grows increasingly concerned about her daughter’s well-being and decides to fly to Ireland as well. During a visit to Declan’s grave, Father Al (Stuart Graham), a figure from the past, shows up unexpectedly and it transpires that Al and Mary were lovers at one point before he turned priest. But all’s not what it seems with Father Al, especially when Fiona discovers an old photo in which he and Declan are depicted together. What’s Al’s secret and does he know more than he pretends to know about Declan’s death?

There are as many twists and turns as there are country roads in this well-acted drama, which becomes more interesting with every episode though could do with a little more action perhaps. Alicia Silverstone is utterly convincing as the tough-as-nails self-styled sleuth who grows increasingly vulnerable the more dirt she digs up connected to her dad’s past, though it’s Ruth Codd as kooky police officer Roisin who almost steals the show. What’s particularly inspiring are the surreal dream sequences during which Fiona converses with the younger version of her dad, sometimes as she’s in the present and sometimes as she was as a little girl. And yes, there’s of course a cliffhanger, meaning Season 2 is waiting in the wings.

IRISH BLOOD Season 1 is available as a 2-disc DVD Set and bonus material includes the Behind-The-Scenes featurette.