Where you get one Gleeson, you get another. Channel 4's latest comedy Frank of Ireland puts Ireland on the silly map with this comedy written by and starring Gleeson brothers Brendan and Domhnall. You know Domhnall, starred in Star Wars, Ex Machina, Goodbye Christopher Robin. Well, I was hoping for that good old Irish charm to knock my socks off; instead I got a whole lot of eye rolling, seen it all before boredom.
Brendan plays the title character who's in his early thirties, still living at home with his rather loose mother. A jobless musician who hasn't written a song or played a gig in at least seven years. Oh, I forgot to mention, he's also a narcissist who thinks the world owes him a living, and takes any opportunity he can to quote a movie or two throughout the series. His ex girlfriend, who just happens to find herself in his bed on occasion, is moving on with a new fella, and he's not too happy about that.
Domhnall plays his long-suffering and idiotically loyal best friend Doofus. Yes, Doofus, you heard that. A gormless nerd who seems to be the moral compass in the friendship, but also the one that gets majorly shat on from a great height as he constantly cleans up Frank's mess, as they bumble across town leaving a wake of destruction.
Episode after episode is fuelled with one level jokes that leave that dying feeling in the pit of the stomach, and no matter how egotistical Frank is, for some reason people are just drawn to him like moths to a flame. I would rather use flies around shit, but, you know. I know it's a comedy, but come on there has to be some kind of personable believability about this, but that just gets checked off at the door. I gotta say, I attended a Q&A with the cast of this series, and that was hell of a lot more fun than watching these six episodes. Domhnall who, to be fair, I do have a bit of a soft spot for, is an absolute hoot.
Frankly, this mess of misjudged and, quite frankly, unintelligent gaffs doesn't land at the feet of the Gleeson brothers; co-written by your bad selves Michael Moloney and executive produced by catastrophe Sharon Horgon, they really could have done a lot better in delivering something hilariously original. This left me hurting with disappointment, this gets a two out of five I'm afraid.
