RTÉ hasn’t had much in the way of good news stories recently, so it’s hard to begrudge the national broadcaster as reports emerge of a deal to secure the future of its ratings-winning gangland drama Kin. After two well-received seasons, the show ended on a cliffhanger in 2023 – but the real twist was to come following the collapse of Canadian co-producer Bron Studios. An unlikely resurrection now seems on the cards, with Montrose and the BBC in talks to co-produce a third season – and cameras potentially set to roll later this year.
Kin was a long way from perfect. It faced accusations of bad taste over its name, which was interpreted as a reference to the real-life Kinahan cartel – though its writer, Peter McKenna, insisted this was not the case. The really big fumble, however, came at the end of series one, which bore a strong resemblance to the final act of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather – with Clare Dunne’s Amanda Kinsella taking on the mantle of the secretly ruthless brains behind the operation, as played by Al Pacino in the 1971 mobster classic.
Yet despite those shortcomings, Kin gave RTÉ one of its biggest ratings hits since its previous big crime show, Love/Hate. It also did well abroad, where it was heralded as an Irish Sopranos. That overseas profile was boosted by Marvel actor Charlie Cox, who played the dynasty’s quietly spoken black sheep, Michael.
Cox pulled off a near-flawless Dublin accent, while Kin also benefited from brooding camerawork that depicted Dublin as a noirish den of inequity and gun smoke. At its best, the show had a cinematic lustre, and while that never quite papered over the soapy plot and often ropy dialogue, it was nonetheless a novelty to encounter a home-grown series that at least looked like prestige drama, if you squinted.
There was also an impressive cast alongside Cox and Dunne, including Ciarán Hinds as the Kinsella family’s nemesis in season one and Francis Magee as the bullying Kinsella patriarch who returns from prison in year two.
RTÉ has deservedly taken a lot of flak recently over the uneven standard of its dramas. Despite a starring role for Love/Hate actor Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, the recent dark comedy These Sacred Vows was an atrocious attempt at a home-grown White Lotus. And that was somehow a distinct improvement on the recent Marian Keyes adaptation of The Walsh Sisters, which surgically removed all of the charm of the source material and left nothing but a cold void in its place.
With that sort of track record, you can’t blame the broadcaster for sticking to what it does best, which, when it comes to drama, means crime. It’s just a shame RTÉ doesn’t cast a wider net. Imagine a period drama about the 18th-century secret societies, such as the Whiteboys or a serious attempt to grapple with the rise and implosion of the Celtic Tiger.
Kin is a thoroughly solid drama, not without its missteps but far from terrible – and compared to the rest of what passes for scripted entertainment on Irish television, it can’t come back soon enough.