Kin is a must-see crime drama on RTÉ.

I remember watching Love/Hate years back – with Robert Sheehan and Aidan Gillen. I really enjoyed the first couple of seasons, although I don’t believe I ever actually finished it. A very good show, though! But when I heard that Kin was similar in style to Love/Hate, this time with Charlie Cox and Emmett J. Scanlan and Aidan Gillen and Maria Doyle Kennedy, I knew I would like it. And I really, really did! Charlie Cox has been a favourite actor of mine since Daredevil, Stardust and The Theory of Everything. I remember watching Emmett J. Scanlan years back on Hollyoaks, and I’ve always liked him! Charlie Cox is brilliant – as expected – but honestly the whole cast were so, so good. Clare Dunne, who plays Amanda, is a new to me actress, but I really loved her in this. She is astoundingly good.

Kin follows the dark dealings and struggles of the fictional Kinsella crime family, not unlike the Sopranos (The Sopranos) or the Gallaghers (Shameless). When Michael Kinsella, played by Charlie Cox, is released from prison for accidentally killing his girlfriend and the mother of his daughter Anna, he returns home to find that a lot has changed. In his eight years in prison, Anna has grown up, his brother Jimmy is married to his former fling Amanda, and raising his biological son Jamie as his own, and little has changed with the ‘family business’. Insisting that he needs a legal job in order to see his daughter, Michael opts out of returning to his former position as enforcer and takes a job at Amanda’s car dealership, which the family use as a front.

This lasts for exactly one episode until Eric, son of the family’s leader, Frank, attacks their rivals and sets off a chain of events that leaves Jamie, Michael’s biological son with Amanda, dead. Jimmy, his brother and the one who raised Jamie with Amanda, swears revenge and asks Michael to help. At first, Michael refuses, but he’s soon drawn back into his old life, desperate to avenge his son and help his brother, whilst trying to get custody of his daughter, who is curious but wary about the return of her father.

The action and suspense in the show were so good that I ended up watching the first, like, six episodes without stopping (and have since started a rewatch). Only the fact that it was three in the morning made me finally pause and finish up the show the next day. It’s that intense and spellbinding. The characters are all interesting and the storylines are so engrossing. The cinematography is gorgeous. Really, it has all the ingredients for a top tier drama and totally succeeds. It’s a show that’s about family more than anything else and I’m so excited to see where the series goes from here. The ending of season one was action packed and dramatic and I can only guess what else there is to come!

Has anyone else watched Kin? What’d you think?