Do you like your mystery series gritty? Tell the British mystery shows to move aside! No place delivers edgy, heart-pounding content like Ireland. Whether you like your intrigue modern or historical, your detectives straight-laced or rough around the edges, or the drama amongst the authorities or the people the dead have left behind—here are eight must-watch crime dramas from Ireland, streaming now on Acorn TV.
Acceptable Risk
The only thing more exciting than international intrigue is a set of dark family secrets. Sarah Manning's (Elaine Cassidy) husband has been murdered, and in the aftermath she comes to the slow trickling realization that her husband's past is largely a mystery to her. As the authorities dive into an investigation of his death, Sarah must come to terms with the truth about the man she loved—and the work he did for a shadowy global organization.
Single-Handed
Cop Jack Driscoll (Owen McDonnell) transfers from Dublin to the remote town on Ireland's west coast where he grew up. Taking up the Garda post of his retired father, Driscoll takes on a number of dark cases. A close-knit community full of complex characters and moral ambiguity put extra obstacles and heightened pressure on his shoulders.
Clean Break
Struggling car dealer Frank Mallon (Adam Fergus) is on the brink of losing his house—and with it, his teenage daughter, Corrina (Kelly Thornton). To wrestle back control of his life, Frank devises a plan to make quick cash, all while wreaking havoc on the powers that be who make his life miserable. Teaming up with two criminals and a local boxer, Frank kidnaps the wife and daughter of the bank's manager, Desmond Rane (Aidan McArdle). But the ill-advised crime quickly spins out of control.
Jack Taylor
Based on the bestselling Ken Bruen novels of the same name, this series follows former cop Jack Taylor (Iain Glen) as he explores work as a private investigator. Some of Ireland's most heinous crimes unfold before him, but Taylor has put in his dues to earn his reputation as a tough-as-nails detective. Killers and vigilantes have nothing on him, but his drinking problem creates a fair share of obstacles.
Related: Ken Bruen: The Irish Crime Fiction Master's Best Jack Taylor Mysteries
Blood
A series likened by critics to Broadchurch and The Killing, this Irish psychological mystery follows respected doctor, Jim Hogan (Adrian Dunbar), and his daughter, Cat (Carolina Main), in the wake of his wife's death. Everyone in the small Irish town believes her death was accidental—but Cat, mistrusting her father due to childhood trauma, has her doubts. As Cat digs deeper to the truth, she finds herself in the center of familial mind games as old secrets and betrayals rise to the surface.
Dead Still
In Victorian Ireland, at the height of the popularity of postmortem photography, Brock Blennerhasset (Michael Smiley) makes his living photographing the dead. However, when a string of murders linked to his unique work puts his reputation in danger, a detective drags him into the heart of Dublin's criminal underworld to aid in the investigation. Only six episodes long, this uniquely Irish series is as humorous as it is macabre.
Taken Down
Set in Dublin, this crime drama follows Inspector Jen Rooney (Lynn Rafferty) and her team as they investigate the murder of a Nigerian girl. As they ask questions among the refugee community, it seems young mother Abeni Bankole (Aïssa Maïga) may know more than she's admitting. But when another child goes missing, the cops must find her before she becomes yet another victim to the slumlords and criminals that prey on the city's vulnerable.
Bloodlands
Tom Brannick (James Nesbitt) is a veteran detective who finds a link between a criminal's car pulled from the sea to a string of disappearances—including his own wife's—from 20 years ago. Motivated by a deep personal need for closure, Brannick launches an obsessive campaign to bring down a possible assassin. But the deeper he digs, the more he evokes Northern Ireland's dark past.
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