The old joke about people dying to get into the cemetery applies to the obituaries
as well. Unfortunately, for freelance obituary writer Elvira Clancy, they are not
dying quickly enough in her not so quaint Irish village. She starts helping
along Kilraven’s the oldest and meanest citizens, but of course, unexpected
consequences invariably result in writer-creator Rudy Lawlor’s six-part Obituary, which premieres tomorrow on
Hulu.
Living
in Kilraven is generally grim, but it is especially so for ragingly neurotic
Clancy. She lives with her alcoholic father Ward, who is drinking to forget
something. Her childhood defender, Mallory Markum, remains her only friend.
However, they are both seriously attracted to the paper’s new crime reporter,
Emerson Stafford, who seems over-qualified for such a low-profile publication.
It turns out he was personally recruited/blackmailed to come to Kilraven by his
terminally ill predecessor, Clive Cavendish, to solve the decade-old murder of
German national Maria Riedle.
The
death-obsessed Clancy is happy with the obit beat. She just needs more work, so
she soon decides to create some business for herself. However, she has strict
rules, like her victims must be over 18-years-old and basically have it coming.
Much to Clancy’s surprise, one of her near-misses turns over a new leaf, which spurs
her boss, Hughie Burns to also start poking around the Riedle case again. It
turns out just about everyone she knows has a hard-to-explain connection to the
case, including Clancy herself.
Lawlor’s
homicidal obit-writer premise is pretty sly, but his twists and turns take it
to a higher level. The way evil karma keeps coming back around, over and over
again, is quite clever. This really is some impressively slick television
writing.
The Ostan Harte is like an Irish Fawlty Towers, but it is more run-down and
less welcoming. For years, Grace Harte wanted to renovate, but her husband Leo
and his domineering mother were happy with how things were. However, succumbing
to the temptations of infidelity after her mother-in-law dies, leads to
dramatic noir consequences for the title character in creator-writer Antoine O
Flatharta’s Gaelic-language Grace Harte, premiering this coming Tuesday on MHz.
Hotel
Harte is closing for the season, just like they always do. Sadly, it will be
Madame Harte final season ever. Grace figures this is the time to finally modernize
the premises, but Leo lashes out and closes down whenever she broaches the
subject. That in turn drives her into the arms of Danny McDonagh a young
surf-bum with a dodgy past. Pretty soon, McDonagh starts making suspiciously
vague offers to “help” Harte with her husband problems. As Leo’s jealousy escalates,
Harte leaves an ill-advised voice message asking just what he might have in mind.
Without
consulting with Harte, McDonagh seizes an opportunity to take care of her
husband permanently—or so he thinks. Keep in mind, the body is not immediately
recovered. Nevertheless, Harte is ready to move on. She is unaware of whatever
McDonagh did or did not do, but the media frenzy surrounding her husband’s
disappearance is exhausting.
Filmed
in an arresting black-and-white, Grace Harte looks even more noir than
it is. In terms of genre and tone, it sits in an interesting place nestled
somewhere between The Postman Always Rings Twice and the stormy Richard
Gere infidelity drama Unfaithful (remade from a Claude Chabrol
original). Visually, GH is about as cinematic as TV gets, thanks to the
windswept coastal landscapes and Dave Grennan’s distinctive cinematography, which
serve them so well. You can easily see why people here might go a little crazy.
