It's Christmas, which means an opportunity to catch up on some of those Irish themed shows on Netflix.
Get ready for 2020 and the Irish boxing superstar Katie Taylor in particular with the riveting 2018 documentary "Katie," now showing on Netflix.
Taylor is currently in training to make this coming year the biggest and best of her life and in this documentary, the cameras follow the Irish champion as she tries to rekindle her career after a year of hard setbacks.
Described as the best Irish boxing star that there is, was or ever will be, she's a much better bet for hero-worship than some of the swaggering Irish tough guys that have capsized their own reputations about town lately. She's also a better athlete.
Martin Scorsese's "The Irishman" on Netflix is a long and often fairly unsettling watch, being a somber portrait of a man who spends most of his life bumping off others for power and profit.
But what's so unsettling about Scorsese's later in life story is that Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran, the real-life hood that Robert Di Niro plays in the film, obviously doesn't care who he has hurt or kill. It turns out he has even shot the man who was his best friend and biggest supporter, Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa.
Scorsese's lifelong theme has been the American Dream and how few ways there actually are to actually achieve it and how soulless your life can become once you do. After a long life of mayhem and murder, Sheeran ends up on his own, unvisited and forgotten, in an old folk home where he tells the priest hearing his confession what he did, without ever thinking to ask for forgiveness because he's simply not sorry. It may be Scorsese's most chilling film.
Another Netflix mega-hit is the second season of "Derry Girls," which now follows the girls through the 1994 IRA ceasefire.
An unexpected hit in the USA where many people actually watch the show with the subtitles on, it's a spirited and sometimes unexpectedly moving story of young people trying to have a good time during the toughest times imaginable.
Already "Derry Girls" is making breakout stars of actors Saoirse Monica Jackson and Nicola Coughlan who's pitched battles are among the most hilarious things in the show, but its the shocks delivered by the Troubles themselves that makes this show so special, because finally, the world is seeing what Derry girls and boys had to live with for decades.
"Can't Cope, Won't Cope" is about twenty-something fund manager Aisling and art student Danielle a pair of pals living in Dublin on what looks like a never-ending bender of booze, partying and casual sex.
At root, though the show is about female friendships that dip into co-dependency and become increasingly toxic. Men are often their targets but it's the real damage that happens as one friend turns the other into a caregiver without her consent that is its real subject, one you rarely see explored this well on TV.
Finally, for a complete change of pace, you could check out "Hostage To The Devil," the documentary that tells the story of Irish priest Father Malachi Martin, who believes that demonic possession isn't just a plot point in a horror film but a real-life danger that eventually leads to him performing several exorcisms (some captured on camera).
Why not opt for a bit of demon possession to liven things up after the turkey dinner? But prepare for an unsettling ride.
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