'House of Guinness' on Netflix

More Mitford sister

Trailer.

It does seem like more of Peaky Blinders fare under a different name. But my god, is Anthony Boyle handsome or what.

The Partridge Twink

I will give it a try, but it's the later 20thC generations of Guinnesses who are more interesting to me, the ones who only had to worry about spending money and distinguishing themselves by their eccentricities.

I’ll watch for that tall drink of twink in the middle.

That’s the Partridge Twink.

Keith Partridge? I heard he died.

Thanks for sharing this. Looks right up my alley.

I just recently finished Outrageous and loved it.

Led to going down a Guinness and Mitford family hole.

Now reading a book about the horrid Diana Mitford. What a bitch she was!

And per another DL suggestion ordered the Glitter and the Gold about C. Vanderbilt, dollar princess.

Looking forward to reading it next.

Thanks DL!

I’ll watch it. I loved Peaky Blinders and this cast looks particularly handsome.

R8, you'd like The Knick on HBO

There's a gay character in it!

First episode was very good and well-acted. Definitely has the 'Peaky Blinders' vibe, so if you didn't like that series, you may not enjoy this too much.

I’m going to start because I’m out of everything else to watch.

The actress who plays the Guinness sister, Anne Guinness Plunkett, is wondrously homely. She has one of the worst noses I have ever seen on a professional actress.

The characters all say "fuck" as often as characters in a David Mamet play. Even if these were just the working class characters it would not make much sense, because "fuck" was not a popular expletive in the 19th century. I could buty that the working class characters say it just like on "Deadwood" as artistic license, because the terms they actually would have used in the 1860s for swear words ("blazing," "damn") would sound too mild for today's TV. But all the upper-class characters on the show (including all four siblings) say "fuck" too, which is ridiculous.

Oddly enough the production is incredibly sumptuous. Although the hair of the young male characters (especially the brothers) is anachronistically clean and styled, the older characters all have typical 1860s hairstyles of the time, which is something.

I watched the first episode and I was not enticed. They spent 40 minutes doing something that should have taken 15. The reading of the will hasn’t even taken place yet.

Surprisingly for a historical British TV series produced now, there is no anachronistic DEI casting.

R16, none of the family have been changed to be black, Asian or Hispanic?? I wonder how they got away with that.

A thing I love about the DL is that white racist self-pity can creep into a discussion about a TV soap opera.

R18, yep. And people who complain about "anachronistic DEI casting" don't complain about other anachronistic stuff

Is that nude scene in the tub involve an actual penis or is it a prosthetic?

Who cares?

I prefer real male nudity. Might as well have CGI dicks at that point.

I don’t buy that Louis Partridge is straight.

For that matter, r18, who cares if you live or die?

Sorry: I meant r21, not r18.

They lost me after 10 minutes.

It does pick up in episode 2.

The cinematography is some of the most beautiful I've ever seen on television.

And the dialogue is some of the worst I've ever heard on television: "Three nights ago you and I went beyond all limits!” (James Norton's character to the Guinness daughter)

I’ll agree to that. Also, some accents sound Irish and some sound British when they’re supposed to be Irish. Or is it just me?

Yeah i love the sets and the costumes and all that but the acting is really subpar. They sound American.

I'm half way though and enjoying it very much. It's not flawless, but just entertaining.

Since the whole series has dropped, I guess there's no 'spoilers' - so I have a question about Episode 3.

At the wedding, Rafferty (James Norton) goes up to the head table and tells Arthur it's time to go home. The bride makes a comment to both of them suggesting telling this grown man when it's time to go to bed is a little peculiar. It's explained to her that Rafferty is there to take care of him 'every way he can' (or something to that effect) then the two guys smile at each other and there's a gleam in their eyes. Is Rafferty telling us that he has sex with Arthur, too ?

[quote]More Mitford sister

This show is set decades before Diana Mitford married into the Guinness family.

R32 I interpreted it as that, yes.

My favorite part of the series so far is when Anne visits the village ravaged by the famine. Whoever played the nurse who took care of her deserves an Emmy.

The character Anne seems to be one of the more interesting characters on the show - she needs more screen time. And the actress who plays her is Emmy-worthy.

Rafferty (James Norton) scene in the dark alley in episode 1, talking about fucking the Guinness woman the night before, made my panties moister than a clover after an Irish soaker.

Hopefully James Norton will hookup with Louis Partridge.

I didnt know he could be so sexy. He's usually kind of a drip on screen.

Were both Arthur and Edward gay in real life?

That big swinging cock on the hunky lead is clearly fake

R40 I sensed some sexual tension between Arthur and Edward in the first episode.

Cock!

Does this show include pasty little Irish homosexual boys?!

Yes, yes it does R44. But they’re 22 and 31 so I wouldn’t exactly say boys.

R42 Me, too. Wondering if it was trying to copy White Lotus.

This is what the dialogue is like:

(Scene: The Guinness Brewery, late at night. Arthur and Edward enter to meet with rafferty)

RAFFERTY: "Here's a blackmail letter for you, Mr. Arthur, from the Fenians, saying you have carnal relations with other men."

ARTHUR: "Carnal relations? What does that mean?"

RAFFERTY: "It means you fuck them."

ARTHUR: "FUCK!!!"

(Cut to the Guinness family home, still late at night. A beautiful well-born wealthy debutante enters the library where a hungover Benjamin is sitting.)

DEBUTANTE: "I'll marry you, Benjamin, and my father will pay of all your debts."

BEN: "Not fucking likely!"

DEBUTANTE: "FUCK YOU!!!"

(Cut to Anne's carriage in Galway countryside, the next morning)

ANNE (inside the carriage, banging on the roof): "Stop the fucking carriage, driver! I'm fucking miscarrying!"

(Cut to Guinness estate. Arthur and his aunt are awaiting the entrance of another beautiful titled young lady.)

BUTLER: "The Lady Gertrude Fancy-Schmancy, third daughter of the Earl of Snobbery!"

AUNT: "How do you do, Lady Gertrude. We wish to arrange a marriage blanc between you and Arthur. I presume you know what that means?"

LADY GERTRUDE: "It means I get to fuck whomever I want, and Arthur gets to fuck all the men he wants, but I do this willingly and get a fuckload of money every year as a result."

ARTHUR: "FUCK YEAH!!!"

Today's Guinness family, some look like space aliens.

Yikes, R48. Have all of the women in that family been drinking Guinness in utero?

Here are caps of the nude scenes.

Definitely a prosthetic, looks like a horse's cock. Kinda disappointed, thought a newbie like him wouldn't mind showing the real deal.

I doubt that's his real cock, but even so, he's very attractive in a 19th century way. I love his Roman nose.

I was surprised to learn he was only 31 in real life. I assumed at least 37.

These producers should be sued under the trade description act. We don't know what cocks are real anymore

Another question from episode 7 -

When Arthur finds out that his wife Olivia is pregnant by Rafferty, he pulls Rafferty aside for a few questions. He tells them the arrangement is that Rafferty can have sex with his wife whenever she summons him, but he expected Rafferty to use 'protection'. so a pregnancy would be avoided.

It's 1870s Ireland - were condoms even available then ? (Serious question).

^^^^ He tells HIM not them

[quote]It's 1870s Ireland - were condoms even available then ? (Serious question).

Actually yes, but they were made of lambskin and sheep intestine.

Thanks R57

I just finished the series and really enjoyed it. I wanted to love it, but it was often interrupted with (inappropriate) modern music and crazy camera shots, as though they were trying to film a music video at the same time. Got to keep the zoomer's attention.

If it does get renewed for Season 2, I do hope it will air within a year and not make us wait three years so we forgot everyone and everything. Season one ended the way I expected - no surprises there.

I watched one episode. I'm going to take a nap. This usually means "one and done."

R58, yeah, the modern music was distracting and unnecessary. The show was better off when it played that Irish jig music.

I thought the first two episodes were well done but I wasn’t loving it.

But my advice is to stick with it because it really starts to get good by episode three. I’m wildly attracted to Anthony Boyle, glad to see others here are too. The actor playing the tall, far-sighted brother Edward, has a superficial resekblance to Cillian Murphy but I find him distinctly unsexy. Ditto for the guy playing Benjamin. And though I usually think James Norton looks yummy, he doesn’t in this.

For me it’s Boyle and his beautifully modeled nose (and rather weak chin) all the way.

[QUOte]The actor playing the tall, far-sighted brother Edward, has a superficial resekblance to Cillian Murphy but [bold]I find him distinctly unsexy.[/bold]

Of course you do. He's gorgeous and this is Datalounge.

Anyone else notice how the fires in the fireplaces are fake?

Yes, R63. The roaring fire in Ellen’s garret fireplace looked like it would burn the building down irl.

Ellen is in this? Portia too?

Hardeeharhar R65! 👍🤪 Classic Datalounge Aposiopesis. A laugh riot!!! Keep 'em coming. Will you be here all night? 🤡

I agree it's really by the third episode that this gets going and becomes highly watchable. After that episode you cease to be bothered as much by the David Mamet obscene dialogue given for public use by earl's daughters and society matron's (who in reality would never have said those words, even among family members), and you get much more involved in the plotting and the characters. the beautiful cinematography and costumes and sets help enormously too.

Anthony Boyle is very appealing, and I like it the men that he pairs with (the tall guy in the conservatory in episode 2, and Patrick in the later episodes) are handsome but are not anachronistically built like gym rats.

A weird thing about the series--but perhaps fully explicable given that the series was created by one of the living Guinness heirs--is that even though it shows the family members are hugely dysfunctional and personally fucked up, they're clearly depicted here as being remarkable in their philanthropy and social munificence (which is true) and also wanting to unite the Protestants and the Catholics and secrewtly pre-Fenian despite themselves, even if just for selfish monetary reasons.

The subplot in the final episodes with the romance between Rafferty and Lady Olivia is ridiculous, especially considering there was no such person as Rafferty. No reason is given for why the two characters would have fallen in love other than that they're hot and like to boink--given the financial stakes of their arrangement (that they could have sex but could not fall in love), this did not make much sense given that they're not very nice to each other outside of the sex.

I did get to like the ugly actress who plays Anne the Guinness daughter. I never got much interested in Ben the drunk son.

Anthony Boyle is smokin' hot with that moustache. What's strange is he's not really all that handsome, but the 'stash and his very shit-eating smile create one sexy stud.

I'm fascinated by Emily Fairn who plays Anne, I thought her nose was a prosthetic especially in the childbirth scene but it's real. That's some confidence, good for her.

Yeah, Anthony Boyle is extremely sexy to me without being pretty or handsome, yet I sometimes find him kind of beautiful, to my own surprise.

The thick dark hair and virile mustache, the sad, dark eyes, the perfect Roman nose, the skin so pale I’m sure his cock is mauve-colored, and then those full, sensual, deep pink lips. And he looks tiny most of the time, though he has big dick swagger (or merely confident acting?)

I find him kind of mesmerizing, a prime example of interesting features being more riveting and attractive than mere prettiness. He played John Wilkes Booth in that mediocre miniseries “Manhunt.”

Well, given the cliffhanger at the end of episode 8, The filmmakers must have had at least a handshake guarantee of another season or two. Either that or four more episodes are due to drop in a few weeks.

The production is gorgeous and reminds me of the miniseries of “The Leopard” from Italy, which Netflix dropped with little fanfare earlier this year with little fanfare and which deserved a bigger audience.

Given that this is from the makers of “Peaky Blinders,” which caught on here when Netflix aired it during Covid, seems like they realized this required a several season investment to fully catch fire. It has settled at #4 on the Netflix Top Ten in the US this week, but has already hit #1 in the UK.

It's a weird show. It's more like "The Godfather" than "The Gilded Age" or "Downton Abbey": Edward is the coldly calculating youngest son like Michael, trying to keep the family business together; Arthur is the sex-obsessed oldest child like Sonny who behaves too rashly; Ben is the loserly family fuck-up like Fredo; Ann is the sister left out by dint of her gender like Connie. Rafferty, the invented character, is both the family consigliere (like Tom Hagen) and the family's muscle (like Luca Brazzi).

But the weird thing is that it's "The Godfather" without the killings. So far no one has been killed (we know historically Arthur survives the cliffhanger), and the worst things that happen is that people swear a lot and the working class characters beat each other up. But when Rafferty threatened to murder the clergyman uncle it just comes completely out of left field: in a million years he could not get away with murdering the Uncle (who is not only a highly respected clergyman but a Guinness to boot).

Poor Anne looks like Alice the Goon.

Stoned thoughts: Did people in 19th century Ireland really have faces like Byron Hedges?

R74 Yes, they all looked like Leprechauns, which inspired the mascot for 'Lucky Charms' cereal.

Tried to watch. The 2025 music drove me crazy. Not that the music has to be of the period, but the music they picked was just so wrong.

R76, it wasn't just the choice of music. The music pieces were also loud and incompatible with the scene/mood. Like a bad DJ'S segue between songs or a record screech moment.

R29: The Guinness’s and their peers were Anglo-Irish, which is to say English who moved to Ireland after it was conquered by the Brits. So they speak differently from the Irish-Irish, who sometimes seem close to caricature, esp.. the Fenian guy. Many Anglo-Irish, including some Guinesses based themselves in London, so they sound even less Irish.

R75, they did have a lot more of the inbred look about them back then! You can see it in old daguerreotypes from back then.

Also, good nutrition has given us some length of bone.

Everyone who ever took a picture those days looked inbred, r79.

Watched the first episode last night. It has promise, although the dialogue needs to be louder and the music lower, was adjusting the volume throughout the whole funeral procession.

The opening sequence is too Game of Thronesesque, and the fight during the procession was very great great (grand)sons of Anarchy in its feel. Ill keep watching it.

R78 that is not really accurate about the Guinness' and Irish History. The family is resident in Ireland for sure in the 17th century and may go back to the 12th C, or before. It is argued before. Even they argue they are Irish for 1000 years, though they cannot prove it.

The Tudor conquest is the 16th-17th C. They are protestant Irish much more than they are "English", in my opinion. Naturaly when they became mega rich they were often resident in England and elsewhere.

Was your closed captioning broken, r81?

I don’t find the anachronistic music a problem at all, and sometikes the lyrics comment amusingly on the action.

I was interested to read in Wikipedia that though critics have generally reviewed the series positively, critics in Ireland have not. Too many liberties taken with the true history? Too much simplification of the various factions?

I gather the speculation that Arthur Guinness was gay is just that. However it’s based on the true fact that it it was agreed by both parties going into his marriage that there would be no sexual relationship and the couple had no children. Also an older relative (also named Arthur) was a lifelong bachelor who lived sumptuously and extravagantly, so connect the dots. Kudos to whoever in the Guinness family signed off on the sensible assumption that both Arthurs were gay.

Who started the tired and shitty 'modern' music in period pieces trend?

Maybe Sophia Coppola?

There’s this as well; Scottish (as opposed to English) immigration to Ireland.

frenetic, shallow and repetitive but the actors are good and the only thing that makes it watchable