Forget ‘True Detective,’ This 10/10 Crime Thriller Miniseries Should Be Your Next Binge

No one expects cheerful vibes when watching crime thrillers, and the last few years have provided some of the grittiest shows in the genre. From Netflix’s Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story to Apple TV’s Nocturne, there’s been no shortage of grim mysteries on our screens. Among this list of standouts is a title that often goes overlooked: Sarah Phelps‘ Dublin Murders, an eight-part miniseries adapted from Tana French‘s Dublin Murder Squad book series.

Much like Phelps’ other efforts, including Agatha Christie‘s Ordeal by Innocence and A Very British Scandal, Dublin Murders is a sprawling showcase of dramatic storytelling. It’s also reminiscent of HBO’s ongoing anthology series True Detective, with surprising supernatural elements that immerse you in its dark world of crime and its impact on those involved.

What Is ‘Dublin Murders’ About?

Rob Reilly (Killian Scott) and Cassie Maddox (Sarah Greene) are partner detectives in Ireland’s capital city who are assigned to lead an investigation into the murder of a teenage girl in a rural town outside of Dublin. The young girl’s body is found in the middle of the woods, which Reilly especially has a personal and traumatic connection to. When Reilly was a child, then called Adam, he went into those same woods with his two best friends, but was the only one who returned. Neither of the two children has been seen since, and no one knows what happened to them.

After facing harassment from their neighbors over the disappearance, Reilly’s mother put him in boarding school in England. Years later, he returned to Ireland as an adult with a new identity, seeking answers to what happened on that fateful day. Meanwhile, Maddox is also pursuing answers about why she survived a separate accident unscathed while both her parents died instantly. When the two detectives mutually decide to take on this new murder case, it serves as an avenue for them to solve more personal mysteries.

‘Dublin Murders’ Shares More Than One Similarity With ‘True Detective’

Image via BBC

Image via BBC

Image via BBC

Image via BBC

Image via BBC

Image via BBC

Image via BBC

Image via BBC

Image via BBC

Image via BBC

Dublin Murders, much like True Detective’s Season 1, begins after the central investigation has kicked off, with Reilly tearfully asking Cassie, “What if the killed are the lucky ones? The chosen? And the rest of us aren’t lucky at all?” It’s a beginning that shares an undeniable similarity with True Detective Season 1, in which the more charming and pragmatic Marty Hart (Woody Harrelson) asks fellow detective Rust Cohle (Mathew McConaughey) whether he ever wonders if he’s a bad man, and the philosophical and nihilistic Rust simply replies that, “The world needs bad men” to “keep the other bad men from the door.”

From the outset, Dublin Murders depicts two contrasting individuals who are flawed yet determined, and the first scene of the miniseries contrasts how their two similar but different pasts have shaped them. Reilly has grown from a stone-cold, unfeeling person into one who is expressly emotional, while every emotional hurdle Maddox experiences seems to make her even more economical at expressing her feelings. Reilly and Maddox share deep secrets, yet they also harbor complications related to their traumas. Despite having romantic affection for each other, neither is willing to be vulnerable enough to commit, but as their arcs continue, their vulnerability comes to the surface. With plenty of rich backstory to mine for the characters, Dublin Murders provides Scott and Greene with the opportunity to show off their acting talents.

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Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you’ve finished reading the briefing, and the plan he’s settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn’t exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.

‘Dublin Murders’ and ‘True Detective’ Delve Into the Supernatural

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    Image via BBC</figure>