John Byrne looks back on a week of telly that included The History of Irish Rock, the season four finale of Girls, the return of Modern Family, and new family drama Bloodline.
There was a time when rock music wasn't a dull, corporate experience. There was also a time when the various churches on this island made it their business to stop boys and girls enjoying raucous music in public or getting too close together in case, y'know, something sinful happened. You can ask your parents about the former, and grandparents about the latter. The History of Irish Rock (Thursday, RTÉ One) will pretty much fill in the gaps.
Beginning, as any history of Irish rock must, in the days of the ballrooms and showbands, when groups churned out cover versions of chart hits from faraway Britain and even more remote USA, this documentary acknowledged that both Van Morrison and Rory Gallagher – Irish rock's first ambassadors – learned their craft in such surroundings.
It's not easy fitting half-a-century of musical journeys into a one-hour documentary, so The History of Irish Rock provided a pretty broad sweep, covering the major acts that emanated from the Emerald Isle up until U2 became the planet's top rock act, which is where we came in.
So what we had here was a trip through the careers of Morrison and Gallagher, followed by Phil Lynott, Bob Geldof's Boomtown Rats, The Undertones, Sinead O'Connor and ending with the monster, global success enjoyed by Bono and the boys. As author Joseph O'Connor – brother of Sinead – put it at the end: "They made fun legal in Ireland."
Fun is a central plank of Modern Family (Monday, Sky 1), which resumed its sixth season with a close call as the Dunphys and Manny just missed being hit by a truck, thanks to some quick-witted reaction from Phil, something which regular show watchers would not normally associate with him.
The near-brush with death caused some immediate life re-evaluations with Haley and Alex becoming pals as the former brings the latter into her world. Then Phil getd nasty with a fellow estate agent who's been undermining him. Luke goes for his bucket list (which includes a Mentos jet pack rack climb) and, best of all, Claire decides she wants to spend some quality time with brother Mitch, and almost finishes him off.
There's also great fun as Jay and Gloria try to allay Manny's fear of getting in a car again. Later on Eric Stonestreet puts in a terrific run as a misguided Cam, who thinks Phil is trying to flirt with him.
While it doesn't hit its stride as often as before, Modern Family comes up with some truly great episodes. And this was one.
Girls (Mondays, Sky Atlantic) wrapped for a fourth time and once again provided an excellent door-closer to what's been a really enjoyable run. It ended with Adam telling Hannah that he and Mimi-Rose were through, before she says, "I can't," and the romance that was once the bedrock of the show was consigned to history in quite a poignant fashion. It could also mean Adam Diver, the immensely talented actor who plays Adam, is on his way elsewhere.
Moving on – or trying to – is a central plank of Girls, even if it seems nobody's getting anywhere, really, so it should be fun seeing how Shoshanna gets on after being offered a dream job and new life in Japan.
Girls will be back for a fifth season, but it's up for grabs whether Marnie will still be in a relationship, group or engagement with Desi, who disappeared after the tightly-wound Ray ripped him a new one. A nice touch here was the appearance of Spike Jonze as Marnie and Desi's record label boss, an odd man who seems to change his mind mid-sentence.
It was good to see Jessa as Miss Sensible, for once, as she kept her head during the torturous naked-in-the-bath scenes that saw Adam's pregnant sister Caroline endure a humiliating attempt at a home birth.
Being in your twenties may seem like such hard work, but the reality is that life is a permanent pain in the ass. At least, that's the message I received from watching the opening episode of Bloodline (on demand, Netflix), the latest US drama from the people behind Damages.
Now, Damages was a legal drama unlike all other legal dramas. I know they all say that, but in this case it was true. Glenn Close and Rose Byrne ripped it up in a dense series that guaranteed a headache per episode, and a complete loss of faith in humanity by mid-season. While not as intense, Bloodline looks like serving up more of the same.
The cast is impressive, headed by Kyle Chandler (Coach Taylor from the magnificent Friday Night Lights) playing John Rayburn, the cop in the Rayburn family, a clearly dysfunctional dynasty who run a hotel on the Florida Keys and enjoy daylight drinking.
Ben Mendelsohn is Danny Rayburn, the black sheep and oldest son, who turns up like a bad penny every now and again and, even more conveniently, early on in the opening episode. Sissy Spacek and Sam Shepard play the parents, who are celebrating the anniversary of the opening of their hotel and who occasionally referee their adult kids.
Mendelsohn and Chandler provide a lot of energy as the central, apparently conflicting characters, and it's clearly a slow-burner of a show. I just wish I could stop thinking of Damages season one, which was brilliant TV.
Like Damages, there are several flashes (back or forward? It's too early to tell) to keep your average viewer keen. But things need to gather a bit of pace on Bloodline if enough viewers are to keep going through the first season's entire run of 13 episodes.
John Byrne
