RTÉ has been keen to hype the finale of Kin, to the extent of not making the episode available in advance to the media. This is standard with global blockbusters such as Game of Thrones and Succession but not with shows at the level of Kin. The BBC, for instance, was only too happy to share with reviewers the last-ever instalments of Happy Valley and Peaky Blinders.
Does Kin (RTÉ One, Sunday, 9.30pm) merit such an exalted status? Well, the finale is at least an improvement on the equivalent from season one, which shamelessly aped the conclusion of the original Godfather, the elimination of enemies of the Kinsella crime family juxtaposed with a church ceremony.
In that first series the villain reaching his comeuppance was Eamon Cunningham, a cool bruiser portrayed understatedly by Ciarán Hinds.
This year the nemesis of the Kinsellas is one of their own – the boorish Brendan Kinsella (Francis Magee), who has terrified his delicate brother Frank (Aidan Gillen) and demonstrated an unhealthy interest in his granddaughter Anna (Hannah Adeogun). Oh, and for good measure he has led Amanda’s son Anthony (Mark McKenna jnr) into a life of crime by arranging for him to kill two local hoodlums who have been threatening his nephew Eric (Sam Keeley).
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The problem has been that where Cunningham was a complicated baddy, both monster and loyal family man, Bren Kinsella is simply a horrible piece of work. He’s an auld Dub with nothing but evil in his blood, a sort of sociopathic Mr Tayto with a Ronnie Drew beard. And if searingly portrayed by Magee, the actor has his work cut out bringing nuance to a character who has all the subtlety of a brick through a windscreen.
Here is where the spoilers start, so buckle up. As expected, Bren dies in the final episode. The surprise is that he isn’t killed by his sons Jimmy (Emmett Scanlan) and Michael (Daredevil’s Charlie Cox), sister Birdy (Maria Doyle Kennedy) and nephew Eric, all of whom have plotted to finish him off for their own various reasons. The twist is that the one who pulls the trigger is Frank.
He does so after Bren has beaten him to a pulp upon catching rumours that Frank is planning to leave Dublin for sunnier climes. Later, in his local, Bren is a sitting duck for the Kinsella conspiracy. Instead, in walks Frank.
“You finally grew some balls,” Bren says. Frank pulls the trigger and then, as police sirens wail and the soundtrack segues into Friends in Time by The Golden Horde, takes his own life. Everyone is shocked – though Amanda (Clare Dunne) has other things on her mind. She has won over Turkish gangster Nuray (Öykü Karayel) by encouraging her to rub out her rival Hazma. Thus is created a sister act forged in blood.
Kin has already been greenlit for a third and final season on both RTÉ and AMC+, the American streaming network, which is helping to bankroll the production. Two seasons in, Kin has yet to truly find its voice and too often comes across as a mash-up of Love/Hate and a Sunday World gangland exposé. But Bren and Frank at least receive send-offs that will be remembered. For an often patchy show, this is a more than respectable finale.
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