Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Kin’ On AMC+, Where An Organized Crime Family In Dublin Starts A War While Looking For Revenge

Organized crime series almost always involve the concept of “family,” whether that family is related by blood or not. Loyalties and bonds are tested and explored in these series. A new Irish series on AMC+ is literally called Kin, so the topic of family is going to be a big one. Read on for more.

KIN: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A teen gets a backpack full of candy at a sweet shop. He gets on a motorcycle with another man; we see them go through downtown Dublin. Then they get out off the bike and start shooting.

The Gist: Frank Kinsella (Aiden Gillen), head of the Kinsella crime family, is in a tense negotiation with Eamon Cunningham (Ciarán Hinds), head of Dublin’s largest drug cartel and his family’s major supplier, over an incident where another one of Cunningham’s customers is encroaching on Kinsella territory. Cunningham says that the other supplier exclusively gets product form him, which is what Kinsella should also do. Kinsella, Cunningham’s biggest mover, doesn’t like that idea.

Jimmy Kinsella (Emmett J. Scanlan) is bringing his younger brother Michael (Charlie Cox) home from prison, and Jimmy’s wife Amanda (Clare Dunne) has invited the family for a welcome party. She’s nervous about Michael’s return so she finds some hidden blow and snorts it. Jimmy and Michael’s brother Eric (Sam Keeley) snorts a bit right in front of her 17-year-old son Jamie (Cian Fitzsimmons), who’s supposed to be going to AA meetings. Her mother-in-law Bridget (Maria Doyle Kennedy) doesn’t think there’s enough food.

Everyone’s happy Michael is out, of course; it’s an adjustment for Michael, who suffers from some PTSD-style flashbacks when he’s alone. When Frank gets to the party, he tells the family that he had to give up more of a cut to Cunningham in order to preserve his independence. Eric thinks that his dad gave up too much, but Frank calls it “using your head.” He also calls the aggressive Eric “an embarrassment”.

After getting into it with members of the rival gang, Eric drives to a known residence of that gang, where there’s a party going on outside, and he does a drive-by. The next day, he’s eager to change out the car he used at the dealership Amanda runs, which the Kinsellas use to launder their money. For her part, Amanda keeps encouraging Jamie to fill out his college applications, but Jamie would rather follow in the family business, figuring that’s what’s given him the good life. Jimmy takes him on a collection call from a junkie, and when Jimmy presses a hot iron to the junkie’s face, Jamie changes his mind quickly.

Jamie volunteers driving his Uncle Michael to the gym Eric uses. When they get out, they see Eric’s car has a flat. When they call Eric to come out, the bullets start flying.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Kin isn’t far off in theme from another AMC+ import, Gangs Of London. This one is more about a tight-knit family seeking revenge, but it ends up in a gang war nevertheless.

Our Take: Kin, created by Ciaran Donnelly and Peter McKenna, certainly has the potential to be an intense multigenerational drama, where the various members of the Kinsellas have their secrets but, while at war with the Cunningham cartel, make their familial bonds stronger. But the first episode is unnecessarily opaque, introducing the Kinsellas in a way that makes you somewhat unsure about whether all of these aggro men are related or just “family” by association.

We’re not one hundred percent sure why Michael has done a stretch in prison, but it likely has something to do with the activities he engaged in with his family. He wants a legit job in order to get a chance to see his estranged daughter. But we do know that after the events of that night where he, Jamie and Eric get shot at, that desire disappears in service of revenge. Considering we’re seeing the “trying to go straight” version of Michael in the first episode, we haven’t seen the breadth of Charlie Cox’s performance, which we think is going to be the lynchpin of the show.

The only character that feels distinctive at first is Eric, whose nickname is “Viking” for good reason. He’s the wildcard of the family, which is why the more reserved Frank calls him an embarrassment. His role in getting his nephew Jamie killed and sparking this gang war is definitely part of this story, as is the fact that he outright lies to his father about that role. What will happen when it’s found out that he’s the one who set things off? How will he deal with causing the death of his nephew?

As we go along, we hope that the Kinsella brothers become more than just a series of white guys with beards and thick brogues. In the first episode, we’re haven’t quite gotten there, but with the seismic event that ends the episode, the Kinsellas will distinguish themselves from each other soon enough.

Sex and Skin: None. We see Amanda changing before the dinner party but she’s in her underwear.

Parting Shot: After seeing that his nephew Jamie is dead, Michael sits and contemplates just what in the heck just happened. We hear Eric screaming in pain from getting shot.

Sleeper Star: Clare Dunne is the most magnetic actor in the first episode as the deeply conflicted Amanda. She’s deep in the Kinsella family business, but seems to think that she’s running her own successful business. When the hypocrisy is pointed out by Jamie, she recoils. Is she with Jimmy and his family or not?

Most Pilot-y Line: None that we could find.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Kin starts a bit muddled but the performances and story setup give us a good feeling that the tension will ratchet up as the series goes along.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream Kin On AMC+