Red Rock is just a brilliant series. I usually get heartily sick of the predictability of these kind of programmes but Red Rock is different. I really believe in the characters and their predicaments. People who you believe are likable and pleasant, turn out to be real villains and people who present as harmless nincompoops take wrong turns and end up in desperate circumstances. The Garda behave like old friends who have worked together for years and treat each other accordingly. All the actors are first rate and because I am unaware that I have seen them before, they come across as real. I find it compulsive viewing and find myself even watching repeats of the first series on the run up to the second series and getting just as engrossed.

If this series had been made by the English, it would have been slammed for catering to all the worst stereotypes of the Irish. The only characters with any backbone are the women, who are divided into Lady Macbeths and Cordelias: determined and psychopathic (the matriarchs), or determined and saintly (the young ones). The men are with one or two exceptions simply weak. Driven by greed or just fecklessness, they lie and cheat to get out of current difficulties, with the inevitable result that they land themselves in worse problems. There is a clear overall theme to the programmes so far (one to five): it is that old standby of desperate writers, Romeo and Juliet. For the Montagues and Capulets read the Kielys and the Hennessys. For Romeo read David Hennessy and for Juliet, Katie Kiely. Mercutio is Darren Kiely, who in the first episode is already comatose and dies by the end. A small change in Shakespeare's plot is that the dead lad is from Juliet's family not Romeo's, but otherwise this tired old boy-loves-girl-but-their-families-hate-each-other device is clearly destined to be flogged down the road for as far as it will stagger, together with variations on a theme of "Oh what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive!"The series has just begun showing on BBC and iPlayer. My partner is unaccountably besotted with this series, so I guess I will have to watch it proceeding along its humourless way to the bitter end. I just hope for my sanity's sake that it picks up some wit or originality in the meantime.NOTE ADDED AFTER EPISODE TEN: the series really has picked up as the writers (and actors) get into their stride. It's not exactly Brookside yet but it does hold a story-line very competently, and is not nearly so predictable as the first few episodes led me to fear.ADDED AFTER EPISODE 40: OK I admit it, I am hooked. Just as you think the series is getting silly or boring, something happens to jerk you awake again. Upgraded to 8 out of ten. Ibsen it isn't, but who would want to watch Ibsen twice a week anyway.

At 25 minutes or less an episode it breezes along. 2 feuding families and a Garda station with varying degrees of competence and corruption. As a soap it knows how to suck you into love/hating the characters quickly, and by episode 20 you really want the bad guy to get his, and by episode 30 he may be close to doing so. Will they drag it out some more? To keep us on our toes we have the good guys continually showing their clay heels, strong characters with holes, and a truly white trash family vying with one not much better, merely richer. Can cops be really as dumb as Westlife and Paudge? Will Sharon get justice or will she tell them all to shove it?Very entertaining.

Love this show.The cast is amazing. I couldn't stop watching it.I had to unfortunately. Amazons AcornTV only has the first 44 episodes. Oh to be in Ireland. So I could watch the rest. Please. Please. Please. Amazon get the rest of this amazing show! I can't wait to see the rest.Only 44 of the 99 episodes are available on Amazon. I have not been able to find it anywhere else to stream. So much better than the cops shows here in the states. Definitely a must see. Hope it's not too long before the rest are available .