An Klondike: Bilingual Irish Show About Klondike Gold Rush

The previously linked trailer.

So the first episode was... not terrible. Just like last year's An Bronntanas, TG4, the Irish language channel, delivers another Ambitious Drama that'd really like to look like serious dramas from Elsewhere. But while An Bronntanas modelled itself on the European tradition of gritty crime dramas - particularly your Nordic Noirs from Scandinavia - An Klondike looks ... West.

It'd like to be an Irish Western; perhaps even a Deadwood. It's not a Deadwood - and at a mere four episodes, is unlikely to become one - but man, it wished it was.

To recap: It's in English and Irish, primarily about Irish immigrants coming to the Klondike to pan for gold in the 19th century - mostly set around the fictional town in Dominion Creek, which is a bit like a low-rent Deadwood. (It's also filmed in the West of Ireland, thus trying rather unconvincingly to let the squat hills of Connemara fill in for the vast expanse of the Yukon, but thankfully it doesn't dwell on this much.)

Set as it is in America, the Irish language becomes a kind of cant - something spoken between members of the Connelly family who drive most of the action (three brothers, they got brothers to spare these ones) as well as the many Irish who seem to be virtually everyone in Dominion Creek who isn't rich and Englishy.


Like this guy. The Mountie called Steele. Not the most convincing moustache, but you workw with the budget you have, not the budget you want.

It's the cause of the show's best line - Dominion Creek's lone Native American rolls his eyes and ruefully says "That language. You're making that up." This said it probably dwells on it a little much, but for a TG4 production that's to be expected.

So basically we get a lot of poor working stiffs hacking at rocks and getting conned out of everything they own by savvy scammers and saloon owners, and also some kinda plot about a special claim with a secret Indian treasure map. It has its moments - figuring out for yourself a scam before the luckless drunken fool does is a little fun - but it also has elements that raise questions it probably doesn't want explored, like why the hell the saloon owner knows by name the guy who the claim originated with and apparently trusted his judgement (having only heard of this claim from the fellow who stole it.)

All in all, it's a pretty solid first episode for a decidedly unusual and ambitious series, but not really something I'd recommend at this point. Whether it'll pan out, well, there's three episodes to go, I'll check in.