House Of Guinness Reviews: Netflix's New Family Drama Praised By Critics

Netflix has a new drama that you’re going to want to binge this weekend.

House Of Guinness landed on the streaming service on Thursday morning, and brewing stout has never looked cooler.

The eight-part series from Steven Knight (best known as the creator of Peaky Blinders) follows the Guinness family in the aftermath of the death of the brewing patriarch Benjamin Guinness. Based loosely on real life events of the stout makers, the show explores the family dynamic after they are forced to take over the brewery, all while managing their complicated personal lives amid civil unrest.

Featuring an impressive cast that includes Anthony Boyle, Louis Partridge and James Norton, critics have so far really enjoyed House Of Guinness. While a few felt the highly-stylised cinematography distracted from the writing and overall narrative, most have heaped praise on the performances and the sexier take on a family period drama.

Here’s a selection of what the critics are saying about House Of Guinness so far…

The Guardian 5/5

“House Of Guinness matures into a romp that you can hardly resist, especially when it makes such good use of its time and place. We are less than two decades on from the potato famine, and Ireland’s yearning for freedom is reaching breaking point: both are woven sensitively into the saga, making it an even richer study of the toxic rich – and making House Of Guinness, for Steven Knight, a career peak.”

The Times (4/5)

“If a waistcoated historical drama could be concocted in an Irish brewery, Steven Knight’s process would be this: mash a real story with creative licence, roast in a few jaw-breaking fights, convert the dialogue into F-words, ferment with men being men, add big-fonted captions slamming up on screen with the subtlety of a steam shovel, and carbonate with Kneecap rapping Get Your Brits Out on the soundtrack.”

Radio Times (4/5)

“Beyond the specific details of the Guinness family’s past, which may not be the biggest draw for even some of the more insatiable history buffs, the show’s exploration of wider Irish politics and society at the time is worth watching for alone.”

The Hollywood Reporter

“As firmly as its characters believe in God or commerce or Irish independence, House Of Guinness places its faith in the notion that a kiss or a speech or a punch, delivered with enough style and passion, can sell just about anything. More often than not, it’s right.”

The Financial Times (3/5)

“Like a pint of stout, House Of Guinness requires a bit of patience. [...] The first two episodes do it no favours, and set it up as an insipid historical slog, though with perseverance, it does eventually settle into something a little more smooth and robust.”

London Evening Standard (3/5)

“If you switch your brain off, House Of Guinness is as delicious as a pint of the black stuff, if not as nutritious. The sets and costumes are high budget, the violence wonderfully gratuitous. It doesn’t quite split the G, but it gets real close.”

Esquire

“Guinness is good for you? Jury’s out, but this series is certainly moreish.”

Variety

“While House Of Guinness is solid, it lacks the sharpness of Knight’s previous works. Despite the stunning cinematography, punchy music and slick stylisation, by episode five, it becomes tedious and repetitive, droning on and on to extend itself into eight episodes.”

LA Times

“The show can border on the cornball; the characters are the sort you might have seen in the sort of dramas popular in 1868. But the actors inhabit their roles with commitment, so that even the bad company is good company. Good craic, as they say over there.”

The Independent (2/5)

“There’s a lot to keep track of, sure, but somehow none of it really seems to grab you. Perhaps it’s the paint-by-numbers script, or maybe it’s the overwhelming, well, brown-ness of the whole thing.

“But choppy cutting and all the Kneecap needle drops in the world can’t compensate for House Of Guinness’s sluggishness. [...] And it seems unlikely that viewers will stick around for last orders.”

All eight episodes of House Of Guinness are now streaming on Netflix.