Laugh and sleuth along with ‘How to Get to Heaven from Belfast’
Laugh and sleuth along with ‘How to Get to Heaven from Belfast’
The show is ostensibly a mystery series, but creator Lisa McGee infuses it with plenty of her familiar humor.
As I opened the Netflix app this week to call up an episode of “Arrested Development” to put on in the background of my day, the phrase “From the creator of ‘Derry Girls’” caught my attention. Slowing my scroll, I opened the details page for Lisa McGee’s new series “How to Get to Heaven from Belfast,” which debuted on Netflix on Feb. 12.
“Derry Girls” is one of my favorite shows on Netflix. It’s laugh-out-loud funny, packed with sharp writing and performances that elevate the scripted words to another stratosphere. The series also manages to slow down in key moments, bringing its historical backdrop of The Troubles in Northern Ireland into focus to remind viewers of the stakes its high school-aged characters are really dealing with as they try to navigate crushes and exams.
While I’m not sure “How to Get to Heaven from Belfast” maintains its own balance quite as expertly, I still loved watching the series. The show centers on a trio of friends from Belfast — Saoirse (Roisin Gallagher), Robyn (Sinéad Keenan), and Dara (Caoilfhionn Dunne) — who get word that the estranged fourth member of their longtime friend group has died unexpectedly. But as the events surrounding her death get ever stranger, the trio is forced to investigate, quickly finding themselves in over their heads as they delve in deeper.
The humor from “Derry Girls” leaps off the screen once again in “How to Get to Heaven from Belfast,” whose characters can spout lightning-fast banter in accents so thick (to an American ear) that subtitles are almost required to enjoy every joke. McGee keeps her scripts packed with hilarious moments, so much so that you may miss one as you’re laughing out loud because of another.
The mystery elements of the series immediately reminded me of “Yellowjackets,” which also laces dark humor throughout its story. With every episode of “How to Get to Heaven from Belfast,” a new twist is unveiled that turns the story you thought you were being told for the previous hour on its head.
It’s an effective way to tell this kind of story, to be sure, but in my eyes, the series doesn’t always strike the balance of humor with the thriller elements of the show as well as “Derry Girls” alternates between funny and serious. The humor in “Belfast” is so ever-present that, occasionally, the feeling of peril that permeates the air of a great mystery can’t really settle in.
That’s a minor quibble, however, and I thoroughly enjoyed the performances and writing in the show too much to care about whether or not it was a top-flight mystery. Check out all eight episodes of the first season of “How to Get to Heaven from Belfast” with a subscription to any Netflix plan, starting with its Standard with Ads tier for $8 per month.
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