Picture this: you’re watching the final minutes of episode six of Netflix’s newest murder mystery – and after 45 minutes of suspense, you’re on the edge of your seat. Dead silence on screen – until t.A.T.u’s “All the Things She Said” starts blasting and the credits start rolling.
While its plot line is not exactly the same as “Heated Rivalry,” the show whose quick rise to fame initially caused the 2002 anthem to trend online, “How to Get to Heaven from Belfast” is not to be missed. Three years after the conclusion of her wildly successful series “Derry Girls,” Lisa McGee’s return to the screen is messy, hilarious and full of unexpected turns.
The show follows three middle-aged women: Saoirse (Roisin Gallaher), a successful TV writer, Dara (Caoilfhionn Dunne) who primarily stays home to take care of her mother, and Robin (Sinéad Keenan), a stay-at-home mother of three children. When the girls hear about the passing of Greta (Emma Canning), an old friend from school with whom they’d lost touch, the women decide to attend her wake to pay their respects. However, the women are also hiding a secret — and travelling to Greta’s wake is a form of damage control to ensure that the secret is not revealed. Following Greta’s wake, progressively strange events occur, and an eerie question arises: is Greta actually dead?
Similar to “Derry Girls,” the show is also based in Northern Ireland — and includes several homages to McGee’s home country. From characters complaining about forgetting euros while crossing the border into the Republic of Ireland, to “The Ponderosa”, also known as Ireland’s Highest Bar & Restaurant, receiving a shoutout after a scene was filmed there, there is no shortage of Northern Irish content. However, there is more to “How to Get to Heaven from Belfast” than a series of gripes only some can relate to.
It's no secret that we’ve seen a huge increase in true crime series in the past decade, many of which are based on actual events. “How to Get to Heaven from Belfast” certainly plays into this trend as Greta’s mysterious death/disappearance unfolds throughout the series, but McGee personalises it through her tone, which she referred to in a Variety as “fast and chaotic and Irish and funny.” Taking inspiration from television shows such as “Murder, She Wrote,” McGee delivers her own take on a murder mystery thriller, but manages to balance it with wit, humor and female friendship.
The show includes many twists and turns, which is quite similar to how I felt whilst watching it. As a longtime “Derry Girls” fan (and an avid rewatcher of the show), I was thrilled to see that McGee had created a new series. In watching this show, however, I found myself going through conflicting ups and downs. The season has eight episodes, which are approximately 50 minutes each, which I felt were a bit long, especially compared to the on-average 25 minute-long episodes of “Derry Girls.” Understandably, it is difficult to condense a genre like thriller into shorter episodes, and with material substantially less light-hearted than that of “Derry Girls,” longer episodes are needed. However, I do not think that a 50-minute runtime was necessary for every episode.
Additionally, with longer episodes I found myself getting confused with the subject material. McGee’s world-building is one of her strongest suits as a writer, but mixing comedy and murder can be a slippery slope. As previously detailed, I think McGee balances these two genres well generally, but especially in the middle of the season, it is easy to get caught up with smaller scenes that did not entirely make sense in the long run.
Overall, I consider “How to Get to Heaven From Belfast” to be a triumphant return for McGee. While viewers should not go into this series expecting something as deeply personal as “Derry Girls” (instead of writing alone, McGee had the assistance of a writers’ room in creating “How to Get to Heaven From Belfast”), they should watch it for the plot twists, Irish humor, enduring spirit of sisterhood amongst the women, and of course, to see how many familiar faces from “Derry Girls” they can spot (hint: there’s more than just Saoirse-Monica Jackson, who guest stars as Feeney).
