‘House of Guinness’ Is Punk Rock in a Pint Glass

I’m not sure what you might think of a show called House of Guinness based on its title or an image from the series (see above). My first thought was, “Oh, well, it’s a period piece about the beer family,” and essentially, that’s what it is. What I did not anticipate, however, was just how genuinely punk rock it is. This is a period piece from Steven Knight, the Peaky Blinders guy, and it feels like a series from the Peaky Blinders guy, and I mean that in the best way imaginable. It’s not stuffy or slow-paced. It’s smutty, political, wildly entertaining, and sharper than a razor blade in the peak of a flat cap.

It takes an episode or two to set the table and get the wheels spinning, but once it does, House of Guinness is rowdy, rebellious, messy, and deeply Irish. If it doesn’t get a second season, the streets of Dublin will be littered with smashed pint glasses.

It’s important to note, however, that House of Guinness is very fictional. Steven Knight took names from the real-life family and borrowed a few historical facts, but you’re not going to find 90 percent of what transpires in this series on Wikipedia.

What is true in both reality and the show is that when Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness died in 1868, he left control of the brewery to two of his sons, Arthur and Edward. In real life, his other two heirs, daughter Anne and son Benjamin, received money and estates. In the show, however, Arthur and Edward control how much money their siblings receive.

In House of Guinness, the will binds Arthur and Edward together: Arthur (Anthony Boyle), the eldest, has little interest in running the brewery and harbors a secret that could ruin the family name — he’s gay. Edward (Louis Partridge), meanwhile, is Type A, obsessed not only with managing the brewery but expanding it, and determined to maintain the family’s power and reputation. His ambitions require him to help Arthur win a seat in the House of Commons to represent the brewery’s interests, all while covering up Arthur’s affairs with men. He also has to manage Benjamin (Fionn O’Shea), a drunk, and Anne (Emily Fairn), who becomes entangled in a brief affair with the family’s enforcer, Rafferty (James Norton). Rafferty is the fixer who gets his hands dirty so the Guinnesses don’t have to. He’s the show’s sledgehammer in more ways than one (Norton is very good here).

There are plenty of moving parts. Arthur is in an arranged marriage with Lady Olivia Hedges (Danielle Galligan), who becomes a genuine partner, even as they sleep with other people. Benjamin, likewise, must be married off to someone “respectable” instead of the person he truly wants. Anne helps run the family’s philanthropic efforts, which double as tools to curry political favor. Edward navigates the political tensions between Catholics and Protestants, England and Ireland, even as he falls for a Fenian, Ellen Cochrane (Niamh McCormack).

What drives the series are the secrets that must be hidden at all costs — the mistresses, the drunkenness, Arthur’s sexuality — all leveraged by rivals to try to topple the family. And then there’s the beer, which Byron Hedges, a bastard cousin, helps expand into America. I swear it took me six episodes to recognize the actor playing Byron, so wildly different was he from the role for which he’s best known (the heavy Irish accent didn’t help).

I can’t emphasize enough just how much fun this show is, boosted tremendously by a contemporary soundtrack of politically charged Irish punk. There are moments when I didn’t know whether I wanted to keep watching or run outside and break something. It’s one banger after another, and the characters do a lot of banging, too, when they’re not scheming their way out of the Guinness stranglehold. It’s both a blessing and a curse — they’re wealthy and influential, but stuck in loveless marriages and chained to the grind of the family business.

House of Guinness might not be historically accurate, but it’s emotionally true to the spirit of rebellion and power of the era. It’s the rare period piece that feels alive, dangerous, and chaotic — like a tap blown wide open, impossible to shut off. After eight episodes, it’ll be next to impossible not to be begging for more.

‘House of Guinness’ is currently streaming on Netflix.