TV Review: How to Get to Heaven from Belfast

A new Irish dark comedy, How to Get to Heaven from Belfast took to Netflix on February 12 as a standalone series. The binge worthy thriller amounted to eight episodes, created by Lisa McGee. The series followed three old best friends around Belfast after they find out their estranged fourth addition to the group is pronounced dead. The girl group consists of Saorise, Roisin Gallagher who is a crime writer in London, Robyn, Sinéad Keenan a successful mother and Dara, Natasha O’Keeffe who cares for her mother. The trio travel to County Donegal to uncover secrets. With their own secrets untold they visit the wake to pay their respects. Weird happenings start to occur leading up to the wake and after, as they suspect foul play. 

To say this is labeled as a thriller and comedy did strike me at first. Wondering whether this would work and if it did, would it work well? And it sure did. When you watched the series you didn't feel it was forced. It came from within the characters and that's just what they did. Like wearing an old pair of socks. No one likes a show where it feels forced and then moves onto cringing that you feel you should at least smirk. It is definitely dark humour. 

There are multiple themes within this show, some being religion, childhood trauma and friendships. It was clever how religion was incorporated into the storyline as it was traditional and flowed within the story well. When exploring childhood trauma it integrated into the story appropriately and wasn't thrown in for the severity. Whilst it was funny the importance of friendship was a main theme and how they forgave and stuck together all the way through despite how many years they have seen each other. 

I liked the main three characters, they bounced off each other and felt like you would love to sit in the pub and have a laugh with them. They made the show for me and to have chosen these three personalities that are so different was fun to watch. The show was random; you were taken to so many scenes that made it fast and chaotic. It was nice to see the sights of Ireland. From yachts to being stuck in the hills you were constantly on the go. These characters in particular created the spiral of the story and how it goes from one extreme to another with their crazy ideas and thoughts, which only ended up making a deeper and meaningful storyline. 

There were parts where you didn't know whether to laugh or be disturbed as you felt you were on a roll comedically then you would be brought back to eerie scenes. To be able to flip a switch like that and take it seriously is clever. It played on the stereotypical thriller/horrors for example when they arrive at the wake, their friend's family is at the top of the stairs staring down at them, moving in unison. It made it creepy and changed the vibe quickly. 

What I disliked was the ending. After all the build up which now was down to the group of women throughout you expected a big reason to the entire story. I felt I needed more, as much as I enjoyed it so much throughout it could've been more powerful. I kind of went oh thats it? As much as we focused on the trio, there wasn't enough of Greta, Natasha O’Keeffe, the estranged friend. It felt like you made your own mind up to her story and from the influence of the group. I think that potentially would have made a stronger ending. 

Overall I rate this 4 stars out of 5.