Frank of Ireland is an echo of a TV comedy

The sons of acting royalty, with plenty of high-profile credits between them, have created their own TV show.

Is the only measure of a comedy that it makes you laugh?

If it misses on a bunch of other levels but still elicits some chuckles, maybe even a couple of guffaws, can it be considered to have done its job?

That’s the conundrum unintentionally posed by Frank of Ireland, a six-part Amazon Prime Video original series from — you guessed it — Ireland.

Co-created by Brian Gleeson, Domhnall Gleeson and Michael Maloney, Frank of Ireland is a scruffy, oddball comedy that somehow, despite itself, manages to be occasionally funny. Its inconsistency is its most consistent trait.

But it certainly has a long list of inappropriate funeral songs for a one-footed, diabetic, emphysematous woman whose heart literally does not go on.

Frank of Ireland is a six-part comedy on Amazon Prime Video.

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Frank (Brian Gleeson) is an abrasive 30-something-year-old man who lives in his childhood bedroom with his single mum Mary (Pom Boyd). He loves to quote Taxi Driver, still gets pocket money for doing chores and fancies himself a musician but hasn’t written anything since he and girlfriend Aine (Sarah Greene) broke up six years earlier.

When Aine tells Frank she has a new boyfriend, a doctor no less, it doesn’t go down well.

Frank has trouble moving on: from his musical failures, from his mum’s house, from his last relationship. But he feels less of a loser because his best friend Doofus (Domhnall Gleeson) is the beta to Frank’s alpha.

Misanthropic Frank gets into all sorts of grief, all of his own making, including a mad dash around town looking for his mum’s well-endowed Tinder date.

Frank still gets pocket money from his mum – he’s a keeper, ladies!

It often feels as if Frank of Ireland exists purely to showcase the Gleesons.

The Gleeson brothers, if you’re not familiar, are the sons of Brendan Gleeson. Younger brother Brian is better known for work in Ireland and the UK, including stints on Peaky Blinders, Love/Hate and Rebellion.

Domhnall is the more internationally recognisable face with roles in franchises including Harry Potter, Star Wars and Peter Rabbit plus films such as Ex Machina, Brooklyn, About Time and The Revenant.

But it’s their joint appearance as brawling brothers in Darren Aronofsky’s divisive film Mother! that could’ve served as better inspiration for Frank of Ireland. The anarchy of that fracas is the chaotic energy missing from this series.

Domhnall is particularly adept at physical comedy and that skillset is not used nearly enough here.

As much as the Gleesons have the natural chemistry of real-life brothers, it’s actually in the scenes solely with them where you really feel the deficit. When it’s a bigger scene with more of the cast featured, that’s when it sparks.

Frank of Ireland needs to dial up the chaos.

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None of the characters are particularly likeable and Frank’s contempt for almost everyone around him evokes Bernard from Black Books — although Frank feels more aggressive than Bernard’s apathy, and he’s even less self-aware.

At one point he asks his mum why everything “turns out s**t” for him to which she replies, “you’re a prick, Frank”. That really should’ve already been obvious to him and it doesn’t gel that it’s not.

Frank of Ireland does feel like a bit of a throwback to a comedic TV format from 20 years ago.

And maybe that’s where those laughs are coming from, almost as this echo from decades past where boner jokes were considered edgy. Even the most urbane among us can’t suppress a giggle at a boner joke.

Which brings us back to the original question – if it’s funny, then is it effective?

Sure, Frank of Ireland will give you some laughs, but that doesn’t mean it’s fresh, engaging and great TV for a time when other series are doing all that and more. It’s merely an echo.

Frank of Ireland premieres on Amazon Prime Video on Friday, April 16

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