Overview

• Netflix released all eight episodes globally on September 25, with critics publishing same‑day assessments.
• Early reception is mixed, praising production design, locations and performances (notably Anthony Boyle, James Norton and Jack Gleeson) while criticizing pacing, tonal murkiness and loose history.
• Each episode opens with a disclaimer that it is fiction inspired by true events, and the show adds inventions such as James Norton’s enforcer Sean Rafferty.
• The story opens after Sir Benjamin Guinness’s death, centering on a will that binds brothers Arthur and Edward to run the brewery together as Anne and Ben are largely excluded.
• Set in 1860s Dublin with detours to New York, the series was filmed mainly in Liverpool, Manchester, North Wales and Yorkshire; a second season is teased by the narrative but not officially renewed.