House of Guinness Episode 1 Recap: A Slick, Sudsy Power Play in Dublin

The Netflix drama House of Guinness opens in the run-up to the May 1868 funeral procession for Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness, the Protestant Irish owner of the renowned brewery and a member of Parliament. The premiere sets a stage of upheaval in Dublin, where the brewery, its docks, and related enterprises employ thousands and help shape the city’s political future. Created by Steven Knight, the series leans into a stylish, bombastic, music-video sensibility while balancing historical detail with melodrama. The show bills itself as fiction inspired by true stories and aims to be entertaining and provocative.

With Sir Benjamin dead, the Guinness fortune passes to his four children — Arthur, Edward, Anne, and Benjamin — each maneuvering to take control of the business and the family name. Arthur, who has spent years in London, returns with a cosmopolitan air, while Edward stays at the Dublin plant and plots a buyout that would secure him 35 percent of the profits for an easy transition. Anne, steadfast and ferocious, becomes entangled with Rafferty, the brewery’s hard-edged enforcer, even as her reverend husband William remains a background presence. Benjamin, a troubled addict, is romantically involved with Lady Christine O’Madden and deeply in debt to Bonnie Champion, the gangster who oversees the family’s brothels and gambling operations. Other elder figures — the loyal butler Mr. Potter, Aunt Agnes, and Uncle Rev. Henry Grattan Guinness — orbit the siblings as the business and faith vie for influence.

Across the city, the Guinness family contends with the Fenian Brotherhood, whose factions threaten to upend the family’s hold on Dublin’s economy and politics. Patrick, the hotheaded Fenian leader, raids funeral processions and burns beer barrel pyramids in a bid to signal power, while his sister Ellen leans on blackmail and networks within the Guinness household to tilt leverage toward their cause. The episode foregrounds Ellen’s calculated moves as a counterbalance to direct force and hints at deeper alliances. The soundtrack reinforces the mood with a blend of modern tunes, including Fontaines D.C. and Kneecap, used in a cheeky, self-aware way that signals the series’ blend of history and contemporary swagger. The climax features a race to roll barrels off a Dublin dock before rain quenches the flames, a sequence that anchors the show’s brisk, spectacle-minded approach.

Overall, critics describe the premiere as stylish and entertaining rather than a solemn historical epic, a tone that sets House of Guinness apart from Knight’s more earnest period pieces. Comparisons are drawn to his Peaky Blinders pedigree and to the more grounded drama A Thousand Blows, with notes that the show is lighter, more sudsy, and built around strong performances and striking visuals. While not delivering a definitive verdict on where the season will go, the opening episode signals a willingness to mix broad themes of family, money, rebellion, and power with pulsing music and sharp humor. Viewers who encounter the series on Netflix should expect a ride that prioritizes mood and momentum over strict realism, at least in its first hours.

The series is framed as fiction inspired by true stories and aims to entertain with a glossy, provocative lens on 19th-century Dublin. The ensemble cast includes Anthony Boyle as Arthur, Louis Partridge as Edward, Emily Fairn as Anne, Fionn O’Shea as Benjamin, James Norton as Rafferty, Jessica Reynolds as Lady Christine O’Madden, and David Wilmot as Bonnie Champion, among others. Episode 1 lays out the central question for the season: who will steer the Guinness empire when old loyalties fracture under pressure from rivals inside and outside the family? Netflix has launched the season with a mix of lavish settings, high-stakes intrigue, and a soundtrack that blends period drama with contemporary energy, signaling that this is a series that intends to entertain as much as it interrogates power and lineage.