Borderline, on the free Roku channel, is an episodic series featuring murders that happen near the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, forcing detectives from the Garda Síochána of Ireland and the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) to work together to solve the crime. DI Regan (Amy De Bhrún) of the Gardaí is your typical brash yet clever female detective who offends everyone with her sarcasm and insubordination. DCI Boyd of trhe PSNI (Eoin Macken) is a kind, religious, family man who is saddled with Regan. Cases are two episodes each, and usually feature an Irish person who is murdered in Northern Ireland. Despite the lack of originality in the concept, I found myself enjoying Borderline. And at 6 episodes, it’s not much of a commitment.
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A Little Background
While I assume most viewers of British Crime drama are familiar with the difference between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, I’ll briefly recap here. With the Act of Union of 1801, The island of Ireland became, not for the first time, part of the United Kingdom, under the British Monarchy. But in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, rising Irish Nationalism led to rebellion against the union. The mostly Catholic Irish Nationalists wanted an independent Ireland, yet the mostly Protestant Unionists in the North wanted to remain in the UK. In 1920, The Government of Ireland Act separated the Republic of Ireland from Northern Ireland, sharing an open border. The partition was a violent time, and tensions would ebb and flow between them, escalating into The Troubles from the 1960s until the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that was a major step in creating peace between the two states. In Borderline, you will see the discrimination on both sides in the form of snarky remarks.
The Characters
I’m not going to lie, DI Regan is a bit over the top, annoying in the same way that Chylka is annoying in The Defence, a popular Polish series. Also like Chylka, I can’t help but like her. She is a lesbian, committed atheist, and a loner. Her cutting cracks are funny, but can be hurtful. Regan was transferred to the northern border from Dublin for a reason I won’t spoil here, but suffice it to say she’s not happy to be in the country. She’s beyond prickly, but she does have a heart (naturally). DCI Boyd, which they are careful to point out is the same rank as DI in the Gardaí, is the calm, reasonable detective, but he has been traumatized by the murder of his father 30 years ago, which he witnessed. He also checks under his car for bombs, a habit from his childhood during The Troubles. Boyd has a wife and two kids, and is a recovering alcoholic, sober for 9 years.
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Our Take on Borderline
Borderline is exactly what you think it is, and it doesn’t have the budget of say, Line of Duty, which shows in the production. But I like it. The leads are veteran TV actors, and they raise the quality of the series. They do have chemistry, which is crucial in a show like this. The incorporation of the history of the border is interesting, and they don’t hit you over the head with the politics. Using Brexit as a pretense for having the Gardaí and the PSNI cooperate is reasonable. The cases follow a typical arc with red herrings and people keeping secrets that have nothing to do with the murder, but they are interesting enough. For me, Borderline was a reason to subscribe to yet another, although free, subscription service. If you are looking for some comforting crime drama with great lead actors, Borderline is for you.
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