Episode 1 begins with Lloyd (Stephen Jones) rushing under an awning to get out of the pouring rain and make a call to someone in his contacts listed as Denise (Jennifer Heylen), who does not answer. After not leaving a message, he visits a local pub where his friend, Baz (John Doran) is onstage playing guitar. Lloyd tries to reach Denise again via text while Baz dedicates what appears to be a love song to him. This appears to be too much and sends him racing to a bodega where he purchases a bottle of wine and returns home.
While all of this has taken place, there is also a short scene of Aine Casey (Elva Trill) on the phone arguing with her mother. She doesn’t appear to be bothered by the downpour and just happens to have stopped at the bridge that Lloyd crosses. He passes her again on his way home but there is no acknowledgment.
After returning home and firing up his karaoke machine, Lloyd just happens to notice Aine in the very same spot at the bridge. This inspires him to go back out into the rain to check on her. After a bit of joking from both of them about being psychos, he convinces her to come back to his flat. While using Lloyd’s facilities to freshen up, something causes her to remember an earlier confrontation with Sean (Jay Duffy). He appears to be concerned that in her drunken stupor, she is going to wake his mother, Pauline (Susan Lynch), which she ends up doing intentionally after hearing enough of his moping.
Despite Lloyd being the perfect host and gentleman, his and Aine’s encounter couldn’t be more awkward. There is a bit more joking about toast and bread before Aine reverts back to her earlier memory. This time, she has returned to Sean’s room after speaking with Pauline downstairs. Their conversation is much more contained this time and appears to mainly focus on Pauline finding a suitable partner since Sean’s dad has been deceased.
Lloyd is now making toast while telling Aine how he came to be living in the flat. He is also continually intent on mentioning his girlfriend, who according to him, is taking part in some kind of popular walking fad across Span known as the Camino. Aine appears to be familiar with it. It is at this time that Denise is introduced and after sneaking outside, her ensuing conversation with Karen (Joanne King) suggests that everything he said is true. After a few cigarettes and several cups of wine, Denise and Karen return to face Bill’s (Roger Evans) incessant snoring.
Although Lloyd and Aine appear to be much more at ease with each other now, they continue to discuss bread/toast. This is until a brief mention of family and living at home causes Aine to remember a heated argument she had with her mother. As if not wanting to remember the encounter, Aine gets up from the couch and begins pacing around Lloyd’s flat. A quick discovery of a book leads to a discussion about books and reading. According to Lloyd, his favorite is, ‘Catcher In The Rye.’ When the conversation segues into names, it causes Lloyd to have a memory from the early stages of his relationship with Denise. While teaching her what it means to be Dublin, he asks her if she wants to make their relationship serious. She appears to be all for it but wants him to know that she doesn’t ever want children. He appears to be fine with that, although she clearly doubts it.
Things take an immediate strange turn at the flat when Baz buzzes from downstairs, and Lloyd clearly lies about it being kids messing around. Although Aine doesn’t pick up on the lie, she also receives a call about the same time that she claims isn’t important. They both settle for texting their beckoners before resuming their conversation. After several more glasses of wine, the topic of discussion goes from Aine’s dad being a sensei to Lloyd being the chairperson of a local karaoke club. This leads to another memory where Baz and Ashling (Jade Johnson) give him a lifetime achievement award after his 100th performance. This also happened to be the same night that he met Denise.
Things become slightly heated at the apartment when Lloyd becomes overly persistent about getting Aine to sing. She practically ends up yelling at him, which inspires a memory in her this time. This one appears to be a similar situation with Sean, except he’s trying to get her to dance rather than sing. After Aine’s slight blowup, she realizes it’s time to leave. Despite the newly created awkwardness, he genuinely asks if she has a place to go. This leads to an extension of her earlier argument with her mother. This time, her sister Kelly (Shauna Higgins) gets involved and only manages to make matters worse.
Lloyd’s persistence pays off and he not only convinces Aine to spend the night but eventually gets her to reveal the reason that she was standing at the bridge. Before she does, he briefly remembers the day that Denise told him about going to Spain. It also happened to be the same day that she asked him to move back in. Once Aine shares the news about Sean jumping from the bridge, Lloyd claims he saw him before he jumped.
The episode ends with Lloyd’s brief memory of seeing Sean the day he jumped from the bridge. It appears that he was staring into the mist in that same deadeye stare that Aine had earlier. This likely explains why Lloyd felt the need to intervene.
Northern Lights Review
There is no better way to describe this series than to call it a slow burn. The constant dialogue and flashbacks are extremely tiring but when the series gets straight to the point and stays on point it isn’t so bad. I’ve seen several people complain about the acting, but I didn’t find it that bad. Yes, there are parts and some of the supporting roles are awfully cast, but as for the leads, I didn’t feel as if they did a horrendous job. I will have to admit, I was taken by complete surprise by Sean’s suicide. I was not expecting that and he honestly seemed like one of the more content characters.
I found that incredibly intriguing and hope to see how the show develops around that. Lloyd and Denise’s conflict as well as that of Aine’s and her family’s isn’t really anything groundbreaking but adds some depth to their characters. I do admire how Denise approached Lloyd with her preference about not wanting children. Other than this, the show was exceptionally long-winded. I’d like to see the episode get cut in half. All in all, the premiere deserves a 5.1 out of 10 on the Mockery Scale.
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