It’s been the event series of the last 2 weeks.“Bodkin“, freshly released on Netflix, and produced by Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company, is nonetheless at the heart of deep divisions on the part of viewers. For some, the series is an ode to Ireland at its most authentic… while for others, it’s a collection of clichés and caricatures that would simply do the country a disservice… But what is it really?
We told you all about it when it was first released: Bodkin is a 7-episode series in the form of a gritty, humorous crime thriller. It takes place in Ireland, in a fictional village called Bodkin, presumably in County Cork.
A team of 3 podcasters, come to investigate mysterious disappearances, which would have occurred, 20 years ago, during the festival of Samain.
And right from the start, Ireland is presented in many different ways… First, tourism, with the sublime shot of the Sally Gap site (which is in County Wicklow, not County Cork)… We’re treated to a postcard-perfect landscape in which one of the podcasters, an American, marvels almost to excess at the beauty of the place.
Then we go into an Irish pub… supposedly typical… Where the heroine, played by Siobhán Cullen, strongly criticizes “this tourist pub”, and asks to try a real Irish pub, far from the clichés for Americans.
From then on, the mood changed. The pub is both darker and less welcoming… Forget the trady decor, the weathered wood panels and the live bands playing traditional music… Here, the spirit is more modern, simpler and unadorned. But it’s still festive, and the beer flows freely!
In many sequences, the heroine is quick to criticize Ireland, presenting it “as a rotten hole where nothing happens. She seems allergic to the rural side of the village characters… while the American podcaster, marvels at everything, to sometimes ridiculous proportions.
For journalist Ed Power of the Irish Times, it’s a disaster, and does Ireland a disservice:
Bodkin simply adds to the list of the genre’s worst productions – where the booze flows freely in a bucolic countryside, the nuns scowl and everyone talks like an unfinished Martin McDonagh script.
Worse still, for the journalist, the very name of the fictional village, “Bodkin”, is almost insulting to the Irish. This is because it stereotypes the names of villages often described as strange by foreigners. But these names have real meaning, with precise origins and associated traditions… The simple phonetic “Bodkin” therefore sounds like pure mockery to the journalist.
A vision not shared by everyone. For others, the series is a pleasant diversion that, on the contrary, deconstructs clichés. For many, the show is a vibrant critique of Ireland as it is usually seen by Americans…
Like Emily in Paris for France, where the Americans depict a Paris totally out of sync with reality, Bodkin, for some, is a way of attacking the myth of American Ireland.
Forget the Ireland of fairies and folklore. Forget the touristy Irish pubs… Stop believing in leprechauns: Ireland too has its rough edges, and sometimes it’s good to deconstruct visions that are too smooth!
As you can imagine, the Irish series is currently the subject of much debate. Whether you like her vision of Ireland or not, she’s always got people talking… That’s what we call a successful buzz, isn’t it?
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