Online Series Review: ‘The Spectacular’: Fanataticsm of the IRA Fully Exposed

12/13/2022
Updated:
12/13/2022

NR | 4 episodes | thriller | Dec. 15, 2022

The Provisional IRA had a weak grasp of economics, basically adopting the Marxism of their international sponsors, but they understood geography, especially the Limburg region of the Netherlands as the center for their foreign operations, because it bordered Belgium and Germany.

As it was in real-life, coordinating with the law enforcement agencies of all three countries represents a bureaucratic challenge for Limburg-based Jeanine Maes, the lead investigator in this Dutch-language thriller.

Martin de Waard (Michel Sluysmans) and Jeanine Maes (Hadwych Minis) work together to catch a violent IRA gang, in "The Spectacular." (Topic)
Martin de Waard (Michel Sluysmans) and Jeanine Maes (Hadwych Minis) work together to catch a violent IRA gang, in "The Spectacular." (Topic)

Not surprisingly, she tends to get better results when she goes rogue in writer-directors William Bosch and Pieter Kuijpers’s four-episode series, “The Spectacular.”

Maes has been warning her superiors of the dangers of the Provisional IRA for years, but they finally start to take her seriously after several highly visible assassinations of British military personnel in the tri-point Limburg area.

She quickly identifies a key suspect, Fiona Hughes, the IRA’s “Angel of Death.” Hughes is a true believer, but maybe a bit too erratic for the comfort of Corey O’Keefe, an IRA political spokesman, who hopes to take power through the ballot box. He dispatches old school operative Declan Moore to take charge of Hughes’s cell to rein her in somewhat. However, he and O’Keefe have different visions for the terror group’s future. O’Keefe wants to maintain their assassination campaign, but strictly limit collateral damage, and to keep the heat on the British, while not undermining international sympathy for the IRA.

Moore, however, still harbors ambitions of launching an attack on a massively destructive scale, a so-called “Spectacular,” for which he has the explosives training to carry it out. Moore also resents having to babysit O’Keefe’s ambitious and impulsive younger brother, Paul
To further complicate matters, Patrick Lynch, Moore’s trusted right-hand man within the cell, has reluctantly agreed to inform British MI5 of their plans.

Irish Fanatics

Throughout the series, Bosch and Kuijpers make the IRA look like reckless fanatics with no regard for human life. It hardly registers for Hughes when she inadvertently murders an infant while gunning down its British officer father. Whereas for O’Keefe, it is merely a public relations nightmare. Of course, that puts more pressure on Maes to catch Moore’s brutal gang.
(L–R) IRA terrorists Patrick Lynch (Kerr Logan) who is the informer; Paul O'Keefe (Cillian Lenaghan), the younger brother of Corey O'Keefe; and Fiona Hughes (Aoibhinn McGinnity) all work against investigator Jeanine Maes (Hadewych Minis), in "The Spectacular." (Topic)
(L–R) IRA terrorists Patrick Lynch (Kerr Logan) who is the informer; Paul O'Keefe (Cillian Lenaghan), the younger brother of Corey O'Keefe; and Fiona Hughes (Aoibhinn McGinnity) all work against investigator Jeanine Maes (Hadewych Minis), in "The Spectacular." (Topic)

The intrepid Maes turns out to be an acutely human protagonist. She has relentless drive, but she also carries the emotional baggage of a devastating personal tragedy. Hadwych Minis (whom some viewers might recognize from Netflix’s “Tokyo Trial”) compellingly portrays her as a smart, professional woman in her late-40s. We can see why Martin de Waard, her chief deputy, is so loyal to her, despite her counter-productive tendencies.

It is the kind of tough, commanding role that is hard to find in Hollywood, for women of her age.

Conversely, Aoibhinn McGinnity is quite chilling as the remorseless Hughes. Bosch and Kuijpers adroitly position her as Maes’s polar opposite, who cares about nothing except her single-minded pursuit of terror, whereas Maes cares about everything, to the detriment of her own well-being.

Declan Conlan is also weirdly fascinating to watch as Moore, who emerges as something like an “honest terrorist,” in contrast to the sleazy duplicity of O’Keefe.

There is a lot of nice supporting work, including Michel Sluysmans and Kenneth Herdigein (who played Mandela in a Dutch production of “Amandla! Mandela”) who bring a lot of grit to the miniseries as de Waard and the overseeing prosecutor, Boudewijn de Rondt. This case (and the manner in which Maes pursues it) will challenge both their characters.

Violence and Carnage

Judging from “The Spectacular,” every member of the Provisional IRA was either a psychotic murderer or an informer—or not infrequently, both. Ultimately, Bosch and Kuijpers build towards a rather unsatisfyingly ironic epilogue, but they vividly capture the fear and carnage the group spread.

The series also casts the European Left of the 1980s in a largely unflatteringly light, particularly the naïveté of the student-activist Lynch seduces, who learns the hard way that “revolutionaries” often turn out to be scary terrorists.

In many ways, “The Spectacular” serves as a corrective to self-serving revisionist histories of the Provisional IRA. The series leaves little doubt regarding their violent means and power-seeking goals. It is a decidedly dark thriller, but Maes’s perspective greatly helps to humanize it.

Recommended for its political astuteness and its procedural elements. “Spectacular” streams Dec. 15 on Topic.

“The Spectacular” series leaves little doubt regarding the Provisional IRA’s violent means and power-seeking goals. (Topic)
‘Spectacular’ Directors: William Bosch and Pieter Kuijpers Starring: Hadwych Minis, Aoibhinn McGinnity, Declan Conlan Not Rated Running Time: 4 episodes Release Date: Dec. 15, 2022 Rated: 3.5 stars out of 5
Joe Bendel writes about independent film and lives in New York. To read his most recent articles, visit JBSpins.blogspot.com
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