Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The South Westerlies’ On Acorn TV, A Dramedy About Corporate Trickery And Reconnecting With Your Past

The “quirky small town” trope has been a reliable one for TV writers for ages, mainly because it’s an opportunity to create unique characters out of whole cloth just because they can pretty much populate the town with anyone they want. The South Westerlies is an Irish version of the trope, with a bit of modern green technology mixed in to modernize the plot. And, like most quirky small town shows, it doesn’t take itself at all seriously.

THE SOUTH WESTERLIES: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Shots of the unique office buildings in Oslo’s city center with Irish music in the background.

The Gist: Kate Ryan (Orla Brady) is a Dublin-based consultant for the Oslo-based wind-energy company NorskVentus. She’s called to headquarters to talk about her promotion and raise, but the CEO has an assignment for her first: She needs to go to the tiny village of Carigeen, where she grew up, to convince the people there to approve the wind farm they want to build off their shoreline. There have been protests, petitions, and more, mainly because the residents think the wind turbines will spoil their ocean views.

The idea is that she’ll be undercover, pretending to be on holiday, and trying to suss out from the residents where the wind is blowing, so to speak, then report back to her on-the-ground colleague Morten (Kyrre Haugen Sydness). It was the bright idea of Brigid (Amalie Krogh), a NorskVentus executive and the CEO’s daughter. Kate is reluctant, but her promotion depends on it.

Kate and her 18-year-old son Conor (Sam Barrett), with whom she is close due to the fact that she raised him on his own, travel to Carigeen, both trying to keep their stories straight. Conor has incentive to do this because the promotion comes with money for him to study in London, though the idea of being in this tiny town bugs him. While Kate not-so-subtly talks to various townspeople, like innkeeper Noreen Kelleher (Ger Ryan), about their feelings about green energy vs. unspoiled views, she also finds herself reconnecting with old friends, for better or worse.

First, there’s Breege (Eileen Walsh), the local cafe owner, who is miffed that Kate lost touch with her after her wedding 15 years ago and didn’t even tell her that Conor existed. Then there’s Baz (Steve Wall), a surfer with whom she had a fling right before she left for Dublin and he left for Hawaii. She’s reluctant to have him meet Conor, and Breege has figured out why: Baz is Conor’s father.

Conor’s doing OK, having become fast friends with a teen girl named Poppy (Lily Nichol), and it seems that Kate does have some influential people on her side, like Noreen’s husband, town councilor and pub owner “Big Mike” (Patrick Bergin) and their son Callum (Kevin Ryan), a local radio presenter who is willing to take a punch to defend green technology.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? My assistant critic (i.e. my wife) said that The South Westerlies feels like an Irish version of a Hallmark movie, and that sounds about right. It’s got the light tone of some of Acorn’s mystery imports like Agatha Raisin, but there is no mystery here; it’s about Kate’s reluctant return to the small town she escaped two decades ago. It’s also a “quirky characters in a small town”-type of show that people have been enjoying for decades, from The Andy Griffith Show to Newhart to Northern Exposure to Gilmore Girls to Virgin River.

Our Take: Created and written by Catherine Maher, The South Westerlies is one of those shows that’s light and fun to watch, and is fully dependent on the characters that populate the town depicted on the show. From the first moments Kate and Conor roll into Carigeen, you know that this quaint town in West Cork isn’t going to be boring by any means.

The energy of the show emanates from Brady, who shows that Kate is both ambitious and whimsical, warm and determined, casual but all business. Her chemistry with Barrett immediately shows you how close Kate and Conor are, despite not having that much knowledge of their family’s history until we get later into the first episode.

Maher is smart to give us just enough from people like Noreen, Baz, Breege, Big Mike and Callum to show that they’re all locals who manage to have their own lives and quirks. Big Mike is a politician through and through, while Breege is understandably miffed that her best friend ghosted her right after her wedding. And you know that Callum is being set up as a love interest for Kate, which will likely help her figure out whether she takes that promotion or stays in Carigeen.

Despite the green energy vs. spoiling the view issue, the wind farm protests are just a backdrop to Kate reconnecting with her old life. This keeps the tone light and airy, with occasional laughs that come from the various characters’ quirks and relationships with each other. It fits in very well with any of the small-town shows described above because it doesn’t try to be anything more than that, which is almost refreshing to see these days.

Sex and Skin: Besides Kate donning a bathing suit to take an ocean dip, there’s nothing.

Parting Shot: When Breege asks Kate why she kept Conor a secret, Kate gives her a look that clues Breege in: He’s Baz’s son. She exasperatedly walks away, leaving Kate standing alone in the square outside the cafe.

Sleeper Star: Barrett plays Conor as a funny and sweet guy, not a surly teen. His level of maturity may come from the fact that he’s pretty far from being 18 in real life, but the way he plays Conor’s closeness with his mother brings a lot of warmth to the show.

Most Pilot-y Line: The NorskVentus CEO impatiently asks Brigid if Kate isn’t getting the job done in Carigeen, even though she had only been there a couple of days. It makes NorskVentures look like this evil, scheming corporation… which it may be. But it feels like a bit of added plot that’s not necessary.

Our Call: STREAM IT. The South Westerlies is as refreshing as an ocean breeze, with a fine cast that has great chemistry from their first scenes together.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream The South Westerlies On Acorn TV