Netflix's new drama from Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight has jumped up the charts of the most watched content on the platform.
Released on 25 September, House of Guinness chronicles the fate of the Irish family brewery in the wake of the death of Sir Benjamin Guinness, the man who kickstarted its success.
The series follows Benjamin's adult children, Arthur (Anthony Boyle), Edward (Louis Partridge), Anne (Emily Fairn), and Benjamin (Fionn O'Shea), grappling with the loss of their father and the responsibilities of the family company.
The quartet is joined by a cohort of other characters, including Guinness foreman Sean Rafferty (James Norton) and Edward's wife Adelaide (Ann Skelly).
House of Guinness has debuted to big viewership numbers and positive reviews, securing the number one in Ireland and the UK since its first day of release.
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On Rotten Tomatoes, the eight-part drama is Certified Fresh with a rating of 87% out of 31 reviews.
Critics have addressed the unavoidable comparisons with Knight's Peaky Blinders, as well as other shows centred on powerful, if dysfunctional, families, while highlighting the new series' own qualities.
"House of Guinness is full of intense confrontations and unexpected complications -- and anyone who enjoyed Peaky Blinders, or Succession, or The Gilded Age, should find House of Guinness very satisfying to watch," NPR wrote in their review.
While a juxtaposition with Knight's other big series was "inevitable", House of Guinness emerges as its own beast, wrote iNews.co.uk.
"Comparisons to Peaky Blinders are inevitable, but House of Guinness is a self-contained, captivating drama on its own merit," their review read.
Elsewhere, Paste points out how the time jumps in the second half don't work seamlessly, but the show as a whole makes you forget about its shortcomings.
"Though the back half of the season struggles with some pacing problems and several ill-advised time jumps, House of Guinness is so confident in its own identity that the show mostly makes it work," the review noted.
Digital Spy gave House of Guinness five stars, enthusing that the series is "brewed to perfection".
"It is a visual feast that is teaming with more atmosphere than a freshly shaken bottle of stout, but if you're already familiar with Knight's work – which includes Peaky Blinders, SAS Rogue Heroes and A Thousand Blows – this will come as no surprise," our review read, already calling for a season two.
House of Guinness is streaming on Netflix.
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Reporter, Digital Spy
Stefania is a freelance writer specialising in TV and movies. After graduating from City University, London, she covered LGBTQ+ news and pursued a career in entertainment journalism, with her work appearing in outlets including Little White Lies, The Skinny, Radio Times and Digital Spy.
Her beats are horror films and period dramas, especially if fronted by queer women. She can argue why Scream is the best slasher in four languages (and a half).
