The Vanishings, the Irish crime drama starring India Mullen and Allen Leech, has jumped to the top of the trending chart for a UK streamer. Based on a true story, this series proved to be divisive upon its release.
The six-part crime drama, which was originally titled The Vanishing Triangle after its release in 2023, sees the respective pair portray Lisa Wallace and David Burkely, an investigative journalist and detective who look into a series of killings in Ireland.
The series is a dramatisation of events surrounding Ireland's Vanishing Triangle, which refers to a number of disappearances and murders within the Leinster region in the 1980s and 1990s. Many of the cases to this day remain unsolved.
Created by Ivan Kavanagh and directed by Imogen Murphy, The Vanishings was added to 5 last year, and it is currently enjoying success on the streamer as it sits in the #1 position on the trending chart ahead of Rich House Poor House and The Curfew.
Despite its current popularity with audiences, the crime drama proved to be divisive with professional critics upon its release, with several criticising the series for its fictionalisation of historical events.
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"The way it exploits real-life trauma and tragedy in the service of a hokey thriller filled with one-dimensional characters leaves a deeply unpleasant taste," noted Irish Independent, while The Telegraph called it "tasteless" and "horribly inappropriate".
The i echoed these sentiments as they branded it an "appallingly crass and exploitative whodunnit" which "repackages actual suffering into cosy crime", adding that it was an "insult" to the real-life victims and their families.
There were some positive assessments, however, with Daily Mail opining: "If the drama stayed closer to the real facts, it would be stronger for it. But there’s enough here to keep me gripped."
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On IMDb, the series currently has a user rating of 6.1/10 from 2300 logs, with one user writing: "[It's] a great and gripping thriller series which feels like a window into a world of the recent past, but a really disturbing world full of damaged people and institutions."
"This started off well but rapidly lost momentum. Rather than concentrating on a decent mystery it got bogged down with the side story of the detective David's personal life," wrote a second viewer.
The Vanishings is streaming now on 5.
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Reporter, Digital Spy George is a freelance writer who specialises in Movies and TV. After graduating with a degree in Film Studies and Journalism from De Montfort University, in which he analysed the early works of Richard Linklater for his dissertation, he wrote for several websites for GRV Media. His film tastes vary from blockbusters like Mission: Impossible and John Wick to international directors such as Paolo Sorrentino and Hirokazu Kore-eda, and has attended both the London and Berlin film festivals.
