Television series

Kin

Name: Kin
Genre: Drama, Crime
Released: 2021
Cast: Charlie Cox, Clare Dunne, Aidan Gillen, Sam Keeley, Emmett J. Scanlan

Other titles called Kin: the 2018 film.

Kin is an Irish crime drama about the Kinsella family fighting an unwinnable war against a Dublin drug cartel. Fast-paced and darkly funny, it balances brutal violence with genuine affection between characters—think *Succession* meets the underworld. It's for anyone who loves family dysfunction served with stakes that actually kill people.

TVMaze rating

3.8

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy a Dublin clan at war with itself as much as with its rivals, told with a wry, sideways grin.

Skip it if you want a tight, fast thriller, since this lingers on domestic scenes, side characters and talk more than on set-piece violence.

What it asks of you: Sixteen episodes of roughly an hour each across two seasons, so you will need patience with its slower character moments between the violence.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Succession2018

Like Kin, it's about a tight-knit family business empire under siege, except here the weapons are lawyers and words instead of guns. The loyalty and betrayal dynamics are identical, and the dark comedy cuts just as deep.

But It's American wealth-world politics; if you want street-level grit and explosions, this is boardroom intrigue and Shakespearean scheming instead.

Peaky Blinders2013

Post-war Birmingham gangsters building a dynasty from nothing, with the same blend of meticulous violence, family loyalty, and the cartel-versus-family war at its core. Cillian Murphy is hypnotic, and the period detail is immaculate.

But Six seasons means commitment, and the show's pace gets baroque by season five—all smoke and fewer actual consequences than Kin maintains.

The Sopranos1999

The template for everything: a crime family dynasty where every decision tears at family bonds, where there's real tenderness between brutal people, and where nobody wins. It invented this entire tone.

But Nearly 90 episodes, 1999 production values, and a meandering middle stretch. The first three seasons are perfect; the last three require patience.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Kin

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Godless2017

Both trap a family in a stronghold under siege by a powerful enemy, and both understand that loyalty and geography are the only weapons left when money and firepower fail.

A miniseries western set in a town run by women, with a fugitive man on the run from a cartel boss. It shares Kin's structure—hunted family against overwhelming odds in a confined space—but tells it as a gorgeous, deliberate period piece instead of modern Dublin noir.

But Only six episodes means it's paced for closure rather than the sprawl of traditional crime drama, and the western genre may feel ornamental rather than essential.

The Godfather1972

The Kinsella setup is pure Coppola: a family business that demands loyalty unto death, the slow corruption of good men, and the bloody cost of empire. Every crime family drama owes it everything.

But Three-and-a-half hours, 1970s pacing, and if you've seen it, you know every beat already. It's reverent rather than urgent.

The Drop2014

Tom Hardy as a Brooklyn bartender pulled into a cartel war he didn't start. Small, tight, and devastating—it catches the claustrophobia of Kin's Dublin stronghold and the way ordinary men get swallowed by criminal machinery.

But It's quieter and sadder than Kin; there's less dark comedy and more slow-burn dread. Some will find it too bleak.

Gangs of New York2002

A gang war between the old order and new money in 19th-century New York, with the same Shakespearean family-versus-empire collision. Daniel Day-Lewis is unforgettable, and the violence has weight.

But Nearly three hours of Scorsese's most operatic style. It can feel overwrought, and the historical setting may feel distant from Kin's modern Dublin.

Donnie Brasco1997

An undercover cop embedded in a Mafia family creates genuine affection and loyalty that destroys everyone. It's smaller and sadder than the mob epics, focused on betrayal within family rather than against enemies.

But Al Pacino and Johnny Depp chemistry carries it, but the plot is fairly predictable. It's intimate rather than sprawling.

Ozark2017

A family—not criminals, but forced into crime—against a cartel in the Midwest. The Kinsellas' situation maps almost exactly: outnumbered, out-resourced, surviving on smarts and family bonds, everything spirals.

But It peaks early and the later seasons stretch too far. By season four, the plot contortions feel mechanical rather than earned.

In Bruges2008

Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson as hitmen in purgatory, written and directed by Martin McDonagh. It's Irish crime storytelling with black comedy, regret, and unexpected tenderness. Gorgeous and devastating.

But It's more fable than procedural, and the violence serves philosophy rather than plot momentum. Some want action; this wants to break your heart.

The Banshees of Inisherin2022

Both understand that Irish men express love through violence and loyalty through self-destruction, and both treat family/chosen family as the only religion that matters.

Martin McDonagh's darkest comedy about two men on an Irish island whose friendship implodes into violence. It's Kin's tone—savage, funny, Irish—but intimate and almost chamber-like, focused on the psychology of loyalty breaking rather than cartel war spectacle.

But Nothing happens in the conventional sense. It's philosophical and circular, and if you want plot momentum and expansion, this contracts into obsession instead.

McMafia2018

Both chart the moment a family realizes their criminal enterprise is feeding them to something larger, and both ask whether loyalty to blood is love or just slow suicide.

A British miniseries about a banker raised in a Russian crime family trying to escape his legacy. It's structured like Kin—family business, cartel war, impossible escape—but told in elegant, international scope with the same moral clarity about how blood costs everything.

But Only one season, so it's a finite story rather than an ongoing spiral. Some viewers will crave more; others will appreciate the restraint.