'Were you watching Love/Hate last night?' This is the question on pretty much everyone's lips around the country this morning, and we've Stuart Carolan to thank for bringing us weeks more of these all-engrossing water cooler chats. The overall consensus seems to be that it was one hell of an opening episode and has set things up nicely for the coming weeks, although the flashbacks were a little jarring at times. It's fine though, we got what they were doing, just you know, not a style we'd have previously seen on Love/Hate.
The show kicked off in Spain where Nidge met his new business partner/most-likely-future-nemesis Terence. A deal was secured throughout the course of the episode over a few dodgy pop songs and we got to meet Paulie, who seems kind of like a nice cross between Tommy and Darren. Although we don't really know what to make of him yet, other than he's mad for Siobhan and he likes head standing yoga-loving bodyguards..
Back in Dub then, there were plenty of hairy situations in Nidge's gaff as his missus Trish went from blonde to brunette and his young lad had a case of nits. We did also get to see some pretty lovely moments between Nidge and the young fella though, the essence of the anti-hero really - Nidge is a total lunatic but you can't deny he's a loving dad.
All this happy family stuff does leave a sense of foreboding though, as Terence did tell him that he would come after 'you... and yours' if anything was to go wrong with their deal. We're worried, that's all we're saying, and we're not sure the nits and the head-standing security can protect them.
However, it seems like everybody and anybody is out for Nidge this season as his bloody encounter with the Travellers proved. A machete to the head is no joke lads. One of the lines of the night had to go to the pipe-bomb maker Patrick who told Nidge to take his money and 'use if for a headstone'. We always thought that dude seemed like a placid enough bloke (well, you know, besides the whole making pipe-bombs business) but he certainly knows he has Nidge backed into a corner now.
It was starting to look like Nidge's old nemesis Lizzie would be a threat to him too last night but poor Lizzie was taken care of very quickly this season and was offed by that Greg young fella. It's a pity, but look, she killed Darren, she was always on borrowed time.
The Nidge/Fran dynamic took a strange turn as well as Fran had to pretty much beg Nidge for his life after he killed the dentist without his permission. It was a side to Fran we hadn't really seen before with his child-like plea for mercy. Things seemed comically back on track though for the duo by the end of the episode, when Nidge cosied in beside a nervy Fran in the pub and we saw that mental Nidge grin that both terrifies and amuses at the same time.
As we know though, there is definitely more bones to be picked with these two yet...
The gards also cropped up briefly throughout as Siobhan continues spilling the gang's secret left, right and centre, which could prove very tricky for her if she keeps up this thing with Paulie, given that one of his roles is to 'sniff out the rats'.
And Tommy, dear old Tommy is still in a coma in hospital and there wasn't even a fizzy orange in sight.
No cats were killed last night though, so that's a bonus 'ey?
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(The awesome image of Nidge in the main pic of this article is courtesy of graphic designer Colm O'Connor.)