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Say Nothing Says Too Much
And shows too little.
Early in the premiere of Say Nothing, FX’s nine-episode adaptation of Patrick Radden Keefe’s meticulously researched 500-plus-page book on The Troubles, a teenage Dolours Price (Lola Petticrew) and her sister Marian (Hazel Doupe) are ambushed while participating in a nonviolent march organized by Catholics yearning for peace. Changing the picture from one that centers Dolours’s unapologetic affect to one that emphasizes the PIRA’s menace betrays one of Say Nothing ’s foundational flaws: The series falters in providing the level of attention and detail applied to its main characters for its depiction of Belfast at large and fails to communicate how living in this kind of environment for generations inspires people to commit themselves to loyalty, subterfuge, and by-any-means-necessary aggression. Say Nothing knows how to convey its main characters’ emotions: In its later timeline, the camera lingers on Dolours’s (Maxine Peake) contrite face as she admits her role in the disappearance of suspected loyalist Jean McConville and centers Brendan’s (Tom Vaughan-Lawlor) look of shocked disappointment when Adams (Michael Colgan), years into a successful political career, denies ever being a member of the PIRA.
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