CLEAN SWEEP Series Review – A Gripping and Absolutely Addictive New Crime Drama
Air Date: Two-Episode Premiere on Thursday, June 22, 2023 on Sundance Now and AMC+; additional episodes of the series’ six-episode first season will drop weekly on Thursdays on both platforms.
Reviewer Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
The past has a way of catching up to you and in the new Irish crime drama Clean Sweep, Shelly Mohan (Charlene McKenna) is trying her best to keep hers dead and buried. Being married to Jason Mohan (Barry Ward), a Galway Garda Detective Sergeant will make things quite challenging when someone from Shelly’s past comes back into her life unexpectedly. The events that transpire over the six-episode first season will have you glued to your screen and listening carefully to every single word.
I have long loved dramas and comedies from across the pond. The way the shows are shot, the cinematography, the acting, and locations are all quite alluring and stylistic. Clean Sweep is no different. It absolutely grabs hold of you and doesn’t let go.
Created by Gary Tieche (AMC’s Preacher), the writing is stellar and highlights the often downplayed tedious and laborious day-to-day tasks of a stay-at-home wife and mother. From waking early to get a full breakfast cooked, kids dressed and off to school, and then doing the house cleaning chores, grocery shopping, and school activities like bake sales, Clean Sweep does an excellent job of spotlighting the many hats stay-at-home parents face daily. Lead actress Charlene McKenna is fantastic in the role of Shelly. Her compelling performance puts you squarely in her shoes as she juggles her stepson Derek’s (Rhys Mannion) manic teenage angst, her pre-teen daughter Caitlin’s (Katelyn Rose Downey) foray into hormonal changes, and her youngest son Niall’s (Aidan McCann) health issues.
Throughout the series, the audience is introduced to glimpses of Shelly’s past while seamlessly weaving into the present. When a local murder at the Glen Cara motel has her husband working long hours with his very attractive partner, Garda Detective Fiona Uba (Jeanne Nicole Ní Áinle), things begin to spiral out of control.
The main plot of the series focuses on Shelly and her choices after facing the ghosts of her past. It will involve not only the local Galway police in Ireland, but spans across to London, England, and a crime from over 20 years ago. I truly hope the series is picked up for a second season because this is one addictive show. I am impressed with all the child actors in this series and the overall cast in general. It’s as if they have become these characters and we are all along for the gripping and intense ride.
The way the writers have crafted the series to include the everyday things such as the parents getting together to do school fund raising bake sales, parental rivalries and jealously, Shelly’s trips to the doctor for Niall’s treatments, Derek’s neurotic angsty behavior and girl troubles, and Caitlin’s obsession over how babies are made and an old photo she finds in the trash. All these seemingly unrelated events tie directly into Shelly’s mental state and play a vital role in her actions and choices.
As Shelly continues to try and hide her terrible secret, there is one person who saw her and could link her directly to the crime scene. As Shelly’s desperation starts to overwhelm her, she finds creative and dangerous ways to stay one step ahead of her husband and the local police.
Baking cupcakes, drinking wine, and slaying her past (literally) is all in a day’s work for Shelly Mohan. But with clues and the London police now taking a keen interest in the murder in Ireland, it’s only a matter of time before Shelly’s secret is found out. Will she be able to save her new life, marriage, and children from the sins of her past?
Tune in to CLEAN SWEEP each week on Thursdays on Sundance Now and AMC+
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Judy Manning
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