If you want better cliffhanger effectiveness
Choose Paradise, Season 2. It scores 4.8 vs 2.0 for cliffhanger effectiveness, with a 4.1 overall score.
How to Get to Heaven from Belfast, Season 1 Review
Bottom Line
Choose it for crackling Irish banter, terrific lead chemistry, and a dark mystery that rewards a binge. Skip it if you want a tightly streamlined whodunit; the eight-episode plot can grow convoluted and tonally overloaded.
Best for
Best for viewers who want sharp Northern Irish banter, complicated female friendship, and a darker mystery-comedy with strong cultural texture. Derry Girls fans who are open to a longer, more sinister format get extra pleasure from the callbacks.
Not for
Skip it if you prefer tightly streamlined mysteries, calmer tonal control, or short sitcom-style episodes. The fast dialogue, dense clues, and expanding conspiracy can feel exhausting or confusing.
Verdict
How to Get to Heaven from Belfast works best when Saoirse, Robyn, and Dara are simply bouncing off one another. Across the reviews, their chemistry, the rapid-fire dialogue, the dark Irish humor, and Lisa McGee's feel for complicated friendship earn the most consistent praise. The mystery is engaging enough to keep many viewers binging, and the Irish locations, cultural detail, soundtrack, and strong supporting cast give the series a vivid identity beyond its Derry Girls connections. The tradeoff is sprawl. Several reviewers think eight episodes is too much, with a middle or late stretch that gets repetitive, overcomplicated, or tonally strained. The ending resolves the central case for many viewers, but reactions range from effective and satisfying to anticlimactic or perplexing. It is a highly entertaining character comedy wrapped around a messier-than-necessary mystery.
Feature Scorecards
Summary
56 reviewed features-
Very positive 4.5-5.031 (55%)
-
Positive 3.5-4.418 (32%)
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Neutral 2.5-3.45 (9%)
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Negative 1.5-2.42 (4%)
Pros
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The central trio's chemistry is the clearest point of agreement. Their bickering, affection, old grudges, and effortless rhythm make the decades-long friendship feel lived in and often carry the show when the mystery wobbles.
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The series is repeatedly praised for feeling unmistakably Northern Irish and Irish, from Catholicism and language to pop culture, geography, humor, and the lingering aftereffects of the Troubles. Several reviewers saw that specificity as one of its richest qualities.
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Roisin Gallagher, Sinéad Keenan, and Caoilfhionn Dunne are repeatedly identified as the engine of the series. Their timing, emotional range, and ability to play off one another keep the story afloat through its messier stretches.
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The humor is frequently described as laugh-out-loud, quick-witted, dark, and unmistakably Irish, with the trio's insults doing much of the work. A smaller group felt the laughs thinned out as the series became busier and darker.
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McGee's rapid-fire dialogue is a major strength: sharp, profane, layered, and often devastatingly funny in the same breath. Its speed can demand concentration, but reviewers repeatedly say the banter crackles.
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Lisa McGee's writing is praised across the set for wit, specificity, fast dialogue, character insight, and the ability to find humor in darkness. The main knock is overreach: the plot sometimes grows so elaborate that the machinery starts to show.
Cons
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Eight episodes is the most repeated structural complaint. Multiple reviewers independently suggest the story could lose one or two installments—or simply be six episodes—without sacrificing its core mystery or character work.
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The closing hook creates interest in another season, but it also frustrated one reviewer because renewal was uncertain. The tease works as a continuation device more than as a fully comforting stopping point.
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The 40- to 50-minute format gives the mystery room to expand, but one reviewer found that length less inviting for casual comedy rewatches. Shorter episodes would have made it easier to throw on again.
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Having all eight episodes available at once suits the bingeable story, but one reviewer worried that the drop-everything release could also make the series easy to miss. The concern is discoverability, not the viewing flow itself.
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The mystery is engaging but often asks a lot of the viewer. Some found the knots involving, while others needed notes or complained about identities, side plots, false leads, and late-season complications becoming confusing.
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The finale earns credit for a clever turn and for resolving major questions, but the reaction is far from unanimous. Other reviewers found it perplexing, tonally split, or less satisfying than the stronger start.
Cast & Creators
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CreatorMcGee's voice is the show's defining strength: reviewers repeatedly praise her rapid dialogue, dark humor, character insight, and distinctly Northern Irish perspective. Even critics who disliked the sprawling mystery often still admired her craft.
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RobynKeenan is frequently singled out as the trio's comic powerhouse, turning Robyn's exhaustion, fury, and biting delivery into a scene-stealing performance. Her work also gives the character real sadness beneath the swagger.
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DaraDunne brings Dara a dry, understated comic rhythm along with loneliness and emotional weight. Reviewers praised her physical expressiveness and the ease with which she shifts between jokes and heavier moments.
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SaoirseGallagher gives Saoirse flustered charm, comic precision, and enough vulnerability to expose the cracks beneath her successful surface. Reviewers consistently liked how she handles both dysfunction and emotional weight.
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FeeneyJackson makes an enormous impression in a relatively brief role, with several reviewers calling her wild, scene-stealing, memorable, or iconic. Her maximalist performance is divisive, though, and a few critics found the character grating or preposterous.
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BookerGallagher turns Booker into a memorable, stone-faced threat with enough eccentricity to fit the show's comic world. Reviewers call her a standout and respond strongly to the character's menace and determination.
View all 56 feature scores and cast & creators
Compared With Category Average
Compared with other TV Shows, this product is above average in accent authenticity, character consistency, language level, near average in franchise connection, genre satisfaction, below average in cliffhanger effectiveness, season finale quality, episode length.
Comparison summary
56 compared features-
Above average 0.4+ pts higher38 (68%)
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Same as average within 0.3 pts10 (18%)
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Below average 0.4+ pts lower8 (14%)
Largest category differences
| Attribute | This product | Category average | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| accent authenticity | 5.0 | 2.4 | +2.6 |
| character consistency | 5.0 | 2.9 | +2.1 |
| language level | 4.5 | 2.4 | +2.1 |
| cliffhanger effectiveness | 2.0 | 4.0 | -2.0 |
| continuity | 5.0 | 3.1 | +1.9 |
| violence level | 5.0 | 3.2 | +1.8 |
| dialogue quality | 5.0 | 3.4 | +1.5 |
| writing quality | 4.8 | 3.4 | +1.4 |
Consider This Instead
If you want better season finale quality
Choose It’s Not Like That, Chapter 1. It scores 5.0 vs 2.8 for season finale quality, with a 4.5 overall score.
If you want better season length
Choose Rivals, Season 2. It scores 4.5 vs 2.4 for season length, with a 4.1 overall score.
If you want better story quality
Choose Invincible Season 4. It scores 4.5 vs 4.1 for story quality, with a 4.2 overall score.
Compared in Reviews
Products reviewers directly compared with this model, grouped into quick takeaways.
Derry Girls
- Similar: character archetypes The reviewer sees strong similarities between the new characters and Derry Girls.
- Similar: character mannerisms and dialogue The adult trio are described as reminiscent of Derry Girls characters.
- Similar: genre templates The reviewer feels Derry Girls is one of several templates being reworked.
Bad Sisters
- Similar: dark female mystery-comedy The reviewer describes the show as funnier and darker than Bad Sisters.
- Similar: women under a code of silence The central setup is compared directly with Bad Sisters.
- Similar: genre templates The reviewer feels Bad Sisters is one of several templates being reworked.
only murders in the building
- Similar: fast comic mystery The reviewer describes it as a turbocharged version of Only Murders in the Building.
- Similar: comic amateur-sleuth mystery The reviewer likens the series to Only Murders in the Building with a Belfast twist.
FAQ
Is it actually funny, or mostly a mystery?
Comedy is a major part of the appeal, especially the trio's rapid-fire insults and awkward disasters. A few reviewers felt the laughs thin out as the darker mystery takes over.
Is the mystery satisfying?
Most reviewers stayed invested and the central case gets substantial resolution, but the route there is divisive. Some praised the twists while others found the plotting convoluted, repetitive, or overextended.
Do I need to watch Derry Girls first?
No. Reviewers treat this as its own story, though Derry Girls fans will recognize the creator's comic rhythm, cast connections, Easter eggs, and specific callbacks.
Is it easy to binge?
Yes for many viewers; several reviews describe racing through all eight episodes or finishing very quickly. The main caution is that repetition and 40- to 50-minute episodes made some reviewers wish the season were shorter.
How good is the cast?
The cast is one of the strongest areas of agreement. Roisin Gallagher, Sinéad Keenan, and Caoilfhionn Dunne are repeatedly praised for their chemistry, timing, and ability to handle both comedy and heavier material.
Does Season 1 stand on its own?
The main mystery reaches an ending that several reviewers considered resolved or satisfying enough, while the final beat leaves room for more. A few found that tease frustrating or the finale anticlimactic.
How important is the Irish setting?
Very. Reviewers repeatedly praise the Northern Irish and Irish accents, Catholic references, geography, pop culture, political aftereffects, and local humor as central to the show's identity.
Sample Expert Reviews We Analyzed
These are a few of the reviews included in our analysis.
Video Reviews
YouTube - Peter Watches TV
- Review score
- 4.9
YouTube - Netflix VS Cinema Podcast
- Review score
- 4.0
YouTube - FWCI Etc
- Review score
- 4.3
YouTube - HexFlicks - Comfort
- Review score
- 4.5
Article Reviews
rogersmovienation.com
Here's a delighftul weekend's binge, a daft and darkly comic trip to the Emerald Isle that's a lot cheaper than flying, with a lot more...
- Review score
- 4.9
sharedfuture.news
Discover how to get to heaven from Belfast in this thought-provoking review that reckons with the past while addressing the impact of the...
- Review score
- 4.9
npr.org
In the hilarious Netflix series How to Get to Heaven from Belfast, three women learn that a long estranged school friend has died in a...
- Review score
- 4.6
americamagazine.org
“How to Get to Heaven From Belfast,” Lisa McGee’s new series for Netflix, is a wobbly, unsuccessful blend of comedy, mystery and would-be...
- Review score
- 2.7
theartsdesk.com
The brainchild of Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee, this is a strange and tortuous tale which defies easy categorisation. There’s plenty of...
- Review score
- 3.9
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