The Young Offenders review: Beloved anarchic comedy is back and as sweet as ever but why is not on RTÉ?The Young Offenders: Chris Walley and Alex Murphy as Jock O'Keeffe and Conor MacSweeney in the TV comedy. Photograph: Miki Barlok/Vico/BBC is the latest example of an Irish comedy thriving in its natural habitat: British television.
It’s hard to think of a worse indictment of public service broadcasting in Ireland and Jock are enjoying a “free holiday to Colombia”, where they have been unwittingly recruited as drug mules. They’re caught at the airport and banged off to prison. Three years later, Conor is released while Jock continues to bide his time in a deep, dark hole somewhere .
Even if you don’t like the gags, an underlying sweetness makes The Young Offenders worth sticking with. Conor is a lost soul who has never really come to terms with the death of his father. As the new series begins, his girlfriend Linda reveals she is engaged to a rival scallywag, which causes Conor to have meltdown on her doorstep before gardaí arrive to haul him back to prison.