It's not quite often that you find a series that you might never notice otherwise if not for the striking name which has wonderful memories for you. How to get to Heaven from Belfast, a series streaming on Netflix caught my attention with the name Belfast. I along with two other research scholars had an opportunity to visit Queens' University, Belfast, Northern Ireland in the summer of 2010 as exchange students while we were doing our Ph. D. It was a lovely six-week programme where we interacted with many scholars, visited historical sites and generally soaked in the ambience of Belfast and some nearby places. We fell in love with the accent and the wry and straight faced Irish humour! We also observed many cultural nuances of the Irish and their strong community ties. Overall, it was a lovely experience.
Now cutting back to the present . . .
Imagine my delight when while browsing through Netflix, I happened to see the word 'Belfast' - my mind immediately raced through the beautiful weeks of 2010. I started watching the series and discovered that it was a dark comedy thriller which was liberally sprinkled with Irish humour and local flavours of Belfast and nearby places. Listening to the accent was something that I enjoyed alongside the dark storyline of four friends, now three, attending the wake of the fourth friend. Until the fourth of fifth episode, one never actually catches the storyline but once you do so, it all perfectly aligns! in spite of the theme being quite dark and serious, the series is touted as a comedy series and so it is! I missed all my friends in Belfast and connected to some of them after watching the series.
From 2010 to 2026, the memories and fun that Belfast had given me lights up my heart and mind and truly the series enabled me to revel in the wee time that we had spent in Northern Ireland!
Image courtesy: Internet
