Values Dissonance: "Rock Queen" - "met a little girl, just thirteen, she's a knock-down blue-eyed slut psycho-virgin tease. Rock queen, thirteen, buxom blonde, bad dream, let me touch your cookies - let me eat your cookies - now".
A complicated example. While the series is respected in Ireland for being a well-produced homegrown show (by contrast, Derry Girls and Normal People required outside funding) - its success is something of a double-edged sword since every other production since has attempted to be "the next Love/Hate". Darklands and Kin were criticized for being particularly derivative.
Many North Dubliners despise the reputation as a Wretched Hive resulting from the series, feeling it relies on some overly stereotypical characters.
And You Thought It Would Fail: No one on the first season thought they'd even get a second, and some of the actors initially recall their association with it provoking negative reactions in other auditions.
Broken Base: Series 4. It was assumed that losing Robert Sheehan as Darren would be a radical change for the show, but what wasn't predicted was how much the overall writing would change. While every individual episode was still of a high quality the overall shape of the series was utterly aimless: plot after plot was brought in and then pushed away before anything of consequence came of it. Character after character was implied to be about to do something important and then killed off without consequence before that could happen. This could be forgiven if the new cast of Garda officers were interesting, but they were basically everyone's least favourite part of the show; the heavily-advertised presence of Brian F. O'Byrne proved to be wasted as well on an especially flat character. The only thing that happened in the series that will actually matter in the long run is that Siobhán has decided to betray Nidge. Other than that the whole season gave many the impression it was the first half of a longer story.
Packie attending a "Jesus Saves" moshing event in someone's house. It's supposed to show that Packie is trying to stay off drugs by finding God, but the whole thing is just bizarre.
Designated Hero: Darren. Over the course of the series, despite saying that he wants to get out of crime, performs more and more criminal acts, even once he kills John Boy and it's no longer necessary. Rosie even finally notices this and leaves him for good at the end of the second series.
Genius Bonus: Every character in the show shows a preference for the Glock, except in the opening scene, when Bobby gets shot by a masked man with a Beretta. It's only later in the series, we see Hughie carry one a scene or two before he's revealed as Bobby's killer.
Growing the Beard: Series 1 had its wings clipped by RTÉ in pre-production, fearing the grimness they were aiming for would drive viewers away. As a result it's poorly paced, padded, occasionally quite goofy (especially at Nidge's wedding) and the characters' personalities were a bit vague. Series 2 corrected these problems and dug deeper into the culture of crime. Series 3 upped its game to the point that pundits were no longer adding the suffix "for an Irish show" to their praise.
The casting improved as the series progressed too, with actors looking less like they walked out of a car insurance commercial.
Many would argue that with Rosie gone, the Romantic Plot Tumor that existed in the first two seasons is no longer restricting the main plot to being about Darren and Rosie's relationship.
Harsher in Hindsight: Git's rape of Siobhan is much harsher with the Real Life accusations that Maíria Cahill was raped by a member of the IRA during The '90s.
Misaimed Fandom: It's reported that actual criminals love this show, many of them sitting down on a Sunday night to watch it. In prison
Moral Event Horizon: Fran digs up the body of his rival's mother and pisses on her corpse.
Never Live It Down: People act as if "Coola boola!" is Fran's catchphrase — he only ever says it once (season 3, episode 1). Similarly, Tommy only asked for a "fizzy orange" once (season 4, episode 1).
Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Fran, who was a hammy villain in Series 2, became the very bleak comic relief in Series 3 and was much better for it, basically becoming the new Ensemble Dark Horse since Nidge became the main focus of the show.
Mary's actress Ruth Bradley became better known one year later for starring as Emily in Primeval and later Channel 4's Inhumans.
Jimmy Byrne in Season 1 is played by Robbie Walsh, who'd later show up as Keogh on Fair City and Dermot Hogan in Michael Inside, as well as establishing himself as a director in his own right.
Lizzie. Series 3 built her up as a potential Love Interest for Darren until he kills her brother and she returns the favour. Series 4 builds her up as a threat to the gang, even managing to break into Nidge's home. So, how is she utilised in Series 5? She has one scene, where she's preparing to go after the gang again and is promptly shot in the face.
Terence "Big Balls" looks to be set up as a Greater-Scope Villain, but almost nothing is done with this with his son taking a central role instead.
Tommy and, by extension, Siobhan, once Tommy gets brain damage. Tommy is reduced to a Manchild who ends up periodically bleeding from his ears as a result of brain damage and Siobhan is driven to being an emotional wreck dealing with Tommy's issues.
Hell, Siobhan in her own right. She gets used by John Boy to carry money through the airport, raped by a high ranking IRA man, left to deal with Tommy's brain damage as mentioned above, puts herself in a position where she is risking her life passing information about the gang onto the Gardaí and pushed to the point where she pushes Pauley off a balcony. She later gets killed by Patrick when he finally takes down Nidge.
Debbie. From her introduction, she's subjected to a Trauma Conga Line, starting with a heroin habit, being beaten by John Boy, forced into prostitution, kicked out of the brothel she's been working in, reduced to stealing money from her own parents, forced to work as a drug mule and finally dying of an overdose.
in his own right.