Vultures P.I.

If you haven’t heard of Vultures PI, let me tell you about them.

First off, it’s a sitcom about dicks…private dicks.

So says the byline

Vultures is the story of three private detectives who run a small scale private investigation agency in small town Ireland. The moderately successful business is called Vulture Private Investigations and specialises in dealing with divorce cases, fraud, missing persons, animals and plants and occasionally, just occasionally, they’ll be served up something that approximates a mystery.

Set in Kilkenny, Vultures PI follows three of the most unlikely private detectives you have ever come across. We have the eponymous Jim Vultour, a crazy, crazed guy who flits from one thing to another, always coming up with ‘bright’ ideas in how to solve the most ridiculous things-like did Rod Hull *really* just fall accidentally off that roof? - to scheming how he can get his ex-girlfriend Sarah to dump her lovely new boyfriend Pat (and his Aran jumpers) and take him back.

Then there is my personal favourite of the three, the Sherlock Holmes wannabe Dan McGrain who is the most gentlemanly, old-fashioned and lovable of the three detectives. Dan is a man who always wears a suit, holds doors for a lady, smokes cigarillos and spends his evenings listening to LPs and reading by lamplight. He is no match for his new girlfriend in Episode 5, Niall’s sister and Garda, Jane Tennyson. And she is so crude and unladylike compared to his true love Isabelle Vultour! *love-sick sigh*

Finally we have the relatively new to the team, Niall Tennyson. Niall seems to be the only one with a real ambition, he struggles against the other two most days to get some real detective work done - in between tea breaks of course when he gets to make tea for everybody-no matter who is in the office, he’ll get the kettle on and the queen cakes out. In Episode 5 there is a bit of a shadow around Tennyson though…the Pinkertons, a rival (and much more professional) detective agency have come to town and are trying to get rid of Vultures P.I….and they want to recruit Tennyson…will he leave the unprofessional buffoonery of Vultures behind…or will he stick with the guys who gave him a shot at his dream of being a P.I.?

Although Vultures follows the lads as they try to solve various cases for their local clients, most of the comic genius lies in the back stories of the three, how their lives are intermingled, their love lives, their home lives and life outside of work. From the first episode I was hooked and with each episode Vultures has gotten funnier and better. Episode 5 has just recently been released on their website, The Adventure of the Hidden Microfilm and I had plenty of laughs watching it.

The fifth episode tops all of the previous ones with more humour, more threads of previous stories running through it and an obviously bigger budget than before. I can’t recommend Vultures highly enough, and just to confirm my recommendation Darren has reviewed and recommended Vultures as well here, here AND here!

I’m hotly anticipating Episodes 6 and 7 - are you?