How to Get to Heaven from Belfast Review
Director: George Kane, Rachna Suri and Michael Lennox
Date Created: 2026-02-12 22:56
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How to Get to Heaven from Belfast Review: Created and written by Lisa McGee and directed by George Kane, Rachna Suri and Michael Lennox, the series stars Roisin Gallagher as Saoirse, Sinéad Keenan as Robyn, Caoilfhionn Dunne as Dara, alongside Natasha O’Keeffe, Bronagh Gallagher, Darragh Hand and Michelle Fairley. The Netflix drama consists of eight hour-long episodes that blend dark comedy, mystery and emotional drama against the moody backdrop of Ireland.
How to Get to Heaven from Belfast Review
In Netflix’s How to Get to Heaven from Belfast, three childhood friends who have drifted apart are brought back together by the supposed death of their fourth, only to discover that nothing about her death makes any sense. What begins as a road trip to a wake quickly becomes a wild, perilous, and darkly comedic search for the truth about secrets they thought were buried two decades ago. The show expertly balances dark humour with a growing sense of dread, keeping us invested in each new episode as it peels back another layer of the past.
The first episode of the series How to Get to Heaven from Belfast gets right into it, firmly setting the tone. A flashback scene with the girls sprinting through the woods establishes that there is something traumatic that connects them together. The show is set years later, as we see how their adult lives have shaped and sometimes fractured them. Robyn is feeling overwhelmed by motherhood, frustration, and just about everything. Saoirse has found success as a writer but is creatively stifled and feels unfulfilled.
Dara has no sense of direction and is stuck in her life with no clear idea of what she wants her future to look like. Their reunion is anything but sentimental; rather, it is filled with tension and unresolved anger. This creates the emotional weight of the series.
The build-up to the mystery surrounding the circumstances behind Greta’s death moves very quickly. The inconsistencies at the wake, the extremely odd and creepy nature of the house, and the eccentric behaviour of those in and around them all contribute to an ever-increasing feeling of unease. However, it is not until there is a suggestion that the corpse in the coffin might not actually be Greta’s that things really start happening. The danger level continuously increases, from car accidents to strange men lurking in the shadows, yet the show maintains its comic edge throughout.
The suspense and its construction that make this Netflix series How to Get to Heaven from Belfast, so memorable, and clearly create the link between the past and present, is the ability to flashback to significant points from their teenage years and remember an important time when Jason Meadows played a key role. This was the time that encapsulated the bond between the four girls and brought them together as friends through their experiences of keeping a secret about it.
The series has a slow build-up of developing the suspense, as well as time to arrive at the truth. It is because of this complexity that the viewer will remain interested in both the mystery and the emotional scars that each of the four girls carries.
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The chemistry among the three lead characters is what makes the How to Get to Heaven from Belfast series unique. Roisin Gallagher’s representation of Saoirse’s exuberance and eccentricity, Sinéad Keenan’s demonstration of Robyn’s passion and fragility, and Caoilfhionn Dunne’s interpretation of Dara give the series a reflective and thoughtful quality. The interactions between each of the three women can feel authentic and sincere in their efforts to communicate the complexities of female friendship throughout their relationship with each other. Although they may not be fond of one another at times, the strength of their connection is clear to the viewer.
The contrast of stupidity vs tension is portrayed very well throughout the series. The show is filled with scenes where total chaos is on the verge of being ridiculous, and yet the audience is able to stay connected to reality because of how emotionally involved the characters are. There are even moments where something funny happens at the least expected time to ease the tension, only for the show to go back to darkness right after. The element of surprise really adds to the overall fun of watching the show.
The mystery stays interesting, even if the storyline sometimes appears to be overstuffed with far too many plot twists. The qualities that lead to this script’s overall charm would be the strong appeal to want to go back to something that has already happened and cannot be returned to.
Netflix How to Get to Heaven from Belfast Review: Summing Up
How to Get to Heaven from Belfast works because it knows that there is more to this story than just whether Greta is dead or alive; rather, it is about how these women are all connected to each other and have guilt and carry a history together. The humour, suspense, and sincere emotional depth of all of the characters make for a very enjoyable and deep opportunity for viewing.
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