I gave this series a 6 (still too generous), only because it is at the very least about an important historical time, the "Troubles" in Ireland, for people to gain some slight insight into.
This series however, did a pretty piss-poor job of making much of any sense of it, except that it was a bloody mess on both sides of the spectrum throughout its duration.
Deceit, double-dealing, underhanded and cold blooded political machinations, too many senseless murders, and a lot of hot headed emotions fueled most of it on both sides. And the scars and undercurrents of bitterness and resentment about it are still alive and well to this day.
The manner in which this series particular storyline is told was nearly incomprehensible and incoherent at best, leaving the viewer to struggling to make connections between what was being portrayed by these actors actions to the intermittent newsreel flashes of events happening around at same time. It was as if the writers and director expected you to be able to just intuit what they were they were thinking and just left it at that. What a terrible waste of a potentially powerful story to have been left in such inept hands.
It was pretty awful, and like I said, if it weren't for the historical aspect holding your interest, I wouldn't have given it the time of day.