Generations

Comps: Downton Abbey meets Outlander. In Ireland. With ghosts. Generations is a one-hour TV drama series that moves back and forth in time between the present day and 1910. Boston writer Kate Driscoll was sober for years when stress from her high-powered p.r. job drove her to a relapse. Kate's husband is fed up with her, she’s not getting along with her teenage daughter, and she's in trouble with her boss too.   Her agency couldn't fire just for being an alcoholic, but when she gets out of rehab (with a prescription for opioids in her purse), they send her to Ireland to research her ancestors and write about the trip. Kate has a month to come up with a good story. If she doesn’t, then they can fire her.   Kate settles into Tir Na Nog, a once-grand estate now operated as a hotel. There, she starts seeing visions of the mysterious Grianne O’Malley, a young woman who lived in County Mayo in 1910. Is Kate losing her mind? Has she lost her precious sobriety with the pain pills? Will she lose her job and her family too? Cut to the year 1910, when 21 year-old Grianne O’Malley is secretly writing articles for the local newspaper, advocating for Irish independence. Despite her politics, Grianne falls in love with Diarmuid Moore, second son of the noble family that owns the big estate, Tir Na Nog. Torn between her dream of an independent Ireland and her love for an Anglo Irish aristocrat, Grianne is further tormented with visions of a strange woman who seems to fade in and out of the mist around Tir Na Nog. While Kate sees visions of Grianne in the present day, Grianne sees visions of Kate in 1910. “It’s like everything is happening all at once,” Kate says. “We’re here in the present day, but they’re here too - they’re just in another dimension. Sometimes, we can see them.” Featuring intertwining stories of strong female characters, Generations takes viewers back and forth through time, exploring romantic love, social class, family secrets, immigration, alcoholism, the Catholic Church and the changing roles of women over the past 100+ years. It is a celebration of the conflicts - and the blessings - that are passed down from one generation of women to the next.