Bernice Harrison of
The Irish Times gave the first film,
The Guards, a mixed reception.Stylishly filmed by director of photography John Conroy, its cool, contemporary atmosphere was spoiled by the corny device of periodically giving Taylor a voiceover, improbably turning the ex-guard in Galway with a drink problem into an old-style gumshoe in a film noir. Perhaps if it had been just an hour long instead of feature-length, director Stuart Orme would have insisted on a tighter script, been sharper with his edits and made a better drama. The book deserved it and grizzly Jack Taylor is a strong enough character to hang it – or for that matter, a series – on.She was far less positive about the following two films in 2011, finding Glen's
Irish accent to be unconvincing.TV3 is showing two more Jack Taylor investigations...and they are even worse than The Guards...The dramas are a mostly
German production – filmed partially in
Bremen, which may or may not look like Galway – and there's a touch of the Oirish about the whole thing, and not just because Taylor's weapon of choice is a
hurley. Glenn [sic], who in The Guards couldn't quite settle on an accent, has now decided to channel
Clint Eastwood: his voice is a husky American-tinged drawl that wouldn't have gone down too well in Templemore. Keith Watson of
Metro felt
The Guards had several problems, but that Glen had rescued it.Sidestepping gumshoe cliché, Glen gave Taylor a world-weary charisma that lifted him above the odd story he found himself in from failure. A mixed-up yarn involving a dodgy old artist mate, a spot of under-age sex, a femme fatale and some sideswipes at the state of the Irish economy, the plot buckled under its baffling lack of logic. But Glen, peering at the world through Taylor's boozed-up eyes, lent the action a credibility and mystery it scarcely deserved. David Jenkins of
Time Out was more positive about
The Guards, although he felt there was nothing new in the storyline.It's all very clichéd, from the wiseacre patter to the generic chase scene through a strangely empty warehouse. But who's complaining when the clichés are thrown together with this much tenderness and panache? David Stephenson of the UK's
Daily Express praised the episode's opening sequence.The first few minutes of this new feature-length drama confirmed in my mind that I was going to enjoy the next 90 minutes. For a start it began with a car chase after Jack had taken a requisite large slug of booze. Reviewing
The Pikemen following its British television debut, the
Radio Timess David Butcher was generally positive, praising Glen for his portrayal of the central character.It's not the paciest of crime thrillers but Iain Glen makes Jack the kind of doleful, rugged character you want to keep watching and the story has the right kind of rough edges. Phil Harrison of
Time Out called the second film, "surprisingly enjoyable", but echoed Jenkins's concerns about plot. "[T]he familiar scenarios are at least played out with appropriate relish and conviction and Glen's excellently gnarly in the lead. Daft, grimy fun." Reviewing the DVD release of the first three films,
The Independents Ben Walsh gave it three out of five stars, saying Iain Glen "convinces as damaged Jack Taylor, an alcoholic former cop who now works as a Galway gumshoe." In March 2013,
The Guardians Laura Barnett spoke to Tim Burchell, a real-life private investigator from Private Investigator London, who had a mixed opinion of the series. Burchell told Barnett:The first time I tried to watch this, I turned it off after 20 minutes. I just couldn't stand all the cliches: the heavy-drinking, loner ex-cop. That's not who I am at all [...] I enjoyed it much more the second time. It does show all the groundwork we have to put in: people think we sit and type names into Google, but we're out there, pounding the streets. And although I've never taken on a murder case, as Taylor does, missing-person cases are our bread and butter."He also felt that such shows can give a misleading view of his occupation. "Shows like this are great entertainment, but they do give people the wrong idea." ==DVD releases==