Grab your pint glass and settle in: Netflix is dropping another historical, and this time it’s less “Bridgerton” balls and more Guinness pours and family squabbling. “House of Guinness,” the latest series from “Peaky Blinders” creator Steven Knight, pours itself into a pivotal moment for the Guinness brewery and family, as they try to chart a course for the future amid tragedy.
At the heart of the show is real history that, despite Guinness’ global fame, has been little told even in the history books, says Malcolm Purinton, an assistant teaching professor of history at Northeastern University who focuses on the history of beer. Full of family drama, politics and high-stakes business dealings, it’s a story tailor-made for a post-“Succession” TV landscape, Purinton says. But it also makes sense of where Guinness is today.
“Last year, Guinness was hitting numbers that it never has,” Purinton says. “It started opening a new brewery in Chicago to meet this demand. It’s been skyrocketing. … I can see why Guinness, why [parent company] Diageo, would be interested in telling this story to keep that going.”
