Ireland's 'No Warning' A Big Brother Mystery With Few Clues

The Lonelygirl15 phenomenon is not over yet. In fact it’s still trickling across the globe as every few months another secret society/ big brother-ish story with web cam footage pops up on the internet. The latest example is Ireland’s No Warning from Craic Addict Films, a dystopian sci-fi story with little narrative, and so far few details provided to allow a viewer to lock in and come back.

The described premise is more interesting than the show—in the summer of 2007, people started to disappear in Northern Ireland after the appearance of strange lights. Footage has been linked of the disappeared providing few clues to mystery of their whereabouts. A robotic telecommunications without a face company (Nexcorp) serves as the wizard behind the curtain occasionally issuing propaganda, again with few clues to help solve the mystery. But maybe that’s what supposed to keep us watching—just who is this Fraternity of the Eternal Brotherhood

Currently my favorite thing about this show are the accents which give me an eerie throwback to the bone-chilling film Trainspotting. Decoding occasional untranslatable Irish is the mystery I’ve been enjoying most. While the show has decent set-up, and some haunting images that look they were taken from Abu Grahib photographs the mystery has no follow through. The show has a welcome protagonist in emissary Gabriel (Michael Smyth), but his message are too cryptic to follow leaving the viewer frustrated, and not sure where to become emotionally engaged.

Nexcorp’s “website” provides a forum for discussion of the show, but still few clues from the 148 site members who only occasionally post, further frustrating the viewer in search of clues. Echoes of Lonelygirl even appear in the tag line of the show, “stay vigilant” which seems eerily familiar in the Lonelygirl tag of “join the resistance.”

Perhaps this is a show that will get better as the mystery deepens, but right now it seems this Irish-based show needs more meat and potatoes. Check it out for yourself at www.nowarning.co.uk.