Obituary is an Irish series full of mystery and dark humor. Siobhán Cullen stars as Elvira Clancy. Elvira is an entirely appropriate name for this mistress of the dark. She is a writer who manages to land a job at her local newspaper writing obituaries. This review is only about season 1.

Obituary is set in a small town of about 5000 population (and falling). Elvira’s boss at the newspaper, Hughie (David Ganly) doesn’t pay his writers a salary. He pays them when an article is published. To make enough money to live on, Elvira needs more people to die so she can write more obituaries. She’s happy to take on the job of killing them, as long as she doesn’t get caught. She makes her murders look like accidents or suicides and they are never investigated as suspicious.

It sounds gruesome, but it isn’t. The murders are treated rather lightly and the entire tone of the series is subdued and well-mannered. Elvira’s clever methods for killing are not the only plotline. There’s also a 5 year old murder that remains unsolved. There’s a plotline between Elvira and her drunken father Ward (Michael Smiley). There’s a relationship story between Elvira and her best friend Mallory (Danielle Galligan).

Flashbacks are used to tell the story of Elvira and her Dad and of her long-time friendship with Mallory. Mallory was in trouble with the law most of the time, mainly for theft.

A new reporter named Emerson (Ronan Raftery) joins the newspaper staff to work on the crime beat. He’s secretly in town to investigate the 5 year old murder case. Elvira is attracted to him, but Mallory grabs him first.

Elvira always thinks she has a good reason to murder someone. She has solid reasons why they deserve to die. Sometimes after they are dead, she learns her reasons were false. Sometimes before she can do it, they die some other way. Sometimes they seem to die but just won’t stay dead. In her dark heart, she imagines deaths for everyone and writes the obituary headlines in her head for everyone she sees.

Siobhán Cullen plays Elvira like a poker champion – she seldom betrays her thoughts on her face. We know, because we are aware of her thoughts. Considering the subject matter of this series, it is surprisingly quiet and calm.

Season 1 of this series is on Hulu now. Season 2 will be released on October 14. I don’t give it the highest ratings but it kept me watching and interested. There were some nice twists and surprises in the murder case. The women directors in the first season were Oonagh Kearney and Rachel Carey.