With the 2016 film a critical and commercial success, RTE and the BBC collaborated on expanding the premise into a series and a six episode season was produced and aired in 2018.
Conor (Alex Murphy) and Jock (Chris Walley) are two best friends, who live a life comprised of school and a number of attempts to get rich via low level criminal activity. Into their lives come sisters Linda (Demi Isaac Oviawe) and Siobhan (Jennifer Barry) , who are the daughters of the schools head teacher, Mr Walsh (P.J Gallagher). The relationships between the four put Conor and Jock at odds with Walsh, whilst their repeated bike thefts put them at odds with Sergeant Healy (Dominic MacHale).
The show doesn't follow on from the series, but rather acts like a soft reboot, with Jock living with his dad and Maireed back to hating him for the influence he has on her son. Some aspects of the film come back, such as the Billy mask being a key component, but on the whole it's a different story. This is none more apparent than with the addition of the girls, wonderfully played by Oviawe and Barry - whose interactions with the boys quickly become a highlight of the series, or perhaps lowlight might be a better word, because (fair warning) the series has a lot more bodily fluid moments than the film did. It's impressive that they found actors as willing to make themselves look as bad as these four are willing to do. But this is not to say that the heart as gone, virtually every episode has a moment where characters reflect on how they really feel about each other, or someone gets an insight into why another character acts the way they do.
There are laughs (and perhaps grimaces) in every episode and "The Young Offenders" is well worth your time.