It’s 19th-century Dublin’s answer to Succession. .... For Steven Knight, a career peak.

The first episode of House Of Guinness shows more than tells, and that’s because of Steven Knight’s expert skills in making his characters vibrant right out of the gate.

Comparisons to Peaky Blinders are inevitable, but House of Guinness is a self-contained, captivating drama on its own merit.

Although well-acted and engaging, the show fails to pack the same explosive punch as the Cillian Murphy-starrer “Peaky Blinders” or even Knight’s Hulu series, “A Thousand Blows,” which premiered earlier this year. Still, it’s an engrossing enough saga that puts the lore and the myths of one of the Emerald Isle’s most famous dynasties front and center.

"House of Guinness" is always entertaining, but there's a hollowness to it that's hard to shake.

Peaky Blinders fans will appreciate Steven Knight’s latest historical delve for its stylistic continuity, but in story terms it feels like it has yet to really hit its stride.

It lacks the propulsive energy of A Thousand Blows and the brash humour of SAS: Rogue Heroes, to compare it to two of Knight’s recent historical efforts. And it seems unlikely that viewers will stick around for last orders.