Bill Murray is 76 now, and the cameras were there for his 75th birthday. A Course Called Ireland follows him and author Tom Coyne around Ireland's golf courses for six episodes. It starts Sunday, Oct. 25, on the Paramount+ streaming service. The Journal's TV critic, John Anderson, calls it a joy.
A different local narrates each episode. The first is Margaret, a charming woman with white hair. She insists the show isn't about Bill Murray, and it isn't about golf. Anderson says it's about both. As a pitch for visiting Ireland, he says, it's hard to beat. The views are stunning. The locals are warm, especially toward Americans whose families left long ago, often to escape starvation. That's a lot of people. By the Census Bureau's count, nearly 12% of Americans have some tie to Ireland. Margaret says Murray's DNA is 98% Irish. She adds that the script says so.
Coyne wrote the book behind the show. He spent roughly 16 weeks walking Ireland's whole coastline. Along the way he played dozens of links courses, treating them as one golf course 1,100 miles long. On a ferry, the fans crowd around Coyne, not Murray. Every passenger seems to know the book.
Fifty years of being Bill Murray
Under the jokes sits a quieter theme, 50 years of fame. Murray admits to director Chris Cottam that he's a difficult person. When he tries to manage fans, it backfires. So he goes along with the handshakes and selfies and misses the days of autographs. Some days he's had enough and slips away. Actor Chris O'Dowd joins for two episodes. He and Coyne agree that Ireland is, pound for pound, the funniest country in the world. O'Dowd says the Irish wrap their smarts in humor, because “if people knew how smart we are they wouldn't trust us.” When O'Dowd starts in on Murray's grandmother, Murray can't stop laughing. Anderson expects viewers to laugh right along.
Our read
This is a Retirement M10 story, the kind about what retirement is for. The heritage trip is a dream we hear about often. See the village the great-grandparents left. Play a round where the land meets the Atlantic. With nearly 12% of the country tied to Ireland, plenty of readers carry some version of this trip in their heads. It's less often in their budgets. A trip like this is a project. It has a date, a cost and a fitness requirement. Coyne's 16-week walk is for the very fit. The six episodes from the couch are for everyone else. Most of us want something in between, and that version costs real money. Our verdict is hold.
Murray was still playing the links at 75. Here's where that touches your own plan. Open your retirement budget this week and look for the travel line. If the big trip isn't there as its own item, with a year and a rough price, it's still a wish. A plan gives it a line, a date and a savings bucket of its own. Decide whether it happens in the first few years after work, while the knees still agree. You fund the trip before the calendar fills, the way you buy the raincoat before the sky turns. If you'd like us to fit the trip into the plan, bring it to your next review.