say nothing

If you have nothing good to say, say nothing at all.

It’s certainly well beyond the power of any docudrama to take it in whole, and the strength of FX’s “Say Nothing” — a nine-episode historical drama now streaming on Hulu — is that it doesn’t try to.

A disclaimer at the end of each episode acknowledges Adams’ denial that he was ever a member of the IRA or involved in political violence; it’s a claim “Say Nothing” otherwise freely dismisses.

“Say Nothing” begins in a state of knotted tension: an introductory voiceover by Lola Petticrew’s resolute Dolours Price lets us know we’re walking in on a fight between the British and the Irish, “the same old s**te,” that’s spanned 800 years.

Maybe she's also a stand-in for a nation perpetually haunted by the Troubles, the violent escalation between Northern Ireland's Catholics and Protestant loyalists through which “Say Nothing” travels.