Republic of Doyle

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Republic of Doyle is a Canadian Private Detective Buddy Cop Show that aired from 2010 to 2014. It follows the lives and cases of the Doyle & Doyle private detective agency in St. John's, Newfoundland, headed by Jake Doyle, his father Malachy, and Malachy's girlfriend Rose. Also along for the ride are Jake's niece Tinny, his estranged wife Nikki (for the first season, at least), Sergeant Leslie Bennet of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary, and a graffiti artist named Des.

Throughout the series Jake helps solve cases, gets on everyone's nerves, and sleeps with a lot of women.

Tropes used in Republic of Doyle include:
  • Aeris and Bob: Seems to switch each generation. Malachy, his son Jake, and his granddaughter Tinny.
  • Ascended Extra: Christian was only in the first season to get the plot of the season finale rolling. In season 2, he's seen more often because he runs the pub beneath the Doyle & Doyle offices. He also helps out the team more often.
    • Seems to have been Put on a Bus by the season three opener, though.
      • Nope, he's back.
  • Badass Family: The Doyles, and Des by extension.
  • Betty and Veronica: Chandra (Betty) and Tinny (Veronica) for Des.
    • Leslie (Betty) and Nikki (Veronica) for Jake.
    • In a sort of gender-flipped version, there's Martin (Reggie) and Malachy (Archie) for Rose.
  • Bilingual Backfire: Season three episode "Mirror, Mirror" has a variant: several scenes establish that Jake Doyle doesn't speak French. At the end of the episode, love interest Sgt Leslie Bennett claims that a francophone police officer isn't her type, then switches to French to say that Jake is her man. Jake asks her what she said, and adds "You know I don't speak French." Bennett refuses to translate and leaves. After Bennett is gone, Jake says, in French, that she is the one for him.
  • Bittersweet Ending: Season three, episode one. Hey, Doyle, you caught the Dirty Cop and solved the murder! Good on ya, b'y! Oh, but Leslie told you to stay away from her forever, and that any feelings she might have had for you were gone. Ouch.
  • Canadian Accents: Most characters speak with thick Newfoundland accents.

Jake: There's me, Christian, and Kathleen. It's gonna be hard to divide 50 bucks between tree people.
Malachy: How many times've I got to tell you; trees go in the garden. One, two, three.

Malachy: Sorry, Rose needed my help to plow.
Jake: Oh, is that code now?

  • Keep Circulating The Tapes: The pilot episode "Hidden Agenda", which was not included in the DVDs released in North America and Australia/New Zealand/Oceania as CBC reshot the pilot with a different plot and a different actor who played as Malachy.
  • Laser-Guided Amnesia: A client loses all of her memories, but can recall names from her past that she used as a con artist.
  • Married to the Job: Tinny's mother had to travel for work, and Tinny was sent to live with Rose and Malachy.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Jake uses Leslie's police code to aid in breaking out a convicted felon who had kidnapped Des and Tinny. She gets fired as a result, and now seemingly despises Jake.
  • Noodle Incident: We're never explicitly told why Tinny is living with her grandparents in the first season. In the second she reveals that her mom ditched her to travel for work.
  • Papa Wolf: Subverted. Malachy could usually care less about Jake.
    • He loves him, he just... doesn't like him very much.
  • Put on a Bus: This happened to Malachy, Rose, and Tinny by the second season finale, and now to Christian as of season three.
    • The Bus Came Back: Rose and Malachy return in the season 3 premiere, and Tinny's actress is still credited in the opening.
    • Tinny's back too - and apparently never left for London.
    • Nikki's put in an appearance despite being bussed as of the end of season one.
  • Putting the Band Back Together: In the third season premiere, Tinny is in London, Rose and Malachy are retired, Des is in college, and Leslie is unemployed, and then a traffic cop.
    • It would seem that Tinny went to London, went to enroll in the high school, couldn't do it and snuck back home.
  • Revealing Coverup: One episode begins with Des being arrested (while wearing a snorkel) after robbing a convenience store and a male strip club while drunk, and leading every police officer in St. John's across the city to distract them from the real target that evening, a priceless statue.
  • Running Gag:
    • Jake gets beat up and hit in the head while Malachy stands by and does nothing to help. It happens almost Once an Episode.
      • Malachy's been on the recieving end of this as well (when Gerhardt smashed a vase on his back, for example), but Jake's usually the one being flattened. It's almost like Malachy wants him to develop some mettle. Or perhaps it's just for the lulz.
    • Jimmy's leg getting broken (and then walloped over and over with various blunt objects while it's in a cast) in the season three opener.
  • Second Love: Rose, after her husband went to jail, hit it off with Malachy. Malachy is a widower himself.
  • Soft Glass: Jake smashes a glass against the head of a thug. It shatters and knocks the guy out but neither Jake or the thug seem to have been cut by the glass shards.
  • Status Quo Is God: While Rose and Malachy's retirement, Leslie's unemployment and Jake's return to the police force last nearly a year in-universe, they are all over by the end of the third season premiere.
  • Tagalong Kid: Des.
  • They Fight Crime: Jake and Malachy, also Jake and Leslie.
  • Unresolved Sexual Tension: Between Des and Tinny.
    • Seemingly resolved with a Big Damn Kiss in the season two finale.
      • Not so much, as they're back to being UST-y, and now, with the introduction of Chandra, things are more complicated.
  • Voice with an Internet Connection: Rose.
  • Wrong Guy First: Rose's first husband was a drug dealer.
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