The series is based on Ken Bruen's crime novels featuring the character Jack Taylor, a former Garda officer turned private investigator in Galway.

Iain Glen said his desire to play a private eye was inspired by Jack Nicholson's portrayal of Jake Gittes in the 1970s film Chinatown, and he saw parallels between Jack Taylor and Philip Marlowe-style dialogue.

The show began as a series of TV films: The Guards debuted on TV3 in Ireland on 2 August 2010, followed by The Pikemen and The Magdalene Martyrs in September 2011, and later The Dramatist and Priest in March 2013.

Despite being set in Galway, the second and third films were mostly a German production, filmed partially in Bremen, which critic Bernice Harrison noted 'may or may not look like Galway'.

Filming for Shot Down, the sixth episode and season one finale, began on 7 June 2013, and the story was based on Bruen's novel The Killing of the Tinkers.

For the third series of films, additional cast members Aaron Monaghan, Emma Eliza Regan and Gavin Drea joined the returning leads Iain Glen, Nora-Jane Noone and Killian Scott.

Critics gave mixed reviews to the series, with several praising Iain Glen's performance as Jack Taylor even when they criticized the writing, accents, or clichéd plotlines.

A real-life private investigator, Tim Burchell, told The Guardian he initially disliked the show for its clichés of the heavy-drinking loner ex-cop, though he warmed to it on a second viewing, while noting it gives a misleading view of the profession.