I saw this thread back in February and thought it sounded interesting. I'm off today, so I tuned into the first episode, and then watched all three back to back. I'm too old to be a Boyzone fan, but obviously they were massively successful back in the day. I agree with what most of you have said already - Louis comes across as a very weaselly character. And Ronan pretty much abandoned the others when his solo career took off. As for Mikey, I just wanted to put my arms around him and give him a big hug. He seemed to be unhappy from the very early days of Boyzone and seems to have a lot of trauma from the whole experience.
Outing Stephen in the media was disgusting. And horrible to think of the stress and anxiety he endured for so long, living with the fear that his secret life would be revealed. I also wondered if Louis had tipped off the journalists. Although it could have backfired on him, since the band was so popular with teenage girls - the other band members were concerned for Stephen but also fearful of what it would mean for the future of the band.
The scandal of Ronan's affair with a backing dancer was a notable omission. Although I think his wife Yvonne has moved on since then. And there are children to consider.
One of the original band members (Richard Rock) was the son of a famous Irish showband singer (Dickie Rock). If memory serves me correctly, he was fired from the band for taking drugs.
One thing that struck me (and probably applies to a lot of the boy bands of the day) was that nobody prepared them for how to cope when the hamster wheel stopped. They were so young when the bank took off and spent so much of their formative years touring and performing. They weren't qualified for anything else or equipped to embark on another career. When their solo careers didn't work out, they had no option really but to re-form. I was really struck by one of the members (I think it might have been Shane) saying that he didn't go anywhere for months after the bank took a 'break' because there was nowhere he needed to go. It must have been incredibly hard for those members who had partners and children, because they spent so much time touring. And even for those who didn't have partners or children in the early days, it must have been difficult being away from family and home for so long. And that's before you take into account the pressures of being in the public eye. It's not an industry I'd want my child to enter.