Hotel Portofino

Multiple storylines; too many, in fact. Perhaps if the characters were not cut from the same piece of cloth we might have a watchable series. The setting is gorgeous, if a little too polished and artificial, but it's not enough to makeup for tepid writing and cookie cutter characters.

If you want a really binge-worthy experience, try the Spanish series, Grand Hotel.

Enjoyed watching Hotel Portofino. Beautiful setting and when relaxing down having time to oneself with a lovely cup of tea this is just right to watch.

If a high school theater ensemble made a Riviera rehash of "Downton Abbey", with a reverential scent of Jane Austen on everything, this is probably very close to what the finished product would look like.

It's not completely bad, but everything feels slightly campy and counterfeit all the time. The "bad guys" are almost all cartoonishly shady, bordering on old-school mustache-twirling villains - even the women, constantly displeased and scheming.

And the many anachronisms surely don't help either. Back in the 1920's, Italians didn't speak English: it was not taught in school, it was not heard on the radio and was not read anywhere. So it's utterly lazy writing to have them magically understand the show's English characters. Even worse, this was when religion and fascism ruled unopposed: the show's young black woman wouldn't have been allowed to sashay around like she owned Portofino. In reality, she would've been arrested, or even publicly beaten by Mussolini's Black Shirts. Simply put, several of the characters don't make much sense.

Scenery is more interesting than the script so far.

Is it just me or are the costumes and hairstyles wrong for 1926? The Anna Chancellor character dresses like it's 1918 but all the other women look more like 1936 than 1926. All that long hair and long skirts.

Otherwise, this one starts off with a thud. The son still has gaping raw wounds on his back 8 years after the war ended?

Better pick up fast or 23 skidoo.

I did enjoy watching this. The scenery and production values are spectacular. The acting is variable but mostly good. But as others have noted, this is no Jullian Fellowes. The script and writing were a little wanting. The storyline fell into cliches at times. But I will watch the next season, hoping it picks up.