Hotel Portofino

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.

This series didn't have a great start. After E1 I was close to dismissing it as a rather inferior cross between Downton and The Durrells. I still wasn't convinced after E2. I was finding the short snappy clips rather annoying, the dialogue sometimes excruciating.

But then it got better. Or perhaps I just got used to it. Whatever it was, by the end I was very happy with it, and I'd definitely watch S2 if it is being planned.

Natascha McElhone was outstanding as Bella. Apart from her my favourite character was Imogen King who played Melissa. A caricature, as were many of the others, but this was really amusing.

The Durrells meets Downton (but not quite on a par with either of those just yet) in this new Britbox series following a British family who open the Hotel Portofino on the Italian Riviera in the 1920's, starring Natascha McElhone.

It's very watchable, helped by the beautiful setting with Croatia doubling for Italy. Production values were OK and the large cast were good, everyone seemed to be 'rather attractive'. Its definitely a traditional period show pitched at an older audience but there's no harm in that, though critics will probably disagree.

I rather liked it. The opening episode had an awful lot of characters to introduce and consequently was a bit too slow moving but the pace picked up as the series developed and there were some interesting plots and themes.

Not an instant classic, but as a light drama in a beautiful setting it does what is says on the tin. A diverting watch for cold Winter evenings.

Only 20 reviews? That's a bit poor. Anyway I liked this, its not nor does it try to be wildly groundbreaking. The charactors and well drawn and engaging all performances strong, some will say its cliche but really what does that mean. There are typical traits to be portrayed and this is done with care and in a genuine heartfelt way. Cecil is a great cad though we see his soft underbelly, loved Melissa she was the perfect pre debutante, best giggly, silly endearing girl in a period piece I think Ive ever seen in a very long time, Claudine was excellent, Lucien an absolute delight along with Nish, no one over-did their portrayal, staying within character confines which was awesome.

Def hope there's a Season 3.

Oh and gosh so beautiful visually. Well done all.

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.