Thu 20 Aug 2020
A TV Episode Review: RIVIERA “Villa Carmella†(2017).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[6] Comments
RIVIERA. “Villa Carmella.†Sky Atlantic, UK, 15 June 2017 (Season One, Episode One). Anthony LaPaglia as Constantine Clios, a billionaire philanthropist; Julia Stiles as Georgina Marjorie Clios, an American art curator, and second wife of Constantine; Lena Olin as Irina Atman, Constantine’s first wife. Written by Neil Jordan & John Banville. Director: Philipp Kadelbach. Currently streaming on Amazon Prime (until September 1).
There’s a much larger cast than this, of course, and lots of views of the beautiful Riviera shoreline, as well as intimate peeks inside the lives of the Rich and Famous. What more could a viewer want? Well, a faster moving story line for one thing, but looking back after watching this, the first episode of the first season, maybe it just seemed slower than usual. It is, after all, one long ten hour story, told one segment at a time. Not everything has to be crammed into the first 60 minutes.
Or maybe it’s that the story sounds so familiar. Georgina is Constantine’s second wife, and she is in New York City bidding in an art auction while he’s back home in France, entertaining himself on a large luxury yacht when it suddenly explodes, leaving no survivors. After the funeral, Georgina begins to learn that her husband had, shall we say, all kinds of secrets. End of episode one.
It is clear, in a very general sense, where the story goes from here. It’s the details that are missing, and I suspect that it will not be until episode two before I will decide whether watching more than that may be worth doing. There are, of course, hints that Constantine may not even be dead, even though the police have matched his dental records.
What is not clear is, once this first season’s story line is finished, what can be left for an already aired second season, and a third one that is already in the works. Time, as they say, shall tell.
August 20th, 2020 at 7:32 pm
I might sit through this if the Neil
Jordan who wrote this is Neil Jordan the director, screenwriter, and novelist, I’ll have to look it up and see.
August 20th, 2020 at 7:56 pm
Good news: Yes, I believe he is.
Bad news: [From Wikipedia} Neil Jordan has disowned Riviera, due to his scripts being reworked by others. He says he has no idea who rewrote these episodes. “They were changed, to my huge surprise and considerable upset. There were various sexual scenes introduced into the story and a lot of very expository dialogue. I objected in the strongest terms possible.â€
August 20th, 2020 at 8:33 pm
Jackie wanted to watch these and we made it through three or four episodes before we lost interest (to be honest, I lost it long before that) and gave up.
August 20th, 2020 at 9:02 pm
As I said in my review, I’m going to give myself at least one more episode. There just wasn’t enough to this first one to be able to tell. Too much setup, not enough mystery. Only hints.
August 21st, 2020 at 10:29 am
The second episode was more of the same. Very slow moving and other than Julia Stiles as the second wife, filled with people that I had no interest in knowing anything more about.
August 21st, 2020 at 5:44 pm
Yes we watched all of series one, but only the the first two episodes of series two, where it started to get really silly. And that’s saying something. Unless you like scenes of the riviera there’s not a lot here. I couldn’t recommend it.