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Where to start? First of all, I'm a fan of the history of the big department stores & the roles they've played in the evolution of cities & lives of urban shoppers, so I was really looking forward to this series.
How disappointing then to be confronted with this overabundance of clichéd writing & shallow acting.
No effort has been made to capture the pace & mood of the period. The performers without exception deliver cartoony interpretations of the denizens of London in the early 1900s. Jeremy Piven was terrific as an abrasive Hollywood agent in HBO's Entourage, but I don't believe Harry Selfridge was Ari Gold.
The characters & plot turns are Dickens Lite, from snippy shop girls, evil supervisors, to the decadent (too young & terribly acted) Lady Mae.
The whole presentation comes off like a wannabe musical comedy (doomed to close in New Haven if not sooner). There's even a music hall number that is looks to be, based on the costumes & dance number, out of a bad 1930s movie. This is supposed to be the first decade of the 20th century!
There's a great story behind Selfridge's but I'm afraid it's not to be found in this travesty.
score 1/10
inframan 2 April 2013
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2776302/ |
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4-1-2021 05:03:19