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TV round-up: Mr. Selfridge
May. 25th, 2013 03:27 amEven though I should be working on something productive (like a dress made out of the beautiful silks I bought at Vogue Fabrics in Chicago! Squee!) I nevertheless feel more like rambling about fun stuff. So, for today, a post-season TV review: Mr. Selfridge!
I was totally surprised by how immediately and how strongly I was hooked by this show, espcially having gone in with no expectations whatsoever. However, precisely because I was so drawn in by the strong writing and multi-faceted characters, I'm really a little let down by the season finale last Sunday.
I just feel that the last couple episodes dropped the ball entirely, and it degenerated from interesting, fresh drama to melodramatic soap opera. The first episodes were great because they focused on the store, and the ins and outs of the retail business in the 1900s at every level of the store, with a little of each character's personal life thrown in to give perspective from each rung on the ladder. I loved how we'd get to know everyone a little bit more each episode, so that even though in the first episode you sort of had everybody pegged as this or that type, then next episode you'd find out that was only the facade they were presenting to the world, and the reality was much more complicated, and more sympathetic for it:
( Thoughts on season 1 character development )
All that was really super great, but in the last couple episodes, it started to ignore the store and any other aspect of the characters lives in favor of (mostly bad) romances.
( The Hook-Ups! The Break-Ups! Are we sure Selfridges is a department store, and not a dating service? )
This started out as one of the best shows I've seen in years, and I think it can still be saved, and I'm really rooting for it to get good again, unlike Downton Abbey which I've kind of given up hope on. Still, it's a year away. I'll just have to put it out of my head till then. (And go watch The Borgias and Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries! [And anything else Gregory Fitoussi has been in, because seriously, I miss my Henri! Why must they take him away from us, WHY?! *sobs*])
I was totally surprised by how immediately and how strongly I was hooked by this show, espcially having gone in with no expectations whatsoever. However, precisely because I was so drawn in by the strong writing and multi-faceted characters, I'm really a little let down by the season finale last Sunday.
I just feel that the last couple episodes dropped the ball entirely, and it degenerated from interesting, fresh drama to melodramatic soap opera. The first episodes were great because they focused on the store, and the ins and outs of the retail business in the 1900s at every level of the store, with a little of each character's personal life thrown in to give perspective from each rung on the ladder. I loved how we'd get to know everyone a little bit more each episode, so that even though in the first episode you sort of had everybody pegged as this or that type, then next episode you'd find out that was only the facade they were presenting to the world, and the reality was much more complicated, and more sympathetic for it:
( Thoughts on season 1 character development )
All that was really super great, but in the last couple episodes, it started to ignore the store and any other aspect of the characters lives in favor of (mostly bad) romances.
( The Hook-Ups! The Break-Ups! Are we sure Selfridges is a department store, and not a dating service? )
This started out as one of the best shows I've seen in years, and I think it can still be saved, and I'm really rooting for it to get good again, unlike Downton Abbey which I've kind of given up hope on. Still, it's a year away. I'll just have to put it out of my head till then. (And go watch The Borgias and Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries! [And anything else Gregory Fitoussi has been in, because seriously, I miss my Henri! Why must they take him away from us, WHY?! *sobs*])
