First Impressions: The Filthy Rich in Sky TV’s Riviera

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Full series now available on Sky Go and NowTV

 

Apparently Julia Stiles is still in showbiz! At least for now, which is the only thing worth noting about the first episode of Riviera, Sky’s latest drama about death on the Côte D’Azur. It may sound Agatha Christie, but we should be so lucky. No, Riviera is really just one big house after another, punctuated by (fake) works of art and private jets. The budget was evidently jaw dropping, but as a result there isn’t much else to look at. There’s an element of voyeurism in allowing yourself to gawp at the show’s mansions, fast cars, designer clothes and superyachts but it isn’t enough to carry an hour of television, let alone another nine hours in what is to be a ten part series.

Within the first ten minutes we’ve travelled between France, Monaco, New York, and London yet still view little to remark upon other than a succession of aerial shots of each skyrise. Our lead character is Georgina (Stiles), who is happily married to Constantine Clios, an enormously wealthy art collector who gives his wife budgets of $ 25 million to purchase paintings around the globe, all while travelling on private jets and drenched in Armani. After thirty-five minutes we finally get something resembling a plot development when an apparently lying husband is killed in a bomb explosion – planted by a busty blonde on an oligarch’s yacht – leaving Georgina with some unanswered questions. Along the way we are introduced to some drug addled teenagers with absent parents and self harming issues. So apparently money can’t buy you happiness?! Who’d have guessed.

Amid all this distracting extravagance, one might hope for a whiff of good writing or maybe, at a push, good acting. Alas, despite the promising line up, including Iwan Rheon (Misfits, Game of Thrones) and Adrian Lester (seen most recently in the BBC’s Undercover), Riviera falls flat. Clichéd lines muffle what could have been decent displays of emotion and a serious lack of character development impedes any notion of sympathy we might have had for these mega wealthy elites running around the French Riviera. Unfortunately for Julia Stiles, Riviera won’t be doing much for her, except reminding us that she exists.

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