Highly Overrated But Still Good

Good concept, poorly executed.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

First half: A slowly unravelling mystery around a rich art dealers death seen through his widows eyes. Very enticing plot development and pace, great settings, outfits, direction, editing etc. Second half: A bit of a mess that never recovers. Im not sure if all the episodes where written by the same people and didn't bother to check. But the second half of the series was seriously lacking in all above mentioned areas, except setting and outfits which didn't change. Not much made sense, and the quality of the whole show plummeted to a cable channel daytime soap opera level. Watch it if you have nothing to kill some time with, or leave it on in the background while you make use of your time otherwise. Don't expect any brilliant twists or a great ending.

Firstly let's get the issue of shilling out of the way. click on the names of the reviewers who gave this a 10. Notice in virtually all cases their entire IMDb activity is reviewing this title? OK, first off the scenery is nice in the series. Literally everything else about is terrible. Sorry but the acting is terrible, the dialogue is stilted and silly, and the plot after the first couple of episodes would be downright laughable if it were not about as trope filled and idiot the worst of programming.I must say I am generally a fan of Julia Stiles and Lena Olin, but really, trust the reviewers who were aghast and just how bad "Riviera" is.

Oh man,I enjoyed the series every day (I was really blown away already from the 1st episode..I can't believe some negative reactions here..) ..Every episode I was stuck before my TV (and couldn't wait for the next one..the other day)I really love the series and I'm really hoping there are new-ones on the way..? Congratulations to all the actors,writers,cast people...etc,etc..Thanx a lot and hopefully until soon again.. ;)

As some of the other reviewers have said, this started off with optimism then went downhill very quickly. I recommended to friends after 2 episodes and now I have had to apologise. The acting and actors are very wooden and amateurish. Sadly to say Lena Olin, Iwan Rheon, and most of the French actors were the main recipients of this crime. Julia Stiles wandered around as if a costume change was necessary for every scene and Anthony LaPaglia was frankly embarrassing. I'm not going to give away any spoilers, just to say that if you give this series a miss your brain will probably thank you. I, by the way like series such as Game Of Thrones, Ray Donovan, Homeland, Narcos etc, so I think I have good taste, although one mans meat is another mans poison as the saying goes.