Netflix viewers are rushing to watch all seasons of a thriller series fans have called ‘slick and glamorous’.
First airing in 2017, the Irish-British series Riviera was created by Neil Jordan, who had previously directed The Crying Game, Interview with a Vampire and The Butcher Boy.
Set in the French Riviera, the TV show stars Julia Stiles as American art curator Georgina Clios, who finds herself facing a world of ‘lies, double-dealing and crime’ while seeking to uncover the truth about her husband Constantine’s (Anthony LaPaglia) death in a yacht accident.
The first season attracted 2.3 million viewers an episode and became Sky’s most successful original series at the time.
It was followed by a second season in 2021, before a third and final aired in 2020.
When it first premiered, the series was called ‘unmissable’ by The Guardian.
‘Riviera isn’t high art and doesn’t pretend to be. It’s slick, glamorous, fast-paced, precision-tooled entertainment: brain-candy of the purest grade, and I gobbled it up,’ The Irish Independent’s review read.
Metro’s review of the first episode also said it starts as a ‘deceivingly brisk thriller which certainly holds promise’.
Although it did hold mixed reviews, some fans lapped up its ‘twists and turns’ and said it was a worthy ‘binge watch’.
‘Does not disappoint. Infuriating while keeping you on the edge of your seat. Some outcomes easily predictable, others will blow your mind,’ one posted on review site Rotten Tomatoes.
Others said it reminded them of the ‘rich and filthy vintage soap operas’ of the 80s and 90s.
This week all three seasons were added to Netflix, with the series quickly launching into the Top 10 most viewed shows.
During its run, Riviera also starred Poppy Delevingne, Jack Fox, Iwan Rheon, Will Arnett and Rupert Graves.
Speaking to Forbes ahead of the third season, Stiles spoke about why she thought viewers had flocked to the series.
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‘I think that she’s the window into that world; that’s why people relate to my character, Georgina, and got into the show in the first place. Because she doesn’t come from wealth or a particularly upper-class family, quite the opposite. I think she allows people to see the glamour, the trappings of wealth, and that lifestyle through her perspective,’ she said.
‘I think that’s what appealed to me about the show when I first signed on to it was the famous quote about the French Riviera being a sunny place for shady people.
‘So, this contrast between the luxury and what is underneath it, seeing how wealth doesn’t necessarily buy happiness, that it can create quite a lot of destruction.’
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Riviera is streaming on Netflix.
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