Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Good idea lost in the noise

Excellent, a Must See

One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

I'm on the last show of the last season and I'm Thankful. I don't think I could take anymore of Jeremy Pivens character, he's self loathing and annoying. And the fact that everyone seems to get killed off or leave, because they don't know how to end their story, or they just don't address them anymore, they just seemed to disappear into thin air. It never really seemed to get off the ground and have true grit. I think the only character I enjoyed watching was his assistant (accountant)?

There's a lot I like about Mr Selfridge. The sets, the costumes, the overall milieu of the department store, and the characters and their interpersonal relationships. It is a highly fictionalized story, though, and doesn't always track with the life of the real Harry Selfridge. I suspect that most of the other characters, apart from his family members, never really existed. But that's fine -- I know its historical fiction and historical fiction can be very entertaining. The major negative factor for me, though, is Jeremy Piven's acting, which lacks anything resembling nuance. Whatever is happening with Harry Selfridge, he's loud and he waves his arms around a lot. High volume with lots of gesticulation is Piven's stock-in-trade, it would appear. The famous Dorothy Parker once criticized Katharine Hepburn's first performance on the New York stage by writing "Katharine Hepburn delivered a striking performance that ran the gamut of emotions from A to B." (Hepburn freely admitted in later life that she was awful in "The Lake" and had no idea what she was doing when she got on stage in that first paid performance.) I'd like to make the same snide comment about Jeremy Piven in "Mr Selfridge", but it wouldn't be accurate. Mr. Piven's emotional gamut never quite makes it from A to B. If he's trying to speak to the entire staff as a group at Selfridge's, he's loud. When his wife die and he's expressing grief, he's loud. When he's trying to comfort someone else who has lost a loved one, he's loud. I suppose it makes acting easy if you just recite the lines the same way no matter what the context happens to be for the scene in question, but even if Selfridge is supposed to have a "larger than life" personality -- and I believe he did -- I can't believe he was always loud with lots of gesturing. There must have been times when he was subdued. I have to say that every other actor and actress in "Mr Selfridge" strikes me as well-cast and excellent. Tom Goodman-Hill as Roger Grove, Amanda Abbington as Josie Mardle, Katherine Kelly as Mae Rennard (formerly Lady Mae Loxley, Aisling Loftus as Agnes Towler, Ron Cook as Arthur Crabb, just to name a few, are all excellent. Sad that Jeremy Piven isn't up to the same standard of acting. Still, so many things about this TV drama work that I've found it worth watching and I'm looking forward to the series finale this coming Sunday.

Not enough people have looked close enough at Mr Selfridge. It is high brow entertainment right up there with the best of the British drama pieces like Doc Martin and reminiscent of the very best of them all, Downton Abbey. (What it has in common with DA is the time and place: World War I, England, and the slow decline of the aristocracy.)Harry Selfridge brings excitement to his plan to shake up the staid English retail shopping business by getting all the famous people, lords, and ladies to pass through his store. He takes on the aristocratic classes who want to destroy him and is helped by Lady Locksley, a wife of one of he Lords who is out to get him. She is perfectly cast with an aristocratic sneer. She is a clever manipulator who becomes a close friend to Harry and key strategic planer plug bringing in the most important clientele.Each episode brings new business challenges that pits Harry against old English tradition, the need for profits and cash, and even people who want to swindle him. Harry inspires leadership and followers. He is always confident and smiling. When action is needed he doubles advertising and cuts prices, brings in sexy fashion models, and actresses. Running through the narrative are the multiple loves and dalliances and marriages and friendships between the store's staff. Those are led by Mr Grove and Mr Crabb, buttoned down traditional men, who head up the administration and the adorable Kitty whose red hair and come hither smile the men will like. And there is Monsier Leuclerc who is the artistic leader for the shop window displays.Every episode is exciting. This is definitely ripe fodder for Netflix binge watching.

We were lead to this show after finding out that it was the reason "The Paradise" were canceled, both my wife and I enjoyed "The Paradise" and were hoping to be blown away by Mr. Selfridge.That didn't happen, it is a good series but it is missing one important character that Paradise had, namely Denise, Mr Selfridge tries hard but Jeremy Piven is not that good an actor, his deliverance is mediocre at best, the story itself is charming though and that is why we watched the entire first 2 series.I don't think they should have canceled The Paradise, there would have been room for both.