User reviews

I admit that I'm surprised and puzzled by the number of negative reviews of Mr. Selfridge on this site. I'm actually wondering if I'm watching a completely different show from the one many reviewers describe! Beginning with the dazzling opening credits and stylish musical score, this show is an absolute joy every week. I fail to understand how anyone can possibly be unimpressed by the gorgeous period costumes and sets and the fine, subtle performances of most of the cast. If there's a weakness to be found, it's with Jeremy Piven's acting, though I admit that even he's starting to grow on me as his character begins to acquire a little more dimension. But there's so much else that's wonderful about this series, including engaging story lines, that Piven can almost be overlooked. Overall, it's a light, frothy confection that charms and delights in an easy way that few shows ever manage. But I suppose charm is out of fashion. And please, let's stop comparing it to Downton Abbey, which it's not even attempting to replicate, and judge it on its own merits, which are considerable.

'Mr Selfridge' (PBS)

The great American playwright Neil Simon, in his memoir "Rewrites," recalls that he was on the brink of "replacing" the late actor Jerry Orbach in the Broadway musical "Promises, Promises," when suddenly, Orbach seemed to pull a performing rabbit out of the hat and became absolutely brilliant in the part. The show, an adaptation of the 1960 Oscar-winning film, "The Apartment," had 1,281 performances from December of 1968 to January of 1972, and Orbach won the Tony Award as Best Actor for his performance. I was reminded of this as I watched Jeremy Piven in the title role of the PBS drama series, "Mr Selfridge," which has just begun its second season. The series, a British period piece about Henry Gordon Selfridge, the American who came to London and opened his department store, Selfridge & Co., at the beginning of the 20th century, has clearly been a class production since the moment it premiered (January 6, 2013 in the United Kingdom and March 30, 2013 in the United States). What I was less certain about was Piven. He didn't, at first, seem up to the task of matching stride for stride a cast that was chock-full of fine British actors. My suspicion is that he himself was questioning his abilities. But he had his moments, enough to have hope for him in the second season. He's now proved, as the next go-round gets underway, that like Orbach, he possesses a deep reservoir of talent that has allowed him to pull the performing rabbit out of the hat, doing not only a capable job, but an outstanding one, certainly worthy of consideration when awards season rolls around. Like the Selfridge character itself, a man who matured and evolved from a philandering husband and mercurial businessman to a steady spouse and solid leader, Piven also has grown, delving into the many sides of a truly prismatic man, as complex as he was brilliant, with a sure hand that reveals an actor who knows what he is doing and mesmerizes in the process. The series itself is knee-deep in colorful quality, depicting the landmark Selfridge department store and the period in which it was born with a brilliance that both captivates and explains. The supporting cast is superb _ Frances O'Connor as Selfridge's beleaguered wife, Rose, Aisling Loftus as the blossoming young woman and retail whiz Agnes Tower, Gregory Fitoussi as Selfridge's best friend and business confidant Henri Leclair, Amanda Abbington as the emotionally fragile sales head Miss Mardle (it's nearly impossible to imagine Abbington as the icy, assured Mary Morstan that she so effectively portrays in the BBC's hit series, "Sherlock"), Tom Goodman-Hill as the sad personnel head Mr. Grove, Ron Cook as the ever-dependable right hand man Mr. Crabb, and on an on. But without an effective Piven as Selfridge, the foundation of this universe would crumble. Especially now. The plot is beginning to thicken, as they say, with World War I on the horizon. Complex issues, plots and characters obviously await. It's clear that Piven, as Orbach did decades ago on Broadway, has found his sweet spot with his character. And as with "Promises, Promises," the sky's the limit for "Mr Selfridge."

I am loving this series and the details that the production company have put into the costumes and sets are a delight to watch. The hats (referring to some of the previous reviews) are in keeping of the time and reflect, with some humour, some the huge hats women wore at this time. Though I am sure that Mrs Selfridge would have had more hats as she was very wealthy would be nice to see her wearing a few more designs (hint hint ). The cast is very well put together a nice mix of interesting characters, reminds me of the original series of Upstairs Downstairs showing both the upper class and working class characters. I hope they continue to explore all of these characters as well Mr Selfridge.

Some people have made mention to the lack of locations used in the series so far, myself I actually like the fact that it's not filmed in hundreds of locations. With good story and characters I don't need to be shown lots of location filming to grab my interest. Though it would be quite nice to see some more of the homes of the workers. As much as I am enjoying this series as pure entertainment I am actually finding it historically interesting to see the beginnings of the modern department store that we know today. Having worked in department store myself I found all those little details such as the introduction of the perfume counter at the front of the store very interesting from a geeky historian point of view lol. Over all a Lovely series to watch on a Sunday night, I hope there will be a 2nd series, nice to see ITV doing more period dramas.

When I first read about the show I was skeptical, but I found I fell in love with it from first view. The way the story is distributed among multiple characters is definitely something you don't see every day, or at least not with the quality that "Mr Selfridge" has. I'm reminded how relationships run on the fast track, how they lack foundation and are never really secure, how decisions are made on a whim, when you're overwhelmed or when you feel you need more from life that you're currently getting. The fact that everyone is susceptible to passion and making mistakes is at the core of all human beings and the cast of the show portray it beautifully through a much needed emotional acting that most shows fail to provide. The splendor of the fashion world and the eagerness of the workers reveal the inner beauty of times long gone. Mr Selfridge has become one of my favourite period dramas and I have high hopes for its future.

I'm a late arrival to this true gem of a series, giving me the distinct benefit and joy of watching back-to-back episodes in a binge viewing. Frankly, my initial reaction was "what could be interesting about a department store?" I'm glad I went with a friend's recommendation and had a view.

Mr. Selfridge is a finely handled period piece which continues the tradition of exceptional British drama. Jeremy Piven is an inspired choice for Mr. Selfridge, showing his dramatic chops once again in a difficult and demanding role. I've often thought Mr. Piven had more to show us, and this series gives him the opportunity.

As well, the rest of the cast is strong and well-defined. It didn't take long to get hooked into the varied tribulations, trials and triumphs of the characters.

As a confirmed Downton Abbey fan, I thought this series would be a pale copy. I was wrong. It holds it's own very well. The challenge of balancing the factual aspects of Selfridge's history with the fictional, yet realistically painted accounts of the people behind the store, has been very capably managed by the writers. The drive, innovation, quality and forward thinking of the actual Selfridge has been captured here in a way that makes the viewer see how astonishing and astute Selfridge the businessman was.

Kudos to everyone involved. And the theme music for the series is truly inspired. Every time I hear it, I want to shop.

When I saw this series advertised, I thought- Ah yes, another period series. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love series set decades (or in this case, a century) ago. However, in recent times, with the growth in number of these shows, I worry that some are churned out lacking the necessary quality and are present more as an exhibition of period clothing than exceptional story lines. This show, however, was just excellent in my opinion. It challenges viewers whilst capturing the time period. The characters are all divine in their ways. One even finds a place in their hearts for the least desirable characters on the show. I think Mr Selfridge, as well as Call the Midwife, should be ranked and awarded as highly as Oscar-winning Mad Men. Mr Selfridge surpasses expectations by tenfold. For viewers reading this review, who agree with my appreciation of Mr Selfridge, I also recommend Call the Midwife.

I started watching this show during the first season. I favor British costume dramas because of their nostalgia, elegance and style. At first, Pivens, as an actor, seemed stiff, monotone and non-human, like a caricature. This season, however, he has much improved. We see many sides to his character, and his acting is quite sufficient. The whole entire cast is excellent. How do they keep finding all these excellent actors??? Ms. Ainsling is a real gem. Her character is a bit modest and at times bumbling, but you can never take your eyes off her. This season's finale pulled out all the stops. All the unexpected twists and turns of plot were carefully designed to moisten even the driest of eyes. So much heart. Such great script writers. Wonderful ensemble cast!!! American TV shows pale in comparison to these British costume dramas that keep coming out of Masterpiece. Hollywood has more money, but they use it for all the wrong things!!!

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.

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.

As the old saying goes.. What the previous bad reviewers of this series are watching or expect, god alone knows!! This really is an excellent series! Brilliant acting, well scripted and directed and a great story to boot! Also, regarding Jeremy Priven, I personally think he is perfect playing the roll of the flamboyant American entrepreneur in a rather stayed post Edwardian London. Bearing all this in mind,Please don't allow the tiny number of pathetic, sad, need a life, armchair critics on here sway you from watching it. As you can certainly see yourself from the amount of people who truly don't agree their comments,they are definitely in the minority on this one!

This series disappointed me terribly. I watched the first two episodes and had to stop there. It just put me in a foul mood. I felt as if some TV executives sat around a table and debated how best to revisit the Edwardian era that was handled with such panache in Downton Abbey and settled on this misbegotten story. The real Harry Selfridge was a very troubled man (many think he was actually bipolar) who had a creative, flamboyant side that he showed the public. (Although he was NOT PT Barnum, as these showrunners seem to think, he still abided by most of the propriety of Edwardian London.) But this Harry is Jeremy Piven playing a toned-down Ari Gold transported back in time (anachronistic colloquialisms and all), and not even as well as he played Ari Gold. (I'm not sure if its writing, directing, or acting, but I'm guessing its a combination). All the principal characters are bland and lack motivation (although Frances O'Connor and Zoe Tapper stand above the fray somewhat), the writing is really uneven, and the photography is even more uneven. Several of the supporting characters do stand out, giving the "downstairs" group (the shopgirls and waiters, for example) stories that a bit more interesting, but even that is not nearly as fulsome as Downton. I will give the production arts team a tip of the hat, as the sets and costumes are top notch and would be even more gorgeous if they were photographed more effectively. I do agree with other reviewers that all the leading women look too similar. Granted, that was a look that women sought at the time (the Gibson Girl), but this takes place in London, where you do find many blondes and gingers as well as brunettes. All in all, considering the tragedies of the real Harry Selfridge, I just can't see how they plan to get from here to there under the current cumbersome and poorly done arrangement. They'd have been better off doing a story about the Wanamaker family or Marshall Fields (where the real Harry got his start), and let the UK and US enjoy a period piece about the Roaring 90s and real creation of the modern department store, rather than doing upstairs, downstairs in a London department store.

This series is based on a fascinating book - it's the real-life story of American entrepreneur Harold Selfridge and the American-style department store he created in the middle of London a century ago. There are plenty of real-life stories to pull from for the series but they happened over a broad period of time. So far this series seems to be stuck in the first year, at least that's how it appears because most characters wear the exact same outfit in every scene. Even more distracting than that are the constant contemporary slip-ups, from Jeremy Piven's fluorescent white teeth and faceless mannequins, to women freely entering men's clubs, public kissing, and the use of words that weren't even in the English language yet like 'lipstick'. Why bother setting something in the past when its clear that the writers and director have no interest in recreating history other than for picture postcard purposes. Although based on fact, this series seems even more fake than Downton Abbey.

My husband and I binged watched the first season during a storm. We were hooked! Every episode is intriguing and magically transports the viewer back in time. Another great Masterpiece series.

When I started watching this series I absolutely hated Selfridge . Imagine that ! Now ? I love him and i miss him . I know the story is not accurate as the real story went but I don't care really since very important parts are presented amazingly! Watch this series ! Give it 4-5 episodes and believe me , you will adore mr.Selfridge !

Great period piece with intriguing storyline. Plot develops many of the characters which draws in the viewer's interest. Costuming and Store set are perfection.

Once this show got the done-to-death-unnecessary-sex-scene box checked it became original and compelling.

Thought this needed saying as many people outside the UK, particularly in the US and Canada, assume all British TV is made my the BBC. It's not. Mr Selfridge is made by ITV, the same broadcaster as D.A. Neither of them is made by the BBC. Right - got that out of my system. On to the show. It's pretty good. Some very sympathetic characters and Jeremy Piven is good in the title role. It's not up the same standard as DA but it does hold its own. Some of the villains are a tad cartoonish but on the whole it fills a Downton Abbey-sized whole in the viewing schedule. Also, some very impressive hats! I was in Selfridges the other day - its much MUCH bigger than the TV makes out. Much bigger.

This was one of my favorite Brit offerings.. and I've viewed a lot of them. Everything from casting, wardrobes, scenery.. it all melded very nicely. That being said, I'm puzzled why there are reviewers who slammed Jeremy Piven. I get it to each his own, but In my opinion Piven put forth a fine performance. Yes, Piven is a Yank but unless I'm mistaken Selfridge was from across the pond so who better to portray the business giant? All in all I give Mr Selfridge two thumbs up!

I don't understand this casting at all. The rest of the ensemble is well cast, but Jeremy Piven doesn't come near the mark of even the lowliest cast member. I don't believe a moment of him. Who owed him for what? We have so many talented American actors, and England has so many that do perfect American accents that this makes no sense. He is wooden, flat, even that annoying, constant grin is awful (I don't even believe his teeth). As Dorothy Parker once said of Katherine Hepburn, "(s)he displays every emotion from a to B." OK, so it's no Downton Abbey, which is brilliant. Though I enjoy the writing, the characters, and of course the acting of the rest of the cast, Piven is getting on my nerves so much, I might not be able to continue.

As a Downton Abbey fan, completely out of episodes to watch, I was grateful to have Mr. Selfridge to turn to. With a week of completely free-form time on my hands I wanted the great luxury of spending a decadent number of consecutive hours consuming an entire season of shows in one sitting, night after night. Mr. Selfridge filled the bill beautifully. Oh, it is pretty light and with a few dropped threads, but no matter, I was happy from the opening score. The characters are easy to develop an affection for, especially Mr. Harry Selfridge. Over the course of the three seasons you witness a man rising to the top of his game, operating a large department store in turn of the 20th century London. Typical birth-life-death situations, plus the extraordinary game changer of World War One, unfold in the lives of Harry, his family and selected employees. Throughout it all, important lessons are learned, while the bad actors ultimately get their comeuppance. One unexpected dimension was the historical look at the development of department store marketing. While not presented in- depth, there was sufficient homage paid to innovations risked by Mr. Selfridge to give a good insight into the evolution of retailing. Window dressers in particular will love the series!

Jeremy Piven. Reading others' reviews let me know I wasn't the only one who felt Piven never fit the role. I kept trying to get used to him, but couldn't. It was if someone from another series had popped into a scene - jarring. However, the rest of the cast, the costumes and stories were enjoyable. They earned the rating.

Out of the multitude of legitimate actors they could have cast as Harry Selfridge, they chose Jeremy Piven? What were they thinking? He comes across as a clown. Short, with teeth that look like they belong to a Derby winner (not the jockey) and a bad rug! Hardly a romantic leading man!

The rest of the cast is by and large excellent, but I just cannot get past the casting of the male lead!

Frances O'Connor is a face I have not seen in a long time and am glad to see again! Zoe Tapper is thoroughly unlikeable, which is exactly as she should be in this character. The actress playing Agnes Towler is refreshing and a wonderful addition to a great British cast.

I watched the first season and can't wait until the next episodes. It has a lot going on in the store and lives of the characters. It is an interesting storyline based on true events. I really should rate it lower because of the lead role of Mr. Selfridge, played by Jeremy Pivens. I read that he was a stage actor and he sounds and looks like he is still there. He always talks at the others and not to them. It is like he speaking to an audience and showing no real emotion on his face. I also think he is too young looking for the time period. I still gave it a 9 because I absolutely love most of the other characters. There is much dimension to them. My favorites are Agnes Towler, who is complex, Mr. Crabb, Mr. Grove, Lady Mae, Miss Mardle and Kitty. I would say Rose is the most likable of the Selfridge family. The rest of the family is mediocre. I never get bored with all the activity of the store and I enjoy seeing the way people lived in the early 20th century- the Edwardian style and changing times such motor cars airplanes, changing hemlines and suffragettes. Harry was an innovator and seems to encourage progress. They continually feature a popular cultural person of the time to grace their store. I liked the friendly competition between Woolworth and Selfridge and I believe it was true. It is not possible to recast the lead so I'll keep watching and hope Pivens learns how to act for TV or just overlook his style and enjoy the rest of this great show.