I don't normally watch period pieces but I thought I would give this a try as it felt different from all the dreary crime dramas currently out. I was sucked in from the first five minutes and ended up streaming the whole series in two days. It is sheer bliss. Lush, beautiful Italian landscapes, a fantastic cast, and really elegant storytelling. It reminded me of A Room With a View and all those wonderful Merchant Ivory movies which capture the spirit of englishness in a foreign setting, except the story here had greater complexity and refinement. An upper class English family opens a hotel on the Italian Riviera at the end of the 1920s to escape the horrors of the first world War and the wounds this has left on their loves ones, but the new idyllic life they were hoping for is full of problems and tensions. Behind the deceptively charming facade the series deals with complex themes of sexual identity, political repression, racial discrimination. But it does so without ever losing lightness of touch and a real sense of joy. I will watch it again as like a good book or movie this deserves to be savoured more than once.
Review of Hotel Portofino
