The Paradise

:

Season 1
Season #: 2, 1
Metascore
71

Generally favorable reviews - based on 9 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 9
  3. Negative: 0 out of 9
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Critic Reviews

  1. Variety
    Reviewed by: Brian Lowry
    Oct 7, 2013
    80
    Impeccably cast, extremely handsome, predictably soapy and a trifle slow moving, it’s another first-rate costume drama.
  2. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Dorothy Rabinowitz
    Oct 7, 2013
    80
    A spectacularly entertaining enterprise.
  3. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: David Hinckley
    Oct 7, 2013
    80
    The dramas, rivalries, kindnesses and treacheries begin almost at once, and as in all the best PBS series, they are well-drawn.
  5. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Zack Handlen
    Oct 7, 2013
    75
    For now, though, it’s comfortable, but inessential. The performances blur together, as actors deliver lines in a competent, polite way, and everything is filmed in a hazy glow. There’s nothing wrong with any of it.
  6. TV Guide Magazine
    Reviewed by: Matt Roush
    Oct 7, 2013
    70
    Paradise is based on a Zola novel but is redolent of Dickens, envisioning the store as an insular world full of colorful characters, with its sentimental and romantic upstairs-downstairs intrigues opulently packaged.
  7. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Robert Lloyd
    Oct 7, 2013
    70
    A pleasingly soapy story of beating hearts and changing times.
  8. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Matthew Gilbert
    Oct 7, 2013
    70
    It will engage--though not obsess--those of us who enjoy parsing out the morals and manners of another time and place.
  9. PopMatters
    Reviewed by: Maysa Hattab
    Oct 7, 2013
    60
    If the daily competitions for commissions don’t quite match the savagery of the male-on-male contests in Glengarry Glenross or In The Company of Men, they remain vicious enough to give the otherwise fluffy plotting a little bite.
  10. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Mike Hale
    Oct 7, 2013
    50
    It’s the last of the big-four British costume dramas of recent years to make its American public-television debut, after “Downton Abbey,” “Call the Midwife” and “Mr. Selfridge,” and it’s the most frivolous of the bunch, which is saying quite a bit.

Awards & Rankings

48
#48 Best TV Season of 2012
63
#63 Most Shared TV Season of 2012

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
7.4

Generally favorable reviews- based on 22 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 18 out of 22
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 22
  3. Negative: 2 out of 22
  1. dramaaddict
    Oct 14, 2013
    10
    A light romantic drama about an entrepreneur who opens the first department store in the UK. The storyline is much like Mr. Selfridge, but IA light romantic drama about an entrepreneur who opens the first department store in the UK. The storyline is much like Mr. Selfridge, but I prefer the set design and acting of the Paradise. It is visually delicious. I watch the show purely to be entertained and I am never disappointed.… Full Review »
  2. StellaBe
    Oct 29, 2018
    0
    This movie is a feminist concoction that Emil Zola would not imagine. This could not have happened in the historical times depicted. CompleteThis movie is a feminist concoction that Emil Zola would not imagine. This could not have happened in the historical times depicted. Complete nonsense.… Full Review »
  3. kinson
    Dec 19, 2017
    8
    Absolutely loved this series. Very sad there isn't going to be a series 3? i showed both series to my mother & sister and they both loved itAbsolutely loved this series. Very sad there isn't going to be a series 3? i showed both series to my mother & sister and they both loved it as well. Why is it when a great English period drama comes along with no swearing & sex scenes it doesn't get much of a rating/ bring it back to series 3!!!… Full Review »
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