‘What is money and why do we covet it so?” Christos Clios, son of the gazillionaire Constantine, asks himself in the mirror at the start of Riviera, while wiping the cocaine crust from his nostrils. I don’t know, Christos. Is it because it looks good on telly?
Money, in all its glistening forms, is the centrepiece of this crime thriller, created and written by Neil Jordan and set in the sun-dappled luxury of the south of France. Just so we’re clear, in the first few minutes we get aerial shots of Monaco, New York and London, after which we are invited to drool at exquisite villas, shimmering infinity pools and yachts the size of Cap Ferrat.
Behold, peasants, the lavish movie-star lives of oligarchs, career criminals and self-serving politicians. Weep longingly at their private jets, their vast art collections and the staff who glide in their wake like frightened ghosts. This is a world where the mega-rich use philanthropy to bring respectability to their shady dealings and who treat law-enforcement like recalcitrant children. Theirs is filthy lucre, make no mistake, but my, doesn’t it look wonderful?
In the midst of the preposterous splendour is Georgina, played by Julia Stiles; she’s an art curator from the US midwest who is newly married to Constantine (Anthony LaPaglia). Previously lacking a pot to piss in, Georgina seems to have acclimatised rather well to extreme wealth. She rocks her Louboutins like a boss and buys her husband little tokens of her love including a beautiful old master – a snip at $15m. Still, we are reminded, Georgina is a fish out of water. “This house is too big,” she sighs, sitting in the dark in one of the family villa’s 87 reception rooms. Truly, her struggle is real.
This being a thriller, there are greater struggles to come. After Constantine is killed at a boat party, Georgina is left widowed and pondering the exact nature of his fortune. As well as turning detective – uncovering guns, secret apartments and prostitute rings – she must now assert her position with his children, who are newly anointed heads of the Clios empire: Christos (Dimitri Leonidas), the self-harming Adriana (Roxane Duran), and would-be writer Adam (Iwan Rheon).
Let’s be clear: Georgina is no trophy wife. We know this because, duh, she knows about art and stuff. That she singularly failed to notice her husband’s business interests weren’t above board, and is surprised to find one of her prize purchases, Claude Lorrain’s Juno Confiding Io to the Care of Argus, is a fake, is neither here nor there. Indeed, Lorrain’s painting is quite the allegory here, being – in Georgina’s words – about a “the big, phallic God dude hiding secrets in plain view from his poor dumb wife”. Subtle, non?
Laughably implausible as her character may be, Stiles, who looks increasingly like Kate Moss after a decent feed, is on form here and it’s her presence, along with the stupefying magnificence of the Mediterranean, which makes Riviera perfectly diverting fluff. Word is that the idea for the series came to its director after a conversation with Paul McGuinness, erstwhile manager of U2, who has a home on the French Riviera and who, like the show’s protagonists, built his fortune on a dubious asset. But no matter. When inspiration strikes, ours is not to question. Best pull up a sun lounger and enjoy the view.
22 June, 9pm, Sky Atlantic
