Haven't had a Netflix Streaming Nugget, or Netflix SN for short, in almost two years, so I've been long over due to post one. I'm going to make a serious attempt to get this going regularly again. In case you don't remember, Netflix IVN highlights a more obscure offering on Netflix that my wife and I particularly enjoyed that you might not have heard of before.
For this blog, it's an English series that ran for two seasons (2012-2013) called "The Paradise". Set in the 1880's London, the fictional "Paradise" is London's largest department store at the time, and the 14 one hour episodes focus on the day-to-day dealings of the store and it's staff. If that sounds similar to another more popular British show called "Mr. Selfridge", which focused on the beginnings of the non-fictional Selfridges department store in the early 20th century, then you'd be right. There are definite similarities between the two. In fact, "Mr. Selfridge", which began it's four year run in 2013, was one of the reasons "The Paradise" wasn't renewed for a third season.
Regardless, if you like English TV drama (which we actually prefer over American TV drama), "The Paradise" is worth a watch. The makers did a great job recreating 1880's England, and the cast of unknowns were excellent. The writing was good, but the acting is what really made the show. We slightly preferred season 1 over season 2, but the story line, which featured several plot twists that caught us off-guard, kept us on our toes throughout it's run. One thing that was particularly interesting was the series finale which neatly tied up all of the plot lines and was actually a very fulfilling ending to the show. They've must have either know in advance the show was ending, or decided to end season two the way they did just in case it wouldn't be renewed. Either way, you'll be satisfied with it.
