So far I have watched the first 2 episodes and attempted to watch the 3rd. The 1st episode has been the only one worth watching in my opinion, but I have to admit some bias as to why. I am a French-American, whose roots are in France. Therefore, I found the use of French and all the Parisian scenes in the 1st episode delightful. I also enjoyed Marthe Keller portrayal of Anushka. Anushka is a lovely, proud and strong woman and not just a spoiled, arrogant and aged aristocrat as one might assume if they fail to pay attention to key parts of the storyline as it plays out.
Anushka may be of privileged class, but she has also endured hardship as she experienced Nazi occupation of not only her beloved Paris, but also acted as a servant to the Nazis and quite likely suffered other atrocities at the hands of the Nazis. Anushka is proud of her heritage, maybe too much so, but this is all she really has as she suffers through loneliness in her latter years. That is at least until she meets Hajar, played by Inès Melab. Hajar has been hired by her nephew Greg and his girlfriend Sophie to work as a caretaker for the aging Anushka.
At first Anushka treats Hajar with utter contempt because of Hajar's differences. Hajar is a Muslim woman with dark olive skin and unfortunately Anushka falls into that human weakness of attacking and marginalizing that which they don't understand or is alien to them.
Hajar appears immune to Anushka's sharpe and insulting tongue and instead of reacting to Anushka's behavior treats Anushka with dignity and understanding of where Anushka's behavior is coming from which is a product of her generation, her loneliness and insecurities as well as being marginalized by her nephew and his girlfriend.
Over time Anushka slowly let's go of her prejudices and insecurities and comes to see Hajar as a lovely and caring human being resulting in Anushka changing her will and leaving her Parisian home to Hajar instead of her nephew. This infuriates Sopie who is already very much antagonistic to Anushka.
Greg, played by Aaron Eckhart, is Anushka's last living relative based on what is revealed in the episode is a lost man-child who seems somewhat of a shallow, parasitic character waiting on Anushka to die so that he can claim his inheritance. At times, his feelings for Anushka seems somewhat sincere, but these moments are fleeting as he abdicates his own independence and allows Sophie, who plays a entitled and parasitic woman-child, to manipulate him.
The story takes an interesting twist as Greg and Sophie learn of the change of inheritance upon returning from holiday. Greg meets Hajar in an attempt to coerce her to reject Anushka's inheritance and that it is rightfully his. As the evening wears on Hajar and Greg wind up in bed which seems a bit perplexing. I am sure that there are many personal opinions on why Hajar ended up in bed with Greg having sex, although I suspect it had more to do with the writer/director allowing testosterone to dictate his creativity.
The story pretty much closes with the writer/director trying to save the storyline by closing it out with Greg discovering that Hajar is pregnant by him and he leaves Shopie for Hajar and ending with the appearance of Hajar, Greg and Anushka living happily ever after. Somewhat of a shallow ending, but typical.
I watched the 2nd episode, which had a few nice moments of Shelly on the cruise. However Michael was a completely despicable character. The story, if there was one, pretty much ends with Michael attempting to kill Shelly due to his own cowardliness to be his own person. Why not just divorce the woman? Why attempt to kill her? Again, seems to be a storyline produced by the writer/director allowing his testosterone to dictate the storyline.
I attempted to watch the 3rd episode, thinking this has to be better than the 2nd episode. However, after 20 minutes invested in watching the episode I finally turned it off. I decided not to waste any further time watching this episode.
Given the track record of this series thus far, it's unlikely that I will watch any further episodes. However, this is just my personal view and others may actually find further enjoyment in the series. Hopefully it will improve given it's budget.
Anushka may be of privileged class, but she has also endured hardship as she experienced Nazi occupation of not only her beloved Paris, but also acted as a servant to the Nazis and quite likely suffered other atrocities at the hands of the Nazis. Anushka is proud of her heritage, maybe too much so, but this is all she really has as she suffers through loneliness in her latter years. That is at least until she meets Hajar, played by Inès Melab. Hajar has been hired by her nephew Greg and his girlfriend Sophie to work as a caretaker for the aging Anushka.
At first Anushka treats Hajar with utter contempt because of Hajar's differences. Hajar is a Muslim woman with dark olive skin and unfortunately Anushka falls into that human weakness of attacking and marginalizing that which they don't understand or is alien to them.
Hajar appears immune to Anushka's sharpe and insulting tongue and instead of reacting to Anushka's behavior treats Anushka with dignity and understanding of where Anushka's behavior is coming from which is a product of her generation, her loneliness and insecurities as well as being marginalized by her nephew and his girlfriend.
Over time Anushka slowly let's go of her prejudices and insecurities and comes to see Hajar as a lovely and caring human being resulting in Anushka changing her will and leaving her Parisian home to Hajar instead of her nephew. This infuriates Sopie who is already very much antagonistic to Anushka.
Greg, played by Aaron Eckhart, is Anushka's last living relative based on what is revealed in the episode is a lost man-child who seems somewhat of a shallow, parasitic character waiting on Anushka to die so that he can claim his inheritance. At times, his feelings for Anushka seems somewhat sincere, but these moments are fleeting as he abdicates his own independence and allows Sophie, who plays a entitled and parasitic woman-child, to manipulate him.
The story takes an interesting twist as Greg and Sophie learn of the change of inheritance upon returning from holiday. Greg meets Hajar in an attempt to coerce her to reject Anushka's inheritance and that it is rightfully his. As the evening wears on Hajar and Greg wind up in bed which seems a bit perplexing. I am sure that there are many personal opinions on why Hajar ended up in bed with Greg having sex, although I suspect it had more to do with the writer/director allowing testosterone to dictate his creativity.
The story pretty much closes with the writer/director trying to save the storyline by closing it out with Greg discovering that Hajar is pregnant by him and he leaves Shopie for Hajar and ending with the appearance of Hajar, Greg and Anushka living happily ever after. Somewhat of a shallow ending, but typical.
I watched the 2nd episode, which had a few nice moments of Shelly on the cruise. However Michael was a completely despicable character. The story, if there was one, pretty much ends with Michael attempting to kill Shelly due to his own cowardliness to be his own person. Why not just divorce the woman? Why attempt to kill her? Again, seems to be a storyline produced by the writer/director allowing his testosterone to dictate the storyline.
I attempted to watch the 3rd episode, thinking this has to be better than the 2nd episode. However, after 20 minutes invested in watching the episode I finally turned it off. I decided not to waste any further time watching this episode.
Given the track record of this series thus far, it's unlikely that I will watch any further episodes. However, this is just my personal view and others may actually find further enjoyment in the series. Hopefully it will improve given it's budget.