The Paradise - The Complete First Season - DVD

Film: In late 19th century Victorian England. Century, young Denise Lovett (Jonna Vanderham) comes to town from the countryside to work in her Uncle Edmund's (Peter Wight) textile shop. But ever since The Paradise department store opened directly across the street, business has been very bad for the small retailers. Too bad for Uncle Edmund to be able to pay his niece. In order to be able to afford to live in the city, Denise takes a job as a saleswoman at the Paradise, of all places. Her naive demeanor and enthusiasm quickly win her the attention of widower John Moray (Emun Elliott), the owner of the department store, but also the suspicion of her superior Miss Audrey (Sarah Lancashire) and her colleague Clara (Sonya Cassidy). But although Clara in particular never misses an opportunity to sabotage Denise and make her look bad, the young woman soon becomes the darling of the customers and Moray. But this could lead to enormous complications, as the latter is actually promised to the wealthy Katherine Glendenning (Elaine Cassidy), daughter of Moray's financier Lord Glendenning (Patrick Malahide)...

The Paradise is a loose adaptation of the novel The Paradise of Ladies by Frenchman Émile Zola. Series creator Bill Gallagher (From Lark Rise to Candleford) has moved the action from Paris to the north of England, focusing on the romance between country bumpkin Denise and businessman John Mora. Proper social or consumer criticism, which is certainly evident in Zola's novel, occurs only peripherally here, but works very well nonetheless. After all, the displacement of smaller retail shops by large temples of consumption and department store chains is a theme that is, unfortunately, still very much with us today and has an enormous impact on changes in the appearance of both larger and smaller towns.

But this is primarily about love between people of different social and civic standing, about the dreams of a simple young woman and the passions of well-heeled ladies. And Gallagher and his team have executed that very engagingly. The sets, set design and costumes are simply wonderful and the actors are also superbly chosen. Joanna Vanderham in particular, who was last seen in the drama The Small Happiness of Big Things, is almost ideal casting as the slightly naive but extremely enthusiastic country innocent. The amorous glances she gets to throw at the dapper John Mora as Denise really set the air on fire.

But Sarah Lancashire as the resolute and slightly dogged Miss Audrey or Elaine Cassidy as the somewhat snooty and spoilt Katherine Glendenning are also testament to the good hand that was shown in casting here. Even if the level of a production like the multiple award-winning Downton Abbey is not reached, fans of such series will still get their money's worth here. Love, intrigue, heavy fates and beautiful costumes make the eight episodes of this first season fly by. If you like emotional BBC productions of this kind, you should definitely go on a shopping spree in Paradise. Absolutely worth seeing!

Picture + Sound: That some scenes seem to be slightly overexposed by directly incident backlight, belongs to the visual style of the series and should therefore not be rated as a weakness of the image quality of the DVD. The overall picture quality is convincing with a very atmospheric colour scheme and a very good overall sharpness for a TV series. The sound remains for a production of this genre usual rather restrained, but presents a convincing mix of dialogue, music and ambient sounds, which together form a coherent soundscape. Good!

Extras: As a bonus, the DVD has to offer a worth seeing Making of (approx. 30 min.) on the third disc, in which not only the filming and the actors, but especially the set, the equipment and the costumes are discussed. Good!

Conclusion: The Paradise is a very nice series for all lovers of high-quality costume soaps. Love, intrigue, heavy fates and beautiful costumes make the eight episodes of this free adaptation of Émile Zola's novel The Paradise of Ladies fly by. Although there is a thoroughly self-contained ending and the whole thing would therefore have worked very well as a self-contained mini-series, most viewers should be delighted that the BBC has commissioned a second season. So we can already look forward to strolling through the aisles of Paradise again soon and being allowed to share in the fate of the servants and customers. Absolutely recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp