Critical response
The Irish Independent's Darragh McManus described the season as an "exceedingly well-crafted soap" that is "beautifully filmed...with a stately pace, top-of-the-range acting talent and some interesting little philosophical musings on the nature of money." Writing for The Guardian, Euan Ferguson wrote "the presences and talents of Julia Stiles, Adrian Lester, Phil Davis and Lena Olin," and called the series "borderline unmissable".
On the other hand, The Telegraph's Michael Hogan gave the first episode three stars out of five, noting that with Academy Award-winner Neil Jordan as the series' creator and Booker Prize-winner John Banville as co-writer, "the script should have soared but was disappointingly pedestrian." The Guardian's Sam Wollaston called the series "awful", concluding that "Riviera might be flashy and moneyed but it lacks personality, charm, humour, soul. It is shallow, vulgar and boring."
Reviewing the first two episodes, Hogan of The Telegraph gave them two stars, befuddled by the show's success and then declaring "Indeed, amid all the pampered beauties and stubbly playboys, it was hard to find anybody to like, let alone root for. By the end, I was willing that rampaging boar to decimate the lot." Carol Midgley of The Times stated "Riviera is one of those shows about which one could almost write: "So bad it's good." But not quite because it's mostly just bad." This reviewer gave it two stars.
Carole Midgley of The Times gave the season two out of five stars, stating 'It is a collection of ghastly, charmless people dripping in euro-bling, living obscenely rich lives in places such as Venice and St Tropez, yet who are unhappy because they are not quite rich enough.'.
