TV Watch: A weary nation wonders, "Is 'Mr. Selfridge' really over?" Well, yes and no

Jeremy Piven as Harry Selfridge

by Ken

It was a little nerve-wracking approaching last week's double installment of Masterpiece Classic's Mr. Selfridge. For weeks I had been assuming that the week's episode would be the last, but this time, what with the scheduling of that double episode -- Episode 47 (or 47-48, if you count it as double) by my unofficial count -- the prospects seemed hopeful. The thing was, to have hope of being home free, you had to wade through the whole thing (which I was able to do without pausing the thing more than 16 or 20 times) to find out whether, at the end, the announcer would announce upcoming scenes from next week's episode.

Well, there was no such announcement, and I had my hopes up, until PBS showed a feature in which Jeremy Piven, who plays Mr. Selfridge, talked about where the show would be picking up for Season 2. Hokey smoke, Bullwinkle, Season 2? For the record, Jeremy explained that they could have picked up right where they left off in the (now conclusively season-ending) previous episode, but instead they were advancing the action to 1914. (OMG, another World War I show?)

I trust that everybody has heard of the posh London department store Selfridge's, right? And it seems only logical that connected to the operation there was at some point somebody named Selfridge, right? Now if I were to tell you that the man in question, Harry Selfridge, was an American, and that -- in spite of overwhelming odds against him, based on his nationality, his personality, and of course the radical nature of his commercial vision -- he revolutionized the way Londoners shopped, you might think that there could be a TV show, maybe even a TV series, on the subject, you might think, well, sure, why not?

Writer Andrew Davies thought so, and whatever reservations may emerge in the comments that follow, it's important to bear in mind that I watched the whole damned thing. Maybe it was just the need to cash in on the expenditure of effort involved in getting to know the characters: Harry's family (mother, wife, and three children, transplanted with him to London; Harry's business associates and rivals; the large and assorted roster of people employed in the store itself once it actually comes into existence; and Harry's extracurricular romantic associates.

There's no doubt that there's something intriguing about the basic story of the creation of the store, and Harry's vision for it as a place for people of all classes to make the shopping experience itself an activity for their personal pleasure -- that's kind of interesting. The kind of leadership he establishes in the store, with its ups and downs, and the way the staff, from management down to clerks and laborers, fits into that vision -- that's kind of interesting. The streak of incredibly self-destructive self-indulgence in Harry, and the way it intersects with his home life -- that too is kind of interesting. The large roster of supporting characters certainly holds the viewer's interest, up to a point.

After a while, though, it settled into a kind of routine, like the succession of celebrity appearances in the store arranged by Harry, reaching up in the Season 1 finale to the King himself. Meanwhile the large number of plot lines established among all those supporting characters are developed dutifully, even doggedly. Periodically Harry's self-destructiveness reaches a flash point, most dramatically in the climax of the Season 1 finale.

I might note that the brief features about the making of the show which filled some of the gap between the show's 50-minute run time and its hour time slot were often quite interesting, showcasing some of the actors talking about their characters and also taking us behind the scenes. We learned, for example, that production required the building of a staggeringly complex (and no doubt expensive) set that comprises the store itself. Probably that set itself accounts for at least some of the momentum carrying the show into a second season -- they need to get more return on their set-creation budget.

If you haven't seen the show and have an opportunity to do so -- via repeats, "On Demand," or eventually DVD -- I'm not sure how to advise you. There are, I'm sure, worse ways to spend your time. Whether you're going to consider that time well-spent, I'm afraid you'll have to determine for yourself.