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Gran Hotel: Season 1
Mar. 6th, 2013 09:36 pmGran Hotel is a Spanish series set in 1905 about a young man named Julio who goes to visit his sister, Cristina, at the luxury hotel she works at after he stops receiving letters from her. At the hotel a waiter, Andres, tells him that Cristina was let go for stealing from customers. Julio doesn't belive this and gets himself hired as a waiter under a false name so he can investigate her disappearance, with Andres covering for him. (Andres falls under "dim but sweet" and does this almost accidentally at first.) The hotel owner's younger daughter, Alicia, catches him out pretty quickly, but is soon convinced to help him, if initially motivated to find proof that her family didn't do something to Cristina.
Every mention I've seen of it compares to Downton Abbey, and while I agree it's somewhat Downton-ish (set a few years earlier, Upstairs/Downstairs cast, lots of soapy drama) I'm not sure what I think of the "Spanish Downton Abbey" comments I've seen. Gran Hotel is way way less sentimental, and considerably darker. There are multiple murder mysteries, relentless conspiracies and backstabbing, fake and secret pregnancy plots, employers who abuse power, etc. Based on my memories of US soaps (which are well over a decade old) every episode manages to cram a couple of weeks' worth of Drama and plot twists into 70-80 minutes, to the point where I actually needs breaks between episodes at times.
With the exception of Andres (giant naive puppy) the characters largely range from "you are kind of an awful person but I do enjoy your Drama" (Maybe a bit too much in some places. Alicia's mother is a horrible horrible person who is simultaneously completely devoted to her children, and will toss their ambitions under a bus if needed [and it's really interesting to see which she chooses at various times], and I love her to bits.) to "you are probably usually a really great (or at least ok) person but I am questioning your life choices and/or prejudices right now." (Even Alicia and Julio fall into the TERRIBLE LIFE CHOICES category, though I'm considerably more sympathetic to Alicia because towards the end of the season when she reaches the TERRIBLE LIFE CHOICES point, it's kinda a case of having the options between TERRIBLE LIFE CHOICE THAT WILL WRECK YOUR FAMILY, TERRIBLE LIFE CHOICE THAT YOU WILL NOT BE HAPPY WITH FOR THE NEXT THIRTY YEARS, and TERRIBLE LIFE CHOICE THAT MIGHT MAKE YOU DEEPLY QUESTION YOUR MORALS. Julio I liked, but had more difficulty with due to the fact that he frequently needed someone to shake him and remind him that no, he really wasn't entitled to expect Andres and/or Alicia to drop everything to help him with something at a moment's notice, or for taking 5 minutes to worry about their own families instead of his.) The only time I just had no tolerance for plot contrivances was the bulk of the subplots involving Alicia's brother, Javier, who was ok enough as a character while interacting with his family, but his own plotlines mostly made me want to tear my hair out. Or better yet, his. I was a bit leery of the central romance between Julio and Alicia because the way Sybil/Branson played out in season 2 of Downton Abbey somewhat scarred me for life for lady/servant romances, but they won me over. (It didn't hurt that they ran around spying on people and investigating crimes and trying to solve murders. I am weak to partnershipping.) I was also pleased that Cristina, despite apparently dying in the first 5 minutes, plays a large role in the story, and the majority of her story is told in her own words via flashbacks and letters that she narrates, and so forth. (Cristina is kind of amazing at times, but is also possibly the queen of TERRIBLE LIFE CHOICES at others. Every once in a while, she combined the two.)
The first season is 9 episodes, and complete subbed online, though it's only popped up in a couple places that I've seen. The first 8 episodes are 70-80 minutes each, and the last episode is 85 minutes. To the best of my ability to interepret the wikipedia page on the show (there's no English-language page for it) the series will be 8 seasons long and the other 3 seasons are 8 episodes each. Season 2 recently aired in Spain and I think season 3 is airing now. Hopefully, subtitles for future seasons won't be too far behind.
Every mention I've seen of it compares to Downton Abbey, and while I agree it's somewhat Downton-ish (set a few years earlier, Upstairs/Downstairs cast, lots of soapy drama) I'm not sure what I think of the "Spanish Downton Abbey" comments I've seen. Gran Hotel is way way less sentimental, and considerably darker. There are multiple murder mysteries, relentless conspiracies and backstabbing, fake and secret pregnancy plots, employers who abuse power, etc. Based on my memories of US soaps (which are well over a decade old) every episode manages to cram a couple of weeks' worth of Drama and plot twists into 70-80 minutes, to the point where I actually needs breaks between episodes at times.
With the exception of Andres (giant naive puppy) the characters largely range from "you are kind of an awful person but I do enjoy your Drama" (Maybe a bit too much in some places. Alicia's mother is a horrible horrible person who is simultaneously completely devoted to her children, and will toss their ambitions under a bus if needed [and it's really interesting to see which she chooses at various times], and I love her to bits.) to "you are probably usually a really great (or at least ok) person but I am questioning your life choices and/or prejudices right now." (Even Alicia and Julio fall into the TERRIBLE LIFE CHOICES category, though I'm considerably more sympathetic to Alicia because towards the end of the season when she reaches the TERRIBLE LIFE CHOICES point, it's kinda a case of having the options between TERRIBLE LIFE CHOICE THAT WILL WRECK YOUR FAMILY, TERRIBLE LIFE CHOICE THAT YOU WILL NOT BE HAPPY WITH FOR THE NEXT THIRTY YEARS, and TERRIBLE LIFE CHOICE THAT MIGHT MAKE YOU DEEPLY QUESTION YOUR MORALS. Julio I liked, but had more difficulty with due to the fact that he frequently needed someone to shake him and remind him that no, he really wasn't entitled to expect Andres and/or Alicia to drop everything to help him with something at a moment's notice, or for taking 5 minutes to worry about their own families instead of his.) The only time I just had no tolerance for plot contrivances was the bulk of the subplots involving Alicia's brother, Javier, who was ok enough as a character while interacting with his family, but his own plotlines mostly made me want to tear my hair out. Or better yet, his. I was a bit leery of the central romance between Julio and Alicia because the way Sybil/Branson played out in season 2 of Downton Abbey somewhat scarred me for life for lady/servant romances, but they won me over. (It didn't hurt that they ran around spying on people and investigating crimes and trying to solve murders. I am weak to partnershipping.) I was also pleased that Cristina, despite apparently dying in the first 5 minutes, plays a large role in the story, and the majority of her story is told in her own words via flashbacks and letters that she narrates, and so forth. (Cristina is kind of amazing at times, but is also possibly the queen of TERRIBLE LIFE CHOICES at others. Every once in a while, she combined the two.)
The first season is 9 episodes, and complete subbed online, though it's only popped up in a couple places that I've seen. The first 8 episodes are 70-80 minutes each, and the last episode is 85 minutes. To the best of my ability to interepret the wikipedia page on the show (there's no English-language page for it) the series will be 8 seasons long and the other 3 seasons are 8 episodes each. Season 2 recently aired in Spain and I think season 3 is airing now. Hopefully, subtitles for future seasons won't be too far behind.