Grand Hotel (ABC/Antena 3)

Abishai1000

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Grand Hotel is an American drama television series developed by Brian Tanen, based on the Spanish TV series Gran Hotel created by Ramón Campos and Gema R. Neira. The series premiered on June 17, 2019, on ABC.

Gran Hotel itself is a Spanish drama television series directed by Carlos Sedes and starring Yon González and Amaia Salamanca. It first aired on Antena 3 in Spain on 11 October 2011 and on Sky Arts 1 in the UK on 18 November 2012. The series, filmed at the Palacio de la Magdalena in Santander, is set in an early 20th century aristocratic hotel during the reign of King Alfonso XIII and is centered on the mysteries that involve the owner's family and the hotel servants.

Grand Hotel (ABC) takes place at "the last family-owned hotel" in multicultural Miami Beach. Charismatic Santiago Mendoza owns the hotel, while his glamorous second wife, Gigi, and their adult children enjoy the spoils of success. The hotel's loyal staff round out a contemporary, fresh take on an upstairs/downstairs story. Wealthy and beautiful guests bask in luxury, but scandals, escalating debt and explosive secrets hide beneath the picture-perfect exterior (source of information from top: Wikipedia).

Grand Hotel (ABC) follows in the tradition of multiculturalism-oriented programs such as The Cosby Show, hospitality programs such as Hotel, and intrigue programs such as Pacific Blue. There's ample drama, social interactions, lifestyle problems, managerial politics, and of course, human passion. Because Grand Hotel (ABC) is multicultural in tone/presentation, it can be argued it's not really a nationally-symbolic program/series such as Miami Vice, even though it's doing a fine job of glorifying the area of Miami (Florida)!

Because Grand Hotel (ABC) is also a spin-off/adaptation of the Spanish TV-series Gran Hotel (Antena 3), it can be argued it's a context-based enhancement entertainment program, comparable to Soap or Airline!

It seems that the modern appeal of multicultural TV and entertainment reflects our national/global investments in pluralism, immigration optimism, and capitalism-oriented storytelling, which makes Grand Hotel (ABC) a nice 'feather' in the annals of context/environment based pizzazz.

Maybe that's why the imagery that can be 'ascribed' to Grand Hotel (ABC) represents our focus on modern place-symbolic fantasies that cater to American Dream superstitions, but hey, you decide...


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The area and hotel where the ABC television series takes place is both picturesque and pluralism-atmospheric. You get the feeling that the drama and stories unfolding reflect the idyllic qualities of what makes Miami Beach so darn...tourism-colored(!).

hotel1.jpg

The ethnic cast is handsome and ambitious and seems to handle the atmospheric and hospitality-themed demands of the storyboards rather well, and as an ethnic-minority myself (Asian-American), I feel like I'm fondly remembering yesteryear globalism-relevant TV programming symbolic of experience-oriented beauty (e.g.,
What's Happening Now, 21 Jump Street, Absolutely Fabulous, etc.).

hotel2.jpg

These days, it's
comic book media that's all the rage. It seems there's a new comic book themed movie or TV series being churned out every year (e.g., Gotham, Arrow, Supergirl, Batman Begins, Wonder Woman, etc., etc., etc.), especially in America(!). Maybe that's because all the globalism/pluralism talk makes vigilantism or justice themed storytelling/folklore seem more 'psychiatric' for our new age paranoia regarding traffic-catalyzed turbulence and vice (e.g., hate-crimes!). I wouldn't be surprised if we saw more ethnic comic book characters inspired by the marketing of new multiculturalism-soaked programs such as Grand Hotel (ABC), which would certainly add some needed 'diplomacy spice' to DC Comics!

hotel3.jpg

Furthermore, the attractive cast of Grand Hotel (ABC) reminds us why multiculturalism can be sort of fashionable and not necessarily so darn politically tedious. More and more social critics are suggesting that new age pluralism politics needs to be more ornamentally-organized, to reflect the growing demands of consumers/audiences seeking vivacious environment-based etiquette. Isn't this how
Miami Vice got its fuel (originally) anyway folks?

hotel4.jpg

I'm about to watch a re-play of Episode 2 of Grand Hotel (ABC) On-Demand, since there's only been so many episodes broadcast since the series premiered on June 17 this year! I know it's late here on the American East Coast (midnight in fact!), but there's something convenient/nice about democratic guilty pleasures --- like enjoying nachos with sour cream late at night while watching ethnically-cute television(!). Maybe 'TrumpUSA' can be more 'brainy' than we thought...

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Money/Medicine


After watching a re-play of an entertaining Episode 2 (Smokeshow) of Grand Hotel (ABC) On-Demand at midnight, I began wondering if some of the early finance-drama involving the ethnic family-owned Miami Beach hotel in this fun American Dream 're-envision' series (along with some more 'normal' human drama such as a controversial staff-affair/pregnancy and a disappearance mystery) could be placed within the context of wealth and ambition more seriously.

For example, we all remember the fortune-folklore from the more legendary Latin-American capitalism-daydream story/fable, Brian De Palma's iconic Scarface (about a wild-eyed Cuban exile name Tony Montana who becomes a wealth-prodigy through narcotics tragically), starring the great Al Pacino, that ideas about fortune acquired through ingenuity and cleverness appeal to fantasies about capitalism. How can such imagination be applied to an ethnically-operated (and legal!) Miami Beach hotel?

After all, American storytellers deify bank robbers (e.g., Bonnie and Clyde, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, etc.) more than anyone, since capitalism is of course by nature a 'liberty-oriented podium.' In other words, ethnic minorities worrying about financing a family-owned Miami Beach hotel symbolizes our American attitudes towards money itself(!).

Should our students/kids be exposed to television/entertainment exploring the ramifications of money-psychology deeply?

The Mendoza-family patriarch and owner of the Riviera Grand Hotel in this ABC TV-series about Miami Beach, Santiago Mendoza (nicely-portrayed by Demian Bichir), feels plagued by issues regarding capitalism-fertilization.

Is Grand Hotel (ABC) a modern-day Stagecoach? What would George Orwell have said? :cool:



{mock-dialogue between Scarface and Santiago}
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SCARFACE: Miami is a frontier, man...
SANTIAGO: We have to look/feel legal, Tony!
SCARFACE: Hotels aren't as lucrative as drugs.
SANTIAGO: Latinos should invest in America legally!
SCARFACE: Kids like that board-game Monopoly.
SANTIAGO: Yes, that Parker Brothers game is iconic.
SCARFACE: Real-estate fantasies are very American.
SANTIAGO: Financing dreams requires much 'hype.'

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