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'Grand Hotel'

Summer's Hottest New Drama?

By The Figure of SpeechPublished 5 years ago 3 min read
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Last night I was all comfy in bed wandering around on Hulu when I came across a show I had never heard of before; Grand Hotel. I had never heard of it, but it seemed intriguing (except for the title), and I figured I'd give it a try.

Beware ahead are spoilers.

The pilot opens to a line cook being questioned by Gigi Mendoza (Roselyn Sanchez) during a hurricane, accused of stealing something that belongs to the owner of the hotel no less. She refuses to give it back, claiming "everyone will know what your husband did" if anything happens to her.

A few minutes later, and she's running for her life through a storm while all of the hotel guests and staff are safely inside enjoying a "hurricane party." Upon being knocked unconscious, she is dragged away by a mysterious figure, and the question on everyone's mind becomes "who could've done it?"

Fast forward a month, and the hotel seems to have recovered. Guests are lounging by the pool or checking in while the owner, Santiago Mendoza (Demian Bichir) and his second wife have managed to cover up the line cook's accident. Coincidentally, a new waiter has been hired (Lincoln Yunes) reluctantly by the personnel manager Helen (Wendy Raquel Robinson).

The hotel owner's daughter Alicia (Denyse Tontz) returns home from college to attend her step-sister's wedding (Feliz Ramirez), and it already appears the blended family doesn't get along. During the rehearsal dinner, a toast is made, and some beans are spilled that Santiago is selling the hotel, despite his late wife's plans for their children to run it.

Outraged at their father for not telling them, Alicia and her brother Javi (Bryan Craig) deal with their disappointment; she wades in the pool like a dead person, and he hooks up with the next piece of ass he can find. Of course, there seems to be a personal conflict Javi is having of his own with his prosthetic leg, but I'm sure more will be revealed.

After the bride-to-be has an affair with a Latin rap artist, Alicia has a moral dilemma: to tell the groom or to not tell the groom? Ultimately she decides to reveal her step sister's dirty little secret thanks to Gigi's manipulative nature.

Unfortunately, this causes a problem for not only her blended family, but her real one as well. Santiago confesses that the real reason he's selling the hotel is that the family owes a massive amount of debt, but to who remains a mystery. Perhaps the same someone who made the line cook disappear?

The episode ends with the new waiter calling someone to tell them he cannot talk on the phone while at work because he needs to remain focused on trying to figure out what happened to his sister a month ago. Was it Gigi's doing? Javi's? Miss Scarlett in the ballroom with a candlestick??

Side plots include a pregnant maid who decides to blackmail a non-baby daddy (that should be interesting), a hotel manager who may or may not be a member of the cartel, and a pot stirring case of twin sibling rivalry.

Only one episode has aired so far, but I already predict this becoming yet another project that ABC will cancel and pretend like it never existed. Sure there are many attractive faces (some recognizable, others I had to Google) and a few pop Latin hits, but that won't be enough to keep a show masked as a less funny version of Jane the Virgin afloat.

Then again, can a show succeed where Latinos are the haves and Caucasians are the have nots during a particular president's administration?

I guess we'll find out. Grand Hotel airs on Mondays 10/9c.

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The Figure of Speech

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