Product: Hotel Babylon - Season 1 (2008)
Rating: 4.0
Good trashy fun...most of the time
I'm watching this series on Netflix while home sick with bronchitis. For the most part, I've enjoyed it a very great deal. The show provides a glimpse into a fictional five star hotel in London, which is a world that I'll never see behind from the perspective of an insider and probably won't see any time soon as a guest. While some of the capers and scams the staff and guests get up to seem a bit exaggerated for dramatic purposes, a lot of the stories do have some factual basis I'm sure."Hotel Babylon" seems to me to be a sort of combination of the much more inferior (and wholesome) "Love Boat" (with the regular cast being "the crew" interacting with various passengers and their storylines) and the superior British series "Hustle" (about goodhearted British con artists). Stylistically, the series uses a lot of the same tricks that "Hustle" does (sped up action and other visual stunts).The cast is superior and unlike some I actually like the character of Anna (maybe because she's so pretty and has that sexy British upper class accent). The standout characters are Charlie, the super-concierge, and Max, the hotel manager.The plots are fun most of the time with one of the best being when an all star British soccer team visitsThe only major negative I would give the show is when they decide to have a plot that sends a sometimes overwrought political message:1. a preachy episode plot about illegal aliens featuring a heartless immigration inspector2. an episode plot featuring a Bosnian Serb war criminal whose resolution has the cast arguably colluding in a kidnapping and probably murder3. an episode plot that decries child labor in the fashion industryAnother fault is that the characters lie to each other an awful lot and I think that would pretty much erode trust and friendships.But overall, I'd say that if you can suspend disbelief some, it's worth "checking into" Hotel Babylon for a little fun. Just remember "What goes in Hotel Babylon, stays in Hotel Babylon."