Gran Hotel is a Spanish television series which ran on Spanish television (Antena 3) for three seasons:
** 2011 – Season 1 = 09 episodes
** 2012 – Season 2 = 08 episodes
** 2013 – Season 3 = 22 episodes
** The total number of episodes = 39
** Each episode runs for more than 1 hour
In 2020, this series became available on Netflix. When this happened, the material was re-cut.
In the original Spanish version, each episode runs for more than one hour. Netflix did not like this format.
Netflix wanted each episode to run for 45 minutes. Netflix still had three seasons. But the number of episodes was different:
** Season 1 = 14 episodes
** Season 2 = 28 episodes
** Season 3 = 24 episodes
Gran Hotel is a historical drama set in the first decade of the 20th century, during the reign of King Alfonso XIII. When season one begins, we are in 1905.
Gran Hotel has been compared to the famous British series Upstairs and Downstairs (1971-1975) and Downton Abbey (2010-2015).
Here is some basic information about it:
** Directors: Carlos Sedes, Silvia Quer and others
** Writers: Ramon Campos, Daniel Castro and others
** Language: Spanish
** Subtitles: English (on Netflix)
The cast includes the following:
The first group
** Adriana Ozores as Dona Teresa Aldecoa – the owner of the hotel
** Amaia Salamanca as Alicia Alarcon – Dona Teresa’s daughter
** Yon Gonzales as Julio Olmedo/ /Julio Espinosa//Julio Molins
** Eloy Azorin as Javier Alarcon Aldecoa – Dona Teresa’s son
** Pep Anton Munoz as Horacio Ayala – a police detective
The second group
** Pedro Alonso as Diego Murquia – the manager of the hotel
** Luz Valdenebro as Sofia Alarcon – Dona Teresa’s daughter
** Fele Martinez as Alfredo Vergara – Sofia’s husband
** Llorenç Gonzalez as Andres Cernuda Salinas – a waiter
** Concha Velasco as Angela Salinas – housekeeper of the hotel – mother of Andres
** Marta Larralde as Belen – a hotel maid
As stated above, this is a historical drama; it is a fictional story which is placed in a historical context.
In this case, the context is Spain in the first decade of the 20th century, during the reign of King Alfonso XIII.
The hotel where most scenes take place is located next to the fictional town Cantaloa in the province of Santander on the northern coast of Spain.
The building that is used as a hotel is Palacio de la Magdalena which is located on a peninsula next to the town Sandander.
This palace was built as a royal residence 1908-1912. King Alfonso XIII used the residence from 1913 until 1931 when the Spanish monarchy was abolished.
Today the palace is used as a conference centre which has more than 50,000 visitors per year.
I do not wish to
spoil the viewing for anyone. I am not going to say much about what happens in
this historical drama. I will merely tell you how the story begins.
There are two main characters:
** The first is Julio Olmedo who is a young man from a poor family.
** The second is Alicia Alarcon, who is the daughter of Dona Teresa, the owner of the Gran Hotel.
** Julio represents the lower class, while Alicia represents the upper class.
Julio travels by train to the hotel in order to visit his sister Cristina who works as a maid at the hotel. But when he gets there, he is told that his sister was fired one month before for stealing some jewellery from a guest.
Julio cannot believe what he is told, so he manages to get a job as a waiter at the hotel, using the name Julio Espinosa.
When he first meets with Alicia, he calls himself Julio Molins and he pretends to be an architect.
Julio and Alicia have an instant connection, which continues even after she discovers that he is (only) a waiter at the hotel. They can talk to each other, but they are not supposed to be friends, because they come from two different classes.
Julio explains that he has to work at the hotel in order to find out what happened with his sister and Alicia agrees to help him with this project. This is how the story begins and this is where my presentation ends.
The story of Julio and Alicia is the main plot in the drama. In addition to the main plot, there are several side-plots, but I will not offer any information about them.
If you want to know what happens to Julio, Alicia and the people around them, you must watch the drama all the way to the end – this means all the way to the end of season three.
What do reviewers say about this drama?
On IMDb it has a rating of 83 percent.
On Amazon there are at the moment 272 ratings of this product, including 200 with reviews.
The average rating is 4.2 stars which corresponds to a rating of 84 percent.
If you ask me, both ratings are too low.
Why?
I have four reasons:
# 1. The script is well-written and the actors play their roles well.
# 2. The story is captivating, dramatic and often highly emotional.
# 3. This drama has it all: murder, mystery, intrigue, and greed as well as love and hate.
# 4. While fictional, the story is placed in a historical context which is (in most cases) very realistic.
There are, however, some occasions when the storyline is not completely realistic. Here are some examples:
# 1. Person A is following person B, but person B does not notice this, even though person A is very close to person B and quite easy to see.
# 2. Person A and person B are having a conversation about some secret information, but person C happens to be standing around the corner, so person C is able to hear what they are saying.
# 3. Officially, Julio is working as a waiter at the hotel, but he never seems to do any work! He has time to investigate inside the hotel and sometimes outside the hotel. Nobody seems to miss him!
These examples are flaws in a great work of art. I have mentioned them here, for the record, but I have decided to regard them as minor flaws.
Once you start watching, this drama will draw you in and capture your attention. When you get to the end of one episode, you will want to continue to the next episode as soon as possible.
While this series has been compared to Upstairs and Downstairs and to Downton Abbey, it is not a Spanish copy of these famous British series.
Gran Hotel has its own story. It is a very Spanish story. In my opinion, this fascinating drama deserves a rating of five stars (100 percent).
PS # 1. If you want, you can buy the three seasons one by one: season one = 3 discs; season two = 3 discs; season three = 8 discs. But you can buy all three seasons in a special box set with 14 discs.
PS # 2. If you know some Spanish, this drama offers an excellent chance to improve your language skills.
PS # 3. This drama is available in a German version where they speak German and a French version where they speak French. I do not like this at all. In my opinion, dubbing is a horrible practice!
*****
Gran Hotel
A Spanish television series
Season 1 = 2011
Season 2 = 2012
Season = 2013
*****
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