Hotel Babylon

Another Show putting the BBC back at the top of UK Drama.

This is another show on the BBC that just fills me with joy! For so long I have been deeply depressed at the state of UK TV. Channel4 came up with "Big Brother", and suddenly it was reality TV on every channel. Now it may be just me, but I get enough reality watching the News channels and getting depressed. I have craved good drama for years now. Drama should be a little escape from reality, a break from the news, an hour to 'switch off' and immerse yourself in another World, like a long hot bath! Drama on UK TV has been very poor of late. The soaps are being run almost nightly, and I felt that these almost daily showings are leaving the writing teams really pushed for more desperate ideas. We have had a couple of gems now and again ("Queer as Folk" for example). So you cannot imagine my delight when I heard the BBC were resurrecting "Dr Who". Russell T Davis at the helm (a writer I have worshiped since I watched Children's TV!) and a cast and crew that should be envied the World over I was excited. Sure enough, "Dr Who" was a sensation! Suddenly there seems to be a resurgence in drama on UK TV. No offense to my American buddies (responsible for 24, QaF, Sex and the City, 6Feet Under et. all), but it is great to see UK Drama coming back with the quality and care the US throws at a lot of it's Dramas. I must at this point, thank HBO for all they do for drama in the US :) So, onto "Hotel Babylon".

This show is a wonderful creation, and another great commission by the BBC. A collection of individual stories that can be watched independently of each other and enjoyed. However, the Hotel staff are a great excuse for building a story arc as the series develops and you become attached to them emotionally. The stories contain humour, and moral conflict that makes you think. This is not 'brain death TV' but something and some people you become involved with. This cannot be praised highly enough.

The cast are superb, totally superb. The writing is clever and wonderfully woven, and the editing makes the show a beautiful thing to watch. The sets are lavish and totally believable, the lighting is perfect, the sound track (VO and music) is wonderful. This is a show that I hope has been filmed in HD, so we can really appreciate the work done by both crew and cast in this wonderful format even more on DVD (HD or Blu-Ray, I don't care!) release.

Please give this show a try, and I truly believe you will not be disappointed. Do not expect "Fawlty Towers". Expect a lavish well made Drama, that will excite and engage. I thank the whole team for such a great job.

With a growing portfolio, "Hotel Babylon", "Doctor Who", and "Sea of Souls" to name but three, I am quietly hopeful the BBC has passed it's 90's "Reality" phase, and now are back into GREAT Drama.

When Hotel Babylon first started I thought I'd give it a go although I suspected it would be the sort of programme that I'd watch a few episodes of before getting bored of. How wrong I was, four series on and I'm still enjoying it. This is mostly down to the great cast, even though members have come and gone over the years the replacements have quickly established themselves.

Set in a London five star hotel we follow the lives of the staff as they interact with each other and the stream of fairly eccentric guests that stay there. The cast includes all strata of the hotel staff from housekeepers and receptionists, a Spanish head barman, a pompous head waiter up to the managers. Every viewer will have their own favourite character, mine is Anna, the beautiful receptionist, played by Emma Pierson, who sees her job as a temporary thing till she can find a millionaire to marry. All the main characters are fun though so I'm sure they will all be somebody's favourite.

As with any series that lasts a few years characters will leave as their actors move on to other things, thankfully even though almost half the original characters have departed it is still as much fun as ever. Being set is a hotel there can be a regular stream of guest characters each with amusing characteristics to bring to the story. Since each episode is self contained don't worry if you haven't seen it before, it won't take long to realise what each character's position in the hotel is along with how they relate to each other.

I wasn't a fan of season 1 simply because I was busy watching other shows but by accident I ended up watching 50 seconds with Natalie Jackson Mendoza and I was hooked.

It was interesting to see a likeness to shows such as Las Vagas which I was a fan of for a brief period.

The characters are all interesting in their own ways and the writing is brilliant with the employees of Hotel Babylon dealing with the celebrities and the problems they bring.

The most interesting character so far seems Tony a man who should not be reckoned with.

I give this show a full ten simply because its smart, funny and sexy.

Hotel Babylon is a slick bit of business, superficial yet entertaining enough to a degree; the show does benefit from Max Beesley's observant second-in-command, aloof and cool, all-seeing on the lobby floor, his interior monologue serving to give us a sense of a philosophical insider's perspective. Dexter Fletcher benefits from being one of those street-wise, connected types who seems to have a remedy for every problem. Oddly, despite her glitzy status as manager, Tasmine Oouthwaite came off sexier and more personable in the gritty drama The Fixer than she does here, where her character is often hard yet brittle, with only intermittent flashes of humanity. Again, the goings-on are slickly rendered with the break-neck pacing, cross-cut story lines and slick production values to keep us distracted.

As the series went along though, two problems became increasingly apparent. One, the hotel crew are always up to something, some sort of cover-up or switcheroo, whether in the name of their clientele or themselves or both in some instances, which may in reality be part of the territory but they come off as a kind of a deceitful, slapdash bunch, hardly as all knowing, professional and savvy as they're made out to be, all ultimately deserving the sack. Secondly, the characters generally do not come off as likable or honourable, more obsessed with making a buck. There is one episode where the Raymond Coulthard character cheats in a wine-tasting competition, going up against an old rival. One could have empathy for him if he was dealing with some n'er-do-well who deserves comeuppance, but Coulthard's catty character is merely desperate and out of his depth, compromising a colleague to aid in the deceit. Do we like this guy? Nope. We're not given enough character development to think otherwise. Ditto for the self-absorbed lobby receptionist, who's petty, venal and superficial. True, people like this can be found in any workplace, but watching them week after week minus any other redeeming traits gets a bit tiresome.

I realize these are picky complaints but if our protagonists were bit more rounded or at least made empathetic or charming in spite of their foibles, then the series might have had some resonance and depth, raising it beyond the trifle that is, dissipating from the mind as quickly as a wafer disappearing from the tongue. Nothing lasting beyond the initial sensation.

Great show, unlike anything on TV. 10 out of 10. The casting, writing, directing are all top drawer. Too bad we don't get shows of this quality out of the mills that create shows in the USA. After watching shows like this it becomes really hard to watch the tripe that the big three in their quest for the lowest common denominator churn out.

The setting a five star hotel provides endless secondary characters through which the series cast work their roles, providing danger, romance, humor and intrigue.

Though different, it has the same elements that have made the Sopranos,Deadwood, Oz and Rome compelling TV, that is, great characters, involving story lines and the ability to keep it fresh and real.

I actually have gone back and changed my rating after watching season three.