Should you check into Hotel Cocaine?
the true crime that's worth your time
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It’s a bitch getting old. As a person born at the dawn of the 1970s, I’m suddenly more understanding of why my parents turned their noses up at Happy Days for its lack of authenticity, as well as how it papered over the more problematic aspects of 1950s culture.* To its credit, Hotel Cocaine, a MGM+ drama about real life hotel manager/drug family member/CIA informant Roman Compte and Miami’s infamous Mutiny Hotel, doesn’t ignore the troubling aspects of life in disco-era Florida. But it also struggles with tone in a way that’s becoming more and more familiar with darker-themed shows that end up on less prominent streamers. It’s never brutal and harsh enough to feel terribly accurate, it’s never glamorous enough to be dirty fun, and there’s a tiresome sense of dutiful responsibility to how its main character is portrayed. It’s not the fish of Miami Vice, nor is it the fowl of Scarface.
The closest cognate I can think of is Casino, another dramatic adaptation of the life of a crime-linked hotelier with a stunning set of side characters who revolve around a fairly staid central figure. But imagine if Casino was a TV series, cast with TV actors and on a TV budget. Now you’re getting there.