Hotel Cocaine is for fans of Narcos (all six seasons) and Griselda (starring Emmy nominated Sofía Vergara). The first season on MGM+ has wrapped – each of the eight episodes were released weekly. Now's the time to binge.
Created by Narcos' Chris Brancato, the series is set in Miami in the late '70s during the cocaine craze that saw the drug being imported by the ton from Colombia. Unlike the other shows, all the action happens in Florida as rival gangs from Colombia and Cuba fight over turf.
The glitzy hotel and club in the title is where most of the scenes take place. Cocaine is the jet fuel that keeps the "pleasure palace" rocking. Burton Greenburg (Mark Feuerstein) owns it, and Roman Compte (Danny Pino) and Janice Nicholson (Laura Gordon) run it. When DEA agent Zulio (Michael Chiklis), who's trying to bust Roman's drug kingpin brother Nestor Cabal (Yul Vazquez), threatens Roman's teenaged daughter Valeria (Corina Bradley), Roman asks Nestor for help. This sets off a chain reaction between the DEA, the brothers and the Colombians - Yolanda (Maya Hermosillo) and Gilberto (Juan Pablo Raba) – who show up midway through the series.
With the arrival of the Colombians, the tone changes. Yolanda is Griselda x 10.
The first few episodes are fun. Burton toots his way through the day and night and gobbles acid regularly. He's also into TM and wears disco-style clothing. His character is a blast, especially in the early episodes that feature special hotel guests Hunter S. Thompson (John Ventimiglia) and Rick James (Larry Powell).
But it's really Roman's story. He and his brother illegally emigrated to the U.S. from Cuba. They hate Fidel Castro and Nestor intends to use the drug profits to lead an invasion of the island. Roman's animus is also charged by his wife's death in Cuba at the hands of the Army (or so he thinks).
"The war we fought in Cuba has never ended for me," Nestor says in his mansion. "I don't sell yayo to fill my pockets. I use it to to finance a war that I never stopped fighting."
With the arrival of the Colombians, the tone changes. Yolanda is Griselda x 10. She's uses her body to lure men and employs assassins to do her and Gilberto's murderous bidding. Their ambitious plans stand in the way of Nestor's empire. He relishes the challenge.
Some of the later episodes bog down with too many storylines, but by the finale it all comes to a smartly scripted head with an ending that tips the hand to a Season 2.
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