Hotel Costiera☆

Starring: Jesse Williams, Amanda Campana, Jordan Alexandra, Sam Haygarth, and Maria Chiara Giannetta

Created by: Francesco Arlanch and Elena Bucaccio

irected by Giacomo Martelli and Emmy Award winner Adam Bernstein, Prime Video’s Hotel Costiera is a summery action caper series set around a luxury Italian resort. The premise, which feels something like The White Lotus meets Taken, feels like it had genuine potential to be breezy and diverting entertainment, but Hotel Costiera falls disappointingly flat in nearly every possible way. What could have been light-hearted, true-fun is cut down by a thin, unfocused, and half-hearted script, weak characterisation across the board, and an absence of the basic elements needed to make the show’s premise work.

Tony nominee and former Grey’s Anatomy actor, Jesse Williams stars as Daniel De Luca, a former Marine-turned-fixer with a certain set of skills in a luxury Italian resort. Early scenes in the show present De Luca solving hyper-wealthy guests’ weird, sometimes perilous problems. The inciting incident is a search for the owner’s daughter, Alice (Amanda Campana), who has mysteriously disappeared.

The supporting cast is rounded out by Jordan Alexandra, Sam Haygarth, and Maria Chiara Giannetta as associates of De Luca, along with a broader supporting cast playing mostly hotel staff and patrons. The series rather awkwardly begins as truly episodic, eventually focusing more on the central disappearance and search before culminating in a rather splashy heist sequence by the finale.

Two critical, overarching problems with Hotel Costiera affect virtually every corner of the show. The series never really decides what it wants to be, and it also doesn’t seem to know who or what kind of character its protagonist is. There’s very little to De Luca; we never really see any action prowess, effective humour, grit, foibles, or even real charm beyond his good looks (which other characters reference multiple times, understandably). He just isn’t a strong enough character to carry a new series. Much of De Luca feels derivative to the point that a tuxedo paired with a gun near the end runs closer to James Bond cosplay. The show itself struggles to find any real kind of narrative or stylistic identity beyond some impressive vistas, thanks to the exotic setting, but even that is underused and underwhelming.

In the earliest stretches of Hotel Costiera, especially, where rich people panic about their bizarre, often quite personal dilemmas that De Luca’s entrusted to handle, it’s hard not to be reminded of Mike White’s zeitgeisty sensation and to be a bit hopeful we might be in for some fun. Unfortunately, the weird wealthy characters here just aren’t that interesting or well-defined, much less darkly hilarious in that way that has made The White Lotus so singular.

In an age where edge counts for a lot on television, Hotel Costiera is a show that could have used a great deal more of it. This is one of the most awkward TV-MA ratings in memory, as, apart from a few F-bombs here and there that frankly stand out like sore thumbs, the tone of the show runs closer to network TV from two decades ago. Hotel Costiera swings at being a brisk comedy as much as it attempts to be an action caper, and unfortunately, the series is just painfully unfunny, despite a near-constant smattering of quips and goofy line delivery.

The most baffling element in Hotel Costiera is the near-total lack of big action in a series that’s being billed as such. There are virtually no true set pieces, no tension, and no payoff.

Amazon MGM Studios has the resources and ability required to deliver good, even great, entertainment in that regard, as demonstrated via last month’s surprisingly excellent The Terminal List: Dark Wolf (a show that looks even greater by comparison, now). A significant part of what made that show work so remarkably well was the incorporation of showstopping action sequences in a way that advanced a gripping narrative; every episode had at least one truly stunning sequence, usually near the climax. This is a great structure for an action show and a distinct contrast to Hotel Costiera, where the pacing is all over the place (mostly, it’s simply too relaxed), and there’s no real punch over six episodes. Repetitive, unimaginative music cues really don’t help matters, a disservice to any attempts at mounting tension or intrigue.

Hotel Costiera ultimately tries its hand at multiple genres without ever fully committing to one. Action, thriller, crime, heist, spy, and travelogue are all flirted with, but it’d be a stretch to truly classify the show as any one of them. At times, it feels like a splashy sitcom, except the jokes don’t land, and the narrative is frankly a little hard to follow at times, and not in the way you occasionally want. There’s a spark of an idea for a show here that really could have developed into terrific escapism. Sadly, the execution lacks impetus and personality, resulting in Hotel Costiera being a surprisingly unremarkable destination.

– Courtesy: Collider.com

Rating system: *Not on your life * ½ If you really must waste your time ** Hardly worth the bother ** ½ Okay for a slow afternoon only *** Good enough for a look see *** ½ Recommended viewing **** Don’t miss it **** ½ Almost perfect ***** Perfection