If you’re remotely familiar with Netflix’s Griselda, then you may have heard of The Mutiny Hotel, or as MGM+ likes to call it, Hotel Cocaine. Set to disappoint from the start, the show tells the story of a man named Roman Compte, the general manager of the hotel at the time, the same old return to the crime world, trying to balance family and work and being a good person all along. Wow, how exciting! Pfft. There’s a scene in this first episode when a man’s dying and someone he is dear to tries to reflect on the urgency of the situation, but it looks like a child asking for a toy. Certainly, there’s an interest in the Miami drug world from back in the day, but churning out mediocre content is not the way to satisfy this interest. Anyway, before I turn this into a rant about how Colombians are going to get pigeonholed into drug lord stories, I’ll dive straight into the first episode of Hotel Cocaine.
Spoiler Alert
Who is Roman Compte?
Episode 1 of Hotel Cocaine (I am very tempted to write “Hotel California” each time) begins with one of those future me monologues about how the protagonist’s life is perfect. Roman Compte is the general manager at “The Mutiny Hotel,” Miami’s Switzerland, for drug dealers, DIA agents, celebrities, and anyone who has anything to do with the world of cocaine. A safe haven, if you like. The year is 1978, and Cocaine has taken over; Marijuana is long forgotten. At the beginning of the episode, we see a Haitian gang kill a man to steal his cocaine. The man they’ve killed is an informant named Tucker Thomas. Cut to a 70s disco music and dance sequence with scantily clad people rubbing up against each other (don’t get me wrong, these scenes can be super tasteful, but here they’re annoying). Roman walks in as if he’s the owner of the place, though he’s not. He then meets up with said owner, who has some exciting news for him. Burton Greenberg (at least this guy has good comedic timing) is overjoyed because he’s going to be interviewed by world-renowned investigative journalist Hunter S. Thompson. This impressive piece is going on the Rolling Stone.
The excitement is quick to go when Burton tells Roman that there’s a narc at the martini bar, leaving him to clean up the place. You know, because Hunter shouldn’t see narcs at this fantabulous hedonist club. Roman quickly beelines to the man and learns that he’s looking for a certain drug trafficker, namely Nestor Cabal. Said druggie happens to be Roman’s estranged elder brother (whoop), and they haven’t been in touch in years. Agent Zulio isn’t one to care for small talk, though; he immediately threatens the guy. He claims that he’ll put him in prison for aiding and abetting his brother and sending his dear daughter Valeria off to foster care (yikes). Trying to be the perfect Cuban parent, Roman obviously has nothing to combat that and ends up agreeing to join forces with Zulio. Zulio tells him that a Chucho who frequents the hotel works for his brother, so that’s the perfect place to start.
Janice Nichols is one of the girls who works at the Mutiny, and she is also Burton’s intelligent confidant. It seems she knows a lot more than she lets on, and everyone depends on her—the younger girls, Burton, customers, and even Roman. Roman tries to speak to Chucho himself, but it is in vain. He never once mentions that Nestor is his brother, though. He gets Janice to find out where Nestor lives instead, and he shows up there the next day.
What’s Burton hiding?
In the meantime, Burton is stressed because he realizes that the only reason Hunter is in the hotel is because he wants to write about his family’s misdeeds. The tea that Burton has will soil not only his name but that of the hotel’s too. See, Burton’s had nothing to do with his family for a really long time; they’ve been estranged because they’re fascists and slavers, while he’s a free-spirited man with a love for homosexuals. Burton’s little secret is that he forged his father’s signature to get the rights to the land where the hotel is. So, if Hunter ends up revealing any incriminating news about the Greenbergs, the hotel goes down as well. Burton simply wants the name of the hotel not to be smeared. Hunter likes the information Burton is willing to give him and ends up deciding to write a book about the place after taking some strong coke. He calls Burton his soulmate, but he’s already sent in the article for the Stone, though I can’t help but imagine he has only good things to say about the guy, no?
Why does Roman shoot Chucho?
Roman meets up with his brother at his house, and Nestor’s guys let him in immediately after hearing the word bro (why would Cubans call their brothers “bro” though?). They finish up with their niceties, and Roman tells his brother that he needs money for Valeria’s studies. She’s meant to go off to college, and he knows this is a touchy subject for Nestor because he loves the girl as his own. Nestor doesn’t trust his brother, though, because he has done him wrong once before. He asks Roman to kill a man for him, one who ratted him out, and Roman ends up doing it so his brother will trust him again. I suppose Zulio doesn’t need to know. Nestor invites Roman on a mission with him, but Chucho is wary of the guy. He warns Nestor, and they plan a last-minute detour. Remember that Haitian gang from earlier? They’re going to sell that coke they stole to Nestor, and Zulio plans on catching them in the act. Unfortunately for him, things don’t go as planned because Nestor and Roman take a different route, while Chucho stays back to find the strays (the narcs in this case).
What Nestor plans on doing is stealing the coke from the gang and shooting them to death (as it goes in this business, but yeah, that was a terrible site). He pretends to show them the money after pulling some racist crap dialogue, and then ends up shooting at them and running. Oh, and Roman’s just supposed to know to join in. However, this is when we’re hit with the fun stuff.
At the end of Hotel Cocaine episode 1, Chucho shows up to tell Nestor that his brother’s an informant, but Roman shoots him before he can say anything, you know, since they’re already in a game of shooting. It’s easy to blame the gang; however, the guy doesn’t end up dying, just heavily bleeding, and before Roman can finish the job, Nestor sees them and tells him to rush to the hospital immediately. Roman tells Nestor to tell Chucho to be quiet, so he won’t bleed more; the bullet’s conveniently logged in his neck, so the guy can’t say anything anyway, though he tries desperately, even with his eyes. They throw him out in front of an emergency service and drive off, so they don’t get caught, and Nestor expresses how he hopes the guy survives. Roman’s wide eyes stared back at him in the rear-view mirror (whoops, you’re in trouble now, big guy). Let’s find out if blood is thicker than water, shall we?
