Hotel Babylon is driving me crazy. I started watching this BBC dramedy about the staff at a five star British hotel because John Barrowman is in one episode and it was free to stream on netflix. It’s pretty entertaining, too. But a couple of episodes have this strange morality. They want to make their characters complex, but also likeable, while exploring the idea that anything can happen at a hotel.
To whit:
One episode explores the reality of illegal immigrant employment in hotels. The head of the maids (a regular character) is threatened by the immigrant police with getting sent back to Australia on a outdated visa or else give up someone else and get five more months to sort it out. She is one of the more “moral” characters and plans to give up herself until she sees an African immigrant (who works in the back area as a doctor and otherwise as a janitor) beating his 17 year old daughter. So she ends up giving up the father b/c he is abusive. basically separating him and his underage daughter. It seems like this is going to be a good exploration of a complicated moral situation, except that the last scene is of the daughter hugging the head maid, making it alllll ok.
Then the last episode I watched, a whole lot of maids got fired for making extra money stripping and cleaning rooms, while high end call girls regularly walk through the front doors. And there was absolutely no discussion of this discrepancy. Just obvious moral disgust with the maids and acceptance of the call girls. We’re a society in flux and don’t know what our morals are, I suppose.
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