If you are in doubt if you should or not watch this series, here's a quick check: if you like most of Disney Channel's series (shows like 'Whatever Place' and 'Whoever Montana'), then this series is probably not for you.
Remember Disney's "Dinosaurs" (1991)? It was NOT a children's show, although it was built to look so. It's the same with this show, it has a bunch of kids running around, doing some goofy things, but it's NOT a show aimed for children. That's not to say that it's not entertaining for children, but that it's not Disney Channel's regular brainless junk. It's more like an episode of "The Twilight Zone" (1959) rewritten as a series. Actually, it's so much like an episode of TTZ that some people may find it cliché. I, personally, don't think that's a problem, as long as the show is well done.
Spoiler alert! You should know the drill...
A girl goes missing, somehow causing a hotel to be closed. 30 years later, a man blows all his savings to buy the decayed hotel and move in with his unhappy and comprehensibly frustrated family, for reasons he can't/doesn't want to explain.
At first, nothing is explained, but the connection is established right in the first episode: some kids discover that there's a "portal" linking the present days with the past, around the time the girl disappeared.
The actors are good (and they improve as the series advances), the script is well written, the production is excellent (scenarios, musical score, props, background) and the pace is fast, with lots happening in the 25 min of each episode.
Of course, unlike "Dinosaurs," which was basically composed of unrelated episodes, this series tells a coherent story, so, there's a risk that the writers or the producers eventually do something wrong and break it, like padding the show with meaningless episodes or unnecessary drama. This review is based on the first season (11 episodes) and I'm hoping they already have mapped the road to finish the series with a proper ending (because the story being told is only good and worth telling if it has a conclusion), instead of letting it derail and get cancelled, like so many series before (damn, even "Dinosaurs" got an ending, and it didn't required one!)
Remember Disney's "Dinosaurs" (1991)? It was NOT a children's show, although it was built to look so. It's the same with this show, it has a bunch of kids running around, doing some goofy things, but it's NOT a show aimed for children. That's not to say that it's not entertaining for children, but that it's not Disney Channel's regular brainless junk. It's more like an episode of "The Twilight Zone" (1959) rewritten as a series. Actually, it's so much like an episode of TTZ that some people may find it cliché. I, personally, don't think that's a problem, as long as the show is well done.
Spoiler alert! You should know the drill...
A girl goes missing, somehow causing a hotel to be closed. 30 years later, a man blows all his savings to buy the decayed hotel and move in with his unhappy and comprehensibly frustrated family, for reasons he can't/doesn't want to explain.
At first, nothing is explained, but the connection is established right in the first episode: some kids discover that there's a "portal" linking the present days with the past, around the time the girl disappeared.
The actors are good (and they improve as the series advances), the script is well written, the production is excellent (scenarios, musical score, props, background) and the pace is fast, with lots happening in the 25 min of each episode.
Of course, unlike "Dinosaurs," which was basically composed of unrelated episodes, this series tells a coherent story, so, there's a risk that the writers or the producers eventually do something wrong and break it, like padding the show with meaningless episodes or unnecessary drama. This review is based on the first season (11 episodes) and I'm hoping they already have mapped the road to finish the series with a proper ending (because the story being told is only good and worth telling if it has a conclusion), instead of letting it derail and get cancelled, like so many series before (damn, even "Dinosaurs" got an ending, and it didn't required one!)