Fun
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Curious
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Hypothetically, what would you do if you woke up to find a second version of yourself dead in a bathtub? That’s the reality Netflix’s latest international acquisition Hotel Beau Séjour (originally just titled Beau Séjour) imagines. The result is a Belgian series that’s a great binge for anyone who loves crime dramas.
Hotel Beau Séjour is a 10-episode mystery series that revolves around the death of Kato Hoeven (Lynn Van Royen), a normal teenage girl who is one day brutally murdered in the aforementioned hotel. Kato awakens to her own dead body and no memory of what happened the night before. However, there’s a twist that gives the stuck-in-limbo Kato a chance to solve her own murder — five “seers” who can inexplicably still see and hear her. The rest of the series dives into trying to solve Kato’s murder, connecting her case to a string of similar crimes, and figuring out why these five people can see our unfortunate hero. Much like the French masterpiece The Returned, Hotel Beau Séjour expertly blends supernatural elements with a well-paced crime drama. The Flemish language series isn’t quite as masterful as The Returned, though few things are. However, this show watches as a better scripted and timed crime drama than Case or Glitch.
From Twin Peaks’ Laura Palmer to Riverdale’s Jason Blossom, teenagers tend to die on TV a lot, especially young ladies on international crime dramas. It’s such a phenomenon, Decider’s own Joe Reid has covered it in depth. Keeping that in mind, what separates Hotel Beau Séjour from other mysteries that hinge on young lives cut short too soon? Two things: Lynn Van Royen and the show’s creepiness. Van Royen brings a vulnerability to her limbo-stuck character that’s simultaneously charming and tragic. Kato walks the line between being reckless and well-reasoned, terrified and strong, angst-filled and sweet. The character is indisputably a teenager, but she’s a relatable person first and one who is clearly too young to be involved in any sort of murder, let alone her own.
Likewise the creepy tone and pacing of the series is worth highlighting. Hotel Beau Séjour balances between an unsettling mystery and a genuinely sorrowful show about one woman’s death. This Belgian series knows exactly when to feed the audience another detail about its unfolding mystery and when to pull back, allowing its emotional side to take over or the quietly determined Van Royen to take the lead. If you’re looking for a well acted and creepy crime drama to binge this weekend, Hotel Beau Séjour should be it.
