''Beau Séjour'' (the first season is internationally known as ''Hotel Beau Séjour'') is a

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

-language Belgian supernatural crime drama television series created by Bert Van Dael and Sanne Nuyens, and directed by Nathalie Basteyns and Kaat Beels. It began airing on the Belgian channel

Eén Eén (stylized as één; en, "one") is a public Dutch-language TV station in Belgium, owned by the VRT, which also owns Ketnet, Canvas and several radio stations. Although the channel is commercial-free, short sponsorship messages are broadca ...

on 1 January 2017 and on Arte in France, Germany, and French-speaking Belgium on 2 March. It debuted on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

in some countries on 16 March 2017. A second season was confirmed for the series in November 2017, and filming began in 2019. It premiered on Eén on 31 January 2021.

Synopsis

First season: In the Belgian village of

Lanklaar Dilsen-Stokkem (; li, Dilse-Stokkem; french: Dilsen-Stockem) is a city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Soc ...

in Limburg, near the Dutch border, teenager Kato Hoeven awakes at the small Hotel Beau Séjour to find a bloody corpse in the bathtub—her own. She has no memory of the day before her death or why she was there. She soon discovers that a select few people are able to see her and communicate with her as she desperately tries to find out who was responsible for her murder and why they killed her. Second season: Maurice, a Belgian Naval officer, awakes in the middle of a huge storm to discover his own dead body hanging from a mast on his sailboat, Beau Séjour, off the coast of

Zeebrugge Zeebrugge (, from: ''Brugge aan zee'' meaning "Bruges at Sea", french: Zeebruges) is a village on the coast of Belgium and a subdivision of Bruges, for which it is the modern port. Zeebrugge serves as both the international port of Bruges-Zeeb ...

. Refusing to believe he hanged himself, he must solve his own murder.

Cast and characters

Season 1

* Lynn Van Royen as Kato Hoeven, teenage murder victim *

Kris Cuppens Kris Cuppens (born 22 May 1962) is a Belgian actor and writer. Cuppens was born in Neeroeteren and discovered theatre in secondary school. He studied architecture at university, but rediscovered his love for the theatre during an audition for J ...

as Luc Hoeven, Kato's father * Charlotte Timmers as Sofia Otten, Kato's 18-year-old stepsister * Joke Emmers as Ines Anthoni, Kato's friend * Johan van Assche as Alexander Vinken, local 'crooked' cop * Joren Seldeslachts as Charlie Vinken, Alexander's son * Inge Paulussen as Kristel Brouwers, Kato's mother * Jan Hammenecker as Marcus Otten, Kristel's husband and Kato's stepfather * Guus Bullen as Cyril Otten, Kato's 12-years-old stepbrother * Reinhilde Decleir as Renee Brouwers, Kato's maternal grandmother * Roel Vanderstukken as Bart Blom, local police officer and Alexander's partner * Katrin Lohmann as Marion Schneider, federal police detective; lead investigator into Kato's death * Mieke de Groote as Dora Plettinckx, federal police detective * Tiny Bertels as Hild Jacobs, Alexander's wife and Charlie's mother * Maarten Nulens as Leon Vinken, Kato's boyfriend, Charlie's cousin, a motocross racer *

Barbara Sarafian Barbara Sarafian (born 16 April 1968) is a Belgian actress. She began her career in radio programmes, including ''Sonja Duplex'' from Studio Brussel and (The New World) from Radio 1. In Flanders, her television debut in the much-repeated ser ...

as Melanie Engelenhof, Leon's mother, Alexander's widowed sister-in-law, owner of the Hotel Beau Séjour

Season 2

Gene Bervoets Eugène Joanna Alfons "Gene" Bervoets (born 26 March 1956 in Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a p ...

as Maurice Teirlinck, former marine commander * Katelijne Verbeke as Bea Teirlinck, Maurice's ex-wife * Emilie De Roo as Esther Teirlinck, Maurice's oldest daughter *

Lize Feryn Lize Feryn (born 4 March 1993) is a Belgian actress, model and author of Flemish descent. Biography Lize Feryn earned a degree in artistic secondary education in 2011 in Drama & Diction at the Leuven Lemmens Institute. She also had a part-tim ...

as Alice Teirlinck, Maurice's youngest daughter * Greet Verstraete as Britt Teirlinck, Maurice's middle daughter * Lennard Corne as Jasper Greeve, Maurice's grandson (Britt's son) * Titus De Voogdt as Vinnie Scheepers, local police officer and friend of the Teirlinck family; former federal police detective * Janne Desmet as Mira Declerck, federal police detective; lead investigator into Maurice's death * Hilde Uitterlinden as Micheline "Bobonne" Teirlinck, Maurice's mother * Tom Vermeir as Joachim Claes, Esther's husband * Sam Louwyck as Guy Greeve, Jasper's other grandfather * Alessia Sartor as Lola Claes, Maurice's granddaughter, daughter of Esther and Joachim * Lennert Lefever as Simon Claes, Maurice's grandson, son of Esther and Joachim * Kasper Vandenberghe as Erik Greeve, Jasper's deceased father, Britt's deceased husband *

Jack Wouterse thumbnail Jack Wouterse (born 17 June 1957 in Soest) is a Dutch actor. His career as a movie actor took off with his role in the 1992 film ''The Northerners'', directed by Alex van Warmerdam. Wouterse made his international debut in an episode o ...

as Tille Vanderwal, Bea's boyfriend * Charlie Chan Dagelet as Yasmine Amani, Alice's (girl)friend *

Louis Talpe Louis Talpe (born 22 May 1981) is a Belgian actor. He is known for playing Toby on the Studio 100 show Mega Mindy and has appeared most recently as Eliab on the American Broadcasting Company, ABC-produced drama ''Of Kings and Prophets''. Caree ...

as Nicholas Moens, Vinnie's boyfriend

Episodes

Season 1 (2017)

Season 2 (2021)

Production

The series' first season was shot on location at the real Hotel Beau Séjour ("Nice Stay") in Dilsen-Stokkem. The father of series co-creator Nathalie Basteyns stayed at the hotel ten years before the show was created, and it made an impression upon him. Basteyns and Kaat Beels conceived the idea for the series immediately after this, when the child murders of serial killer

Marc Dutroux Marc Paul Alain Dutroux (; born 6 November 1956) is a Belgian convicted serial killer, serial rapist, and child molester. Initially convicted for the abduction and rape of five young girls in 1989, Dutroux was released on parole after just thr ...

were still fresh in people's minds. They elected to add a supernatural element to the story to set it apart from other similar neo-noir dramas. Lynn Van Royen, who portrays teenager Kato, was 28 and pregnant with her second child during the shoot. The creators and producers hoped to make the series an anthology, with a different dead character in each season. A second season was announced in November 2017, with Sanne Nuyens and Bert Van Dael returning as writers. For the second season, the writers received a subsidy of 25,000 euros from the Flemish Audiovisual Fund. In February 2019, it was announced that the city of

Bruges Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the countr ...

and production house De Mensen had reached an agreement to film the second season in the village of

, a port on the coast of Belgium. Filming began in summer 2019, with

cast in a leading role. The second season featured a fresh cast and storyline, albeit with a similar premise, of a murder victim trying to solve their own death. In December 2019, it was reported that Bervoets was injured during filming. He was treated at the hospital and released the same day.

Reception

The first season of ''Hotel Beau Séjour'' was well received by critics, with particular praise for Lynn Van Royen's portrayal of the murdered Kato. John Doyle of ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'' compared it favorably to the first season of HBO's ''

True Detective ''True Detective'' is an American anthology crime drama television series created and written by Nic Pizzolatto. The series, broadcast by the premium cable network HBO in the United States, premiered on January 12, 2014. Each season of the ...

'', calling it "a remarkably textured, slow-burning and compelling murder mystery." ''

The Los Angeles Times ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'' called ''Hotel Beau Séjour'' a "worthy new addition to a crowded streaming field of moody European crime thrillers." American horror master

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...

praised the series on Twitter, calling ''Hotel Beau Séjour'' "Eccentric, brilliant, and strangely touching. Supernatural fare for those who don't ordinarily like it."

References

External links

* * at

Production website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hotel Beau Sejour 2017 Belgian television series debuts Flemish television shows Belgian crime television series Television series set in hotels Television shows set in Belgium Serial drama television series Police procedural television series Neo-noir television series Ghosts in television Supernatural television series Eén original programming