Hotel Beau Séjour

''Beau Séjour'' (the first season is internationally known as ''Hotel Beau Séjour'') is a Flemish-language Belgian supernatural crime drama television series created by Bert Van Dael and Sanne Nuyens, and directed by and . It began airing on the Belgian channel Eén on 1 January 2017 and on Arte in France, Germany, and French-speaking Belgium on 2 March. It debuted on Netflix 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 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. 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 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 as Melanie Engelenhof, Leon's mother, Alexander's widowed sister-in-law, owner of the Hotel Beau Séjour

Season 2

* Gene Bervoets 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 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 as Tille Vanderwal, Bea's boyfriend
* Charlie Chan Dagelet as Yasmine Amani, Alice's (girl)friend
* Louis Talpe 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 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 and production house De Mensen had reached an agreement to film the second season in the village of Zeebrugge, a port on the coast of Belgium. Filming began in summer 2019, with Gene Bervoets 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'' compared it favorably to the first season of HBO's ''True Detective'', calling it "a remarkably textured, slow-burning and compelling murder mystery." ''The Los Angeles Times'' called ''Hotel Beau Séjour'' a "worthy new addition to a crowded streaming field of moody European crime thrillers."

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

See also

* '' The Rising''

References

External links

*
* at Eén

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
Television shows about ghosts
Supernatural television series
VRT 1 original programming