Magic City (TV series) explained

Genre:Period drama
Creator:Mitch Glazer
Composer:Daniele Luppi
Country:United States
Language:English
Num Seasons:2
Num Episodes:16
Editor:Christopher Nelson
Location:Miami, Florida
Cinematography:Gabriel Beristain
Camera:Multi-camera
Runtime:47-56 minutes
Channel:Starz

Magic City is an American drama television series created by Mitch Glazer for the Starz network.[1] [2] The pilot episode previewed on Starz March 30, 2012,[3] and premiered April 6, 2012.[4] Starz renewed the series for an eight-episode second season on March 20, 2012,[5] and canceled it August 5, 2013, after two seasons.[6]

Set in 1959 Miami, Florida, shortly after the Cuban Revolution, Magic City tells the story of Ike Evans (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), the owner of Miami's most glamorous hotel, the Miramar Playa. Evans is forced to make an ill-fated deal with Miami Jewish Mob boss Ben Diamond (Danny Huston) to ensure the success of his glitzy establishment.

Cast and characters

Main

Recurring

Episodes

Season 2 (2013)

Production

Conception

Magic City was created by Miami native Mitch Glazer, who wrote the series around his experiences growing up there: he once worked as a cabana boy in a Miami Beach hotel, his father was an electrical engineer at the city's grand hotels in the late 1950s, and he grew up listening to stories of the exploits of hotel staff and clientele.[7] Many of the incidents Glazer relates in the series "are based on stories that happened, that I saw, or older brothers and sisters or my parents told me." As a journalist, he did extensive research on what was happening in the lobbies of hotels in late 1950s and early 1960s: "There’s wiretaps—tapes they’ve made public now—where the CIA gives Sam Giancana and Johnny Roselli $300,000 and poison powder to kill [Fidel] Castro in the Boom Boom Room in the Fontainebleau Hotel," he said. Included in the series, Glazer states, will be Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) activities in Cuba and issues connected to the Civil Rights Movement. He first envisioned Magic City as a feature film, but said he quickly realized he had more stories to tell than would fit in a film.[7]

Glazer had written different versions of Magic City for years. He originally wrote and sold it to CBS, who eventually let it go to the Starz network. "CBS was really nice to me and generous in letting it go to Starz. It’s not a procedural, it’s not a franchise. It needs to be allowed to do the sexuality and violence and the things that were part of Miami Beach in the 1959", he said. In 2007, Chris Albrecht (subsequently Starz network's president and C.E.O.) was fired from HBO and joined Glazer and some of his friends for a research expedition to Havana.[8] "It was an insane group," Glazer remembered. "Jimmy Caan and Robert Duvall and Benicio Del Toro." They were visiting a Havana hotel designed by the architect Morris Lapidus when Glazer remarked to Albrecht, "You know, I grew up in this kind of hotel. My father worked with Morris Lapidus on the Fontainebleau Hotel and Eden Roc Hotel as an electrical engineer." In 2009, after Albrecht became president and C.E.O. of Starz, Glazer recalled, "I sent him a script I had written years before, and he called me literally hours later and said, 'This is amazing, let's do this.'"[8]

Reception

Critical reception

The first season received mixed reviews from critics. Review aggregator Metacritic calculated a score of 56/100 based on 27 reviews.[9] Glenn Garvin of the Miami Herald said of the series: "The sordid ugliness that festers inside Magic City's voluptuously beautiful wrappings makes irresistible television."[10] The Contra Costa Times’ Chuck Barney praised the cast and visual style. He said in his review: "Through the early episodes, nothing really happens that you couldn't see coming. Still, the setting is so seductive, the period details so vivid and the acting so stellar, that it's as intoxicating as a potent mojito."[11] Huffington Post criticized the gratuitous nudity ("Hey, boobs!") in many dressing room scenes.[12]

Awards and accolades

YearAwardCategoryRecipientResultRef.
2013Golden Globe AwardBest Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television FilmDanny Huston
2013Young Artist AwardBest Performance in a TV Series - Supporting Young ActressTaylor Blackwell[13]

Movie spin-off

In 2014, a feature film directed by Mitch Glazer was announced. Stars Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Olga Kurylenko, Danny Huston, and Kelly Lynch were set to reprise their roles. Bruce Willis and Bill Murray were reported to have starring roles.[14] In 2019, Morgan said "The idea, I think at some point, is to try to make a film."[15], there have been no further updates, leaving its production as increasingly unlikely.

Home media

The entire Magic City series was released by Starz and Anchor Bay in Blu-ray and DVD formats on May 13, 2014.[16]

See also

Notes and References

  1. News: Starz Orders Magic City TV Show Set in 1960s Miami Beach . Kyle . Munzenrieder . December 7, 2010 . March 15, 2011 . . February 8, 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110208010328/http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2010/12/starz_orders_magic_city_tv_sho.php. live.
  2. Starz Picks Up Sixties-Era Drama Magic City. December 6, 2010. March 15, 2011. New York. Stephanie. Vallejo . December 18, 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20101218000033/http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/12/starz_picks_up_60s-era_drama_m.html. live.
  3. Web site: Shows A-Z - magic city on starz . The Futon Critic . July 24, 2017. July 23, 2012. https://archive.today/20120723202234/http://thefutoncritic.com/showatch/magic-city/. live.
  4. Web site: Miami in the '50s is Starz's 'Magic City'. January 24, 2012. USA Today. July 24, 2017. May 4, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160504120518/http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/story/2012-01-24/magic-city-starz-miami/52761944/1. live.
  5. News: Starz Renews 'Magic City' Ahead of Period Drama's April Premiere. March 31, 2012. March 22, 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20120322205022/http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/starz-magic-city-renewal-jeffrey-dean-morgan-301921. live.
  6. Web site: Starz's 'Magic City' To End Run After Two Seasons; Series Finale Airs Friday. Andreeva. Nellie. Deadline Hollywood. August 5, 2013. August 5, 2013. August 7, 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20130807084814/http://www.deadline.com/2013/08/starz-magic-city-canceled-season-2-finale/. live.
  7. News: TV's 'Magic City' revels in glamour, grit of 1950s Miami . Jill . Serjeant . . April 4, 2012 . April 5, 2012 . November 17, 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201117162809/https://www.chicagotribune.com/ . live .
  8. Web site: 'Magic City': Mitch Glazer Talks New Starz Show Starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan . Michael . Hogan . . HuffPost TV . April 5, 2012 . April 5, 2012 . April 8, 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120408200855/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/05/magic-city-mitch-glazer-jeffrey-dean-morgan_n_1405443.html . live .
  9. News: Magic City - Season 1 Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More at Metacritic. April 1, 2012. Metacritic. April 2, 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20120402192300/http://www.metacritic.com/tv/magic-city/season-1. live.
  10. News: Set-in-Miami 'Magic City' delicious, depraved. Miami Herald. Glenn. Garvin. April 4, 2012. April 1, 2011. April 2, 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20120402004748/http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/04/01/2723428/set-in-miami-magic-city-delicious.html. live.
  11. News: Chuck Barney: Shonda Rhimes' 'Scandal' goes inside the Beltway. Contra Costa Times. Chuck. Barney. April 2, 2012. April 4, 2011. March 24, 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140324171945/http://www.mercurynews.com/entertainment/ci_20309627/chuck-barney-shonda-rhimes-scandal-goes-inside-beltway. live.
  12. Web site: It's not a dirty word: Here's the explanation of 'sexposition' . Kuperinsky . Amy . 2012-04-16 . NJ.com . en-US . 2019-02-11 . 2019-02-12 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190212070747/https://www.nj.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2012/04/sexposition_game_of_thrones.html . live .
  13. Web site: 34th Annual Young Artist Awards . 2013-03-31 . YoungArtistAwards.org . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130403013454/http://www.youngartistawards.org/noms34.html . 2013-04-03 .
  14. Web site: 'Magic City' Becomes Feature; Bruce Willis & Bill Murray Join Original Starz Cast. October 31, 2014. March 2, 2015. March 2, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150302095733/http://deadline.com/2014/10/magic-city-bruce-willis-bill-murray-1201268764/. live.
  15. https://comicbook.com/thewalkingdead/news/the-walking-dead-jeffrey-dean-morgan-magic-city-movie-still-game/
  16. Web site: Magic City - Blu-ray Disc, DVD Releases for 'The Complete Series' . Lambert . David . . March 17, 2014 . March 18, 2014 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20140318075956/http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Magic-City-The-Complete-Series/19578 . March 18, 2014 .

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