All the Reasons To Watch 'Seaside Hotel' This Summer

Here in the northern hemisphere, we’re in the thick of summer – the weather, the sunlight, the time to get out of town to relax – what better time to find a new-to-you TV series to enjoy, and maybe even to become mildly obsessed with? Have I got a recommendation for you, friends: say hello to Seaside Hotel, a 10-season gem of Danish television, available to PBS Passport subscribers through an eagle-eyed selector of international TV, Walter Iuzzolino. Yes, this is a Walter Presents series! Huzzah!

We’ve covered Seaside Hotel (or Badehotellet in its original language) here and there over the years and wanted to bring our readers something more substantive, the kind of full-throated endorsement it deserves. So! Very briefly, Seaside Hotel is set in a charming, quietly luxurious summer establishment on the coast of Jutland, Denmark’s northernmost region. Anderson’s Seaside Hotel is the kind of place where guests return for their months-long holidays annually, getting to know each other (and each other’s business and quirks) quite well.

Each season covers one summer from 1928-1946, tracking the ups and downs of the moneyed guests and their families – an officious cigarette factory owner, a workaholic construction magnate, a reserved under-minister for education, a vain and silly actor, a stern widow, a young nobleman – and of the hotel’s ownership and staff, all of whom are competent women of lower social standing. (A male owner is written out midway through the first season, which is just as well, as he was awful. It was a solid performance by a terrible character, and the show is better for his absence.)