Man, I haven't seen so many cat fights since General Hospital, Days of our Lives, or as the World Turns hit the mid-afternoon time slots and infested American television way back when."The Grand" is a series heralding from the mid 90s about the trials and tribulations of a family owned and run hotel in Manchester England circa the first World War. It's a period piece, and full of vibrant female characters and interpersonal conflicts that should appease the most ardent of female viewer-ship. Ostensibly we're looking the social schism of English mid upper society and their servants, and the intrigues that culminate from that rift and intermingling. Blue bloods and working girls looking for survival, life and love, all the while internecine fighting takes place with the occasional slap, punch, scratch or hair pull after a verbal confrontation conflagrates. As a guy who, to be honest, welcomes a break from the usual guns and spaceship fare I'm so often exposed to, I do have to admit to getting a little weary of a recycling of themes here. But, when you're aiming for the classic Jane Austen like set (perhaps fast forward 50 or so years), you're going to get a little repetition in the story and thematic departments. Still, it is a visually attractive, well written, and exceptionally well acted piece of televised theatre. Exceptionally well shot for a TV production (not to mention very well lit, and I rarely say that about any TV show), this is a show to see, if only once.The themes are adult in nature, so parents with pre-teen girls (or even boys if they're so inclined) might want to screen or caution their young ones as they watch.Enjoy.

This series centers on the people involved in a high class hotel: the family who runs it, the staff who work there, and the guests. The setting is Manchester, England, in 1920 and thereafter.There are 18 episodes. I enjoyed it more as the episodes progressed, and increasingly came to appreciate it as special toward the end and to its conclusion. I recommend the viewer stick with it for at list 6 episodes, before rendering judgment on the whole series.This production is first class in all respects: storyline, acting, dress and settings, musical accompaniment, etc. The plots of each episode are quite compelling, while underlying themes that develop in twists and turns across the plots are engrossing. Some very powerful drama is therein presented. If you like psychologically valid human relationship drama this should be of interest.I rank it in the top 10 percent of movies or series I have seen (many thousands).

Having just read most of the previous reviews, I can say that pretty much everything has already been said. For what it's worth I'll throw in my two cents, which is this: Watching the series on Netflix, I've gotten up to Episode 8, I believe it is. I'm into the second season and find now that I cannot continue watching. They lost me after the first episode of the second season with the change of actors in the roles of Stephen and Ruth. I don't recall ever seeing this happen before. Usually if an actor leaves, the character they're playing goes along with them. But to change actors mid-way? It's crazy, to me.At first I didn't know who the new "Stephen" was. I thought he was a new character. Likewise with Ruth. The change of these two ruined the series for me. I had grown to like it; at the very beginning I thought I wouldn't continue watching it, as, someone very adequately expressed in a previous review, the characters are almost all reprehensible. But then I got over it and continued watching, even liking it. That is, until the producers decided that we, the viewers, wouldn't notice, or care, if out of the blue, two of the main characters suddenly looked and acted different.So, it's curtains for me on The Grand. Too bad...

I rented the DVDs and started watching this series with great interest and high expectations, particularly due to the writer, and the presence of Susan Hampshire. Very rapidly I became turned off by the whole thing, and quit half-way through the second episode, I just couldn't take it any more. I found the characters somehow rather repellent, and felt that the writing was just awful, particularly the extremely heavy-handed emphasis on the leering "evil brother and his nefarious deeds"; I wondered why the producers hadn't given him a long mustache to twirl! I don't mind melodrama, but this one pushed the concept over the cliff for me.