Hotel Babylon

A high-gloss series with production values just as significant as what we see on American TV, it's worth checking into Hotel Babylon if you're seeking a respite from reality--TV shows or otherwise.

Hotel Babylon is willfully bright and sexy--like the Parker's décor, it updates a '70s sensibility--but also has a nice eye for detail, good minor characters and well-flowing dialogue.

Hotel Babylon supplies an attractive cast, a cheeky attitude and just enough depth to keep you coming back for more.

Even when the guests and plots falter, the regular cast keeps the hour in painless motion.

Light and breezy, Hotel Babylon is a fairly simple conceit, built around the employees at a high-class London hotel and the guests they serve.

British reviewers pegged Hotel Babylon correctly when they called it flashy, trashy, cheeky, frothy and "like a perfectly executed souffle."

At blending comedy and drama and presenting freshly drawn characters, though, Hotel Babylon has a lot to learn from the likes of "Desperate Housewives" and "Grey's Anatomy." As a hotel, and as a TV series, put it at less than three stars.