Magic Happens Here, in Miami

What is the coolest city on the planet? It's not Las Vegas, it's not San Francisco or L.A. and it's not New York. The coolest city in movies and TV is and always will be Miami, Florida. From Miami Vice to Scarface to CSI to Dexter, Miami is and has been writing the book on edgy cool. Let's recount some of Miami's coolness:

With this much cool, Magic Happens here

• It's where Jim Morrison got arrested for the 60's / 70's most legendary on-stage bad behavior.
• It's where Art Deco came to life - it is the pastels capital of the world.
• It's where the CIA has their own university.
• It's one of the few places where an alligator can walk into your backyard and eat your poodle. 
• It's where (all of) Latin America meets the US.
• It's the only US city that has its own gran prix in the downtown.
• It's where Al Capone really got caught.
• It's built on a swamp and even that is cool.
• It's where cigar boats were born (for bootlegging).
• It's actually inside of the Bermuda triangle. 
• It's where style comes to get hot.
• It's where J-lo dumped Marc Antony
• It's where Madonna did something - we're not sure - but she does live there

So, it's no surprise that another great show has built its foundation atop Miami's shifting sands. Magic City is in its second season on Starz and has proven that it has both style and substance. The show is set in the late fifties / early sixties with the Cuban revolution and Kennedys as a backdrop. It's a little like Madmen on the beach but that would not be giving it enough credit. For movie fans, it's got some interesting little nuggets, such as two of the cast members who were in the original Godfather movie and Danny Huston - grandson of the legendary director John Huston. It's got more sex (or at least as much) as Masters of Sex. It's got Olga Kurylenko who is beyond hot and a great actress to boot. It's got father against son - and slew of subplots to keep us busy for several seasons at least.

Season 2 is building an arc - the cool versus the bad...

And it's got style...

The show revolves a mythical Miami Beach hotel - something on the scale of the Fontainebleau. These hotels hosted some of the nation's first television variety series - and Miami was the place to go (before Orlando became Florida's tourist mecca) - an elite vacation destination but also a long-time haunt for the mob. It makes the perfect setting for this troubled tale of family breaking apart as ambition runs headlong into corruption. It is the end of an era and the beginning of the modern age - all wrapped together. Mitch Glazer has realized a unique vision and it is almost totally due to the mystery that is Miami.



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