Are you watching “Magic City” on Starz? It’s my guilty pleasure, thanks in no small part to the vintage cars, dreamy music, 1950s decor, and smoldering steam that is Jeffrey Dean Morgan. This show is gorgeous.
He plays Ike Evans, owner of the luxurious Miramar Playa Hotel in Miami, Florida. Season one began on New Year’s Eve 1959, and Havana had fallen to Castro’s rebels. It’s a turbulent time in Miami, but everyone wants to be at the Miramar. The Kennedys, the mob and the CIA all hold court there, with Ike making it happen.
But to finance his dream, Ike sells his soul to mob boss Ben “The Butcher” Diamond. Ike’s wife Vera Olga Kurylenko), a former showgirl, and his three kids think he’s an honorable man, but little do they know, his life is a façade.
By day, the Miramar is all elegant events, cha-cha lessons, and lounging by the pool. By night, however, escorts have secret liaisons with husbands in the family cabanas, while Miami’s seedier residents and the law drift together to hear legendary singers, musicians and comics.
In season two, premiering June 14, 2013, Ike risks everything in a life and death battle to rid his beloved Miramar of the mob and Ben “The Butcher” Diamond, a quest which leads him to deal with a new devil — Ben’s boss in the Chicago Outfit.
Meanwhile, Vera gets a second chance at her former dancing glory, while sons Stevie and Danny drift farther from Ike — Stevie (Steven Strait) towards the power and rewards of Ben’s dark world, and Danny (Christian Cooke) into the moral righteousness of State’s Attorney Jack Klein. Changes in Castro’s Cuba ripple to the shores of Miami Beach, and a new world order begins to tear the Evans family apart.
Check out the season two trailer:
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