There’s a new, compelling series on Amazon, but will you be able to stand an entire episode?
We’re not talking about “The Man in the High Castle” or even “The Tick.”
It’s “Another Dirty Room” from producers Dan Bell, Will Krupinsky and Rick Serra.
The series focuses on seemingly the worst hotel/motel rooms found through online reviews.
If one of those producers sounds familiar, it's because we profiled Bell's earlier work — "Dead Mall Series" on YouTube — to help illustrate how retail nationwide is struggling.
While his last series might give you new appreciation for the still-alive-and-thriving Tacoma Mall, this latest program might prompt you to either A, clean house; or B, take a shower.
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Season 1, now on Amazon, looks at hotels in Maryland, Michigan, and New Jersey. To be clear, these are not five-star lodgings.
“See the stains, bugs, trash and filth careless owners ignore while conning their unsuspecting guests with fake reviews, no refund policies and other nonsense,” the series says in an advertising blurb on Amazon.
The stars of this series primarily are bedbugs and various bodily fluid stains on every surface imaginable.
A distributor is managing the series on Amazon, according to Bell.
“We haven’t inked anything exclusive with Amazon,” he said Monday in a phone interview. “Future episodes of the show will be made available on Amazon as they are released. We’ll see what happens.”
And, Bell still works the “Dead Mall” franchise. In another twist of the retail saga, that series, too, may appear on Amazon later this year.
His new series started after Bell had two terrible hotel experiences.
“So I put the video together on YouTube and called it, ‘Another Dirty Room’ ... and the video just blew up,” he said. “It ended up on Reddit and was everyplace.”
It was a presto moment for Bell, who wanted to do a show “where we do a forensic investigation of the room.”
“My original idea was to have Will and I stay in the room overnight and experience that ... with the bedbugs chewing on us, and Will said, ‘I’m not doing that.’ ”
After the video appearing online, “The response was great, and by the time we got to 10 episodes things started to go insane,” Bell said. “It has a cult following. We have a great fan base.”
Their mode of operation is to go, record and leave for the nearest Hampton Inn.
“It’s like the Taj Mahal,” Bell said.
They get their ideas of places to film based on reviews on Yelp, Google Reviews, and TripAdvisor.
“We look for the worst we can find,” Bell said. “... sometimes (a hotel) has bad reviews and then it’s not that bad. Then other places you go and it’s just shocking.”
Worst things found so far? “A bag of used syringes under a mattress and a bag of cocaine.” Also, a urine-soaked mattress.
“Sometimes people think this can’t be real,” Bell said, “and when people see it they think, ‘This has gotta be fake.’ But I’m very insistent everything is legit. I’m always telling the others: Do not look under bed or do anything until we’re filming.”
Bell said the trio now is on Episode 14 of Season 2. Up next: Scenes from bad rooms in Florida.
Will he ever film in Tacoma or Washington state?
“There are dumps there!” he exclaims. “But it doesn’t matter where you go. They are everywhere.”
The Youtube channel "Another Dirty Room" now has a distributor managing the series on Amazon, produced by Dan Bell, Will Krupinsky and Rick Serra. Courtesy Dan Bell, Will Krupinsky and Rick Serra
Trending headlines:
- Student finds loophole in professor's exam instructions, becomes internet hero
- Did viewers boycott Sunday's Seahawks game? Here's the ratings
- 'He's been baiting us to chase him:' Auburn police search for armed, reckless biker
- Seattle budget addresses Amazon, homelessness
- Are NFL players required to stand for the national anthem?