In MGM+’s ‘Hotel Cocaine,’ the audience is shown the inner workings of the infamous Mutiny Hotel, which becomes the hub of crime and cocaine as law enforcement tries to close in on the people responsible for it all. While the men wrestle with the violence, the women of the hotel also play an integral role in how things eventually turn out. The most important of them is Janice Nichols, the manager of the “Mutiny Girls,” whose task is not just to keep them in line but also to protect them from the dangerous and predatory crowd around them. As compelling as Janice’s character is, it is not borrowed from real life.
The Fictional Janice Nichols Gives More Weight to the Mutiny Girls
‘Hotel Cocaine’ is inspired by real places and events, but many of the characters in the series and their arcs are entirely fictional. The Mutiny Hotel and its Mutiny Girls were very real. Janice Nichols, however, was cooked up by the writers of the MGM+ series to serve the plot.
The main plot revolves around Roman Compte and the mess he gets entangled in when DEA Agent Zulio forces him to snitch on his cocaine smuggler brother, Nestor Cabal. However, that still leaves Roman to run things at the highly diabolical Hotel Mutiny, where every day brings a new challenge. With so much to tackle at once, Roman finds himself stretched too thin, and this is where Janice comes into the picture. In her loyalty to Roman, she gets webbed up in the same problems he was trying to escape.
From Janice’s perspective, we get a closer look at the day-to-day operations of the Mutiny Hotel, and this is where the place really flourishes as a character of its own. While Janice might be fictional, the girls she takes care of, the problems they face, and the tasks they have to undertake are inspired by the real stuff the girls face at their workplace. The hotel was notorious for providing its guests whatever they wanted, to give them an experience tailored entirely for them, which included the services of the Mutiny girls.
The Mutiny Girls Played Several Roles at the Hotel
On the surface, the girls seemed to be dancers, and the hotel’s decoration made it look sexier. However, everything about them, from their costumes to their dances to their mannerisms, was groomed to make them more appealing to the guests. Considering the place’s clientele, the owners were also aware of the dangers the girls could find themselves in, which is why they were trained to handle sensitive situations. But it wasn’t just for their safety.
Considering the number of criminals and law enforcement officers that hung around the place, the hotel had to be cautious that things didn’t get heated up and bullets weren’t fired. The girls were taught easy-to-spot concealed weapons; the Stiletto Tap was particularly used to locate ankle holsters. Because they were so good at spotting, the clients would sometimes use them to find out if the other guy (especially someone they needed to be extra careful of) was carrying weapons. The guests also knew they could get in trouble if weapons were found on them in case the cops arrived. To save themselves, they would often hand over the weapons to the girls, who would hide them in inconspicuous places.
In the show, Janice is highly protective of the girls, and considering the things that were required of him, it makes sense that the real Mutiny Girls could have also used a protector who looked after their interests and not the hotel’s. A lot of girls flock to the hotel hoping to make good money, but they leave when they discover that the management wants to be “extra friendly” with the guests. Considering everything, the girls really weren’t safe at the hotel. In the later years, as the hotel started to struggle financially while its reputation declined, it was the murder of a Mutiny Girl, whose dead body was found wrapped in the hotel’s blankets, that confirmed for everyone that Mutiny’s days were numbered. The MGM+ series takes all of these facts and blends them with fiction to create characters like Janice, whom the audience can root for.
Read More:Hotel Cocaine: Is the Show Rooted in Reality?
