It was revealed today that “Casa Grande,” a gritty bilingual limited series examining the compelling, everyday realities and conflicts between California’s hardworking, often undocumented migrant workforce and the wealthy landowners who reap the profits, will stream exclusively on Amazon Freevee in the U.S.
Created by Lauren Swickard (“A California Christmas”) and Ali Afshar, the ensemble cast of “Casa Grande” includes John Pyper-Ferguson (“The 100,” “Suits”), Christina Moore (“That ‘70s Show,” “90210”), Madison Lawlor (“Juniper”), Karen Bethzabe (“Babylon”), Javier Bolaños (“All American”), Raquel Dominguez (“Chicago Med”), James Marsters (“Buffy The Vampire Slayer”), Emmy-winner Kate Mansi (“Days of Our Lives”), Daniel Edward Mora (“Coco”), Loren Escandon (“The Baxters”), and Ali Afshar (“He’s Just Not That Into You”).
“Casa Grande” follows the intertwining lives of various families in the farmlands of Northern California. It’s an upstairs/downstairs story transposed from turn-of-the century English countryside to rural America. The show uses the framework of conventional character drama to explore universal themes of class, immigration, culture, and family.
The grand theme is that of peeling back the curtain on how the machine we all live in runs: The glimmering, upper-crust culture could not exist without the unyielding, backbreaking, labor of the socially invisible migrant workforce laboring behind the scenes. With the Clarkman Farm and its neighboring property, Dalton Farm, employing, housing, and feeding much of the Mendocino County’s undocumented immigrants, “Casa Grande” explores the dramatic, truth of our country’s allure for immigrants and what mankind will endure for a taste of the American dream.
“Casa Grande” is directed by award-winning Latin filmmaker Gabriela Tagliavini (“Despite Everything”) and written by Alex Ranarivelo, Michael Cruz, and Lauren Swickard, who also serves as the series showrunner. Series executive producers are Ava Rettke and Daniel Aspromonte.
All five one-hour episodes of the English and Spanish language limited series will premiere on Monday, May 1, 2023, exclusively on Freevee in the U.S.
Ali Afshar said, “We molded ‘Casa Grande’ as a Hispanic-influenced ‘Yellowstone’ and feel the story will resonate powerfully with audiences appreciating elevated western themes and cultures presented through a different prism. Amazon Freevee is the perfect service for audiences to discover and binge the world of ‘Casa Grande’ where the intensity never lets up and the traditional good vs. evil trope becomes skewed and more challenging to accept.”
“I’m immensely proud of the ‘Casa Grande’ team for bringing authenticity to the forefront in ESX Entertainment’s debut series,” added Lauren Swickard. “Now more than ever, it’s important to deliver powerful, genuine stories and ‘Casa Grande’ does just that. By touching on real-life themes related to family, class, culture and the never-ending pursuit of the American dream, our multi-layered narrative will captivate audiences of all backgrounds.”
“Our ensemble cast of ‘Casa Grande’ is made of rich and in-depth characters from both Latin and
American families as they toil with the pressures of old tradition versus the promises of the new,” stated Ava Rettke. “We hope this will resonate as much with our audiences as it has with the filmmakers and real-life farmers and landowners with whom we worked closely to make this series.”
“Casa Grande” is the debut series from Ali Afshar’s ESX Entertainment, which is known for its popular holiday hits on Netflix and HBO Max, including “A California Christmas,” “I Believe in Santa,” “Holiday Harmony” featuring Brooke Shields, and “A Christmas Mystery” starring Violet McGraw (M3gan).
Amazon Freevee is a streaming video service with thousands of premium movies and TV shows available within Prime Video and through the standalone Freevee app on Fire TV, Fire tablets and many third-party devices.
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