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 Freezeee 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.
