Now streaming on HBO Max, The White Lotus is a satirical anthology series set in a chain of luxury resorts. White Lotus is what the chain is called, and it operates hotels in such exotic destinations as Maui in Hawaii (the setting for season 1), Sicily in Italy (season 2), and Phuket in Thailand (season 3). Reportedly, a fourth season is about to start filming in the French Riviera.
As each season is in different location, a new cast is introduced, though Jennifer Coolidge (as neurotic guest) and Natasha Rothwell (as spa manager) reprise their roles in seasons 2 and 3, respectively.
The name White Lotus was chosen perhaps to allude to famous resorts named after plants, yet I tend to believe it was named after the show’s creator, writer, and director, Mike White. If this were true, he earned the right. He wrote a funny and ultimately tragic commentary on the trashy nouveau riche, and how they seduce and exploit the lower classes, mainly the hotel staff.
The social message is told in an entertaining way. Mike White lures us with beautiful settings, luxurious surroundings, and an attractive cast garbed in stylish designer clothes. But it’s when they took off their clothes that the show became an internet sensation. Like in Ryan Murphy’s productions, male frontal nudity is de rigueur. Patrick Schwarzenegger, son of Arnold, made internet headlines when he took it all off in the third season. Most of the ladies in the cast, however, remain…. ladies.
Controversial storylines have also made the show hot copy for media, most notably the incestuous relationship between two brothers in the third season (one is played by Schwarzenegger). There’s a gay love scene in each season, and also the usual threesomes. Other storylines have a Sex and the City ring to it (three women of a certain age vacation in Thailand). Another carries a Daphne de Muirer vibe: A lonely personal assistant (Haley Lu Richardson) slaving it for a high-maintenance matron (Jennifer Coolidge).
Each group of guests has separate storylines, much like in The Love Boat and Fantasy Island.
The sex scenes have been hogging the limelight, and they’ve overshadowed the fact that the show on its own is very good. Mike White has a clever way of winning over his audience and keeping them glued to the point of binging on an entire season in just one sitting. The first 10 minutes of a season’s first installment involves a corpse. Cause of death and identity won’t be revealed, not until the season’s last episode. Now this isn’t exactly a whodunit; it’s just that somebody in the hotel is bound to wind up dead after a week of excessive eating, loving, and no praying.
It aces by The Triangle of Sadness in depicting self-indulgent mean girls, neurotic karens, and virulently woke zoomers
So meanwhile, the show uses flashbacks to the previous week, when the guests for the season arrive by boat. The hotel staff is prepped to welcome them. Every arriving guest is met with trepidation. This is the Hollywood version of The Triangle of Sadness, which is aced by The White Lotus in depicting self-indulgent mean girls, neurotic karens, and virulently woke zoomers.
They’re all strictly new money, but White gives them such juicy dialogue, we can’t help but watch with fascination. In one scene, a haughty guest (played by Molly Shannon), who barged in on her son’s honeymoon in Maui, is shown to be a malicious gossip. She does marvel at the hotel’s interiors during breakfast with her son (Jack Lacey) and new daughter-in-law (Alexandra Daddario): “What a beautiful dining room,” she remarks to her son while ignoring her working class daughter-in-law. “Doesn’t it remind you of the heritage house we stayed at in Manila?” (I’ll take what she said at face value, with not a whit of sarcasm attached.)
Primarily because it’s set in the beautiful island of Sicily, the second season is more enjoyable than the first. Two of the guests are also actually amiable: an American Italian (F. Murray Abraham) and his typically Zoomer grandson (Adam di Marco). They’ve traveled to Sicily in search of relatives. It was interesting to see Abraham, who won the Oscar for playing Salieri in Amadeus, share one scene with Will Sharpe, who plays Mozart in HBO’s unnecessary Amadeus remake.
The third is the best because we’re in familiar territory, Thailand. It also has a charming resort staff we could root for. The romance between the resort’s security guard (Tayme Thapthimthong) and a pretty cultural dancer is heartwarming.
Yet all for the hype The White Lotus has received, the fictional resorts aren’t where I’d spend a fortune to stay a week in. The locations do look like paradise on earth. They did always film at The Four Seasons. But as written, the staff isn’t as gracious as they should be. Just two years ago, I was fortunate enough to be on a media trip to the Sheraton Mactan. The kind of welcome we received in that resort puts the White Lotus to shame.
And it seems HBO isn’t one to cast big-name stars in its shows. Netflix can corral Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, and Isabelle Adjani to star in a series like The Perfect Couple. Even the old Love Boat had a glittering manifest in every episode, from legendary Oscar winners (Olivia de Havilland, Ray Milland) to future Oscar winners (Jaime Lee Curtis, Tom Hanks). It’s not that the actual cast in The White Lotus is inadequate; they’re brilliant in their roles. It’s just that they don’t make much of an impact. Dramatic entrances are rare in The White Lotus.
Of the actors who appeared in the show, it’s Jason Isaacs (season 3) and Jennifer Coolidge who stand out. As a Wall Street hotshot facing arrest for insider trading, Isaacs is strong yet sympathetic. He’s so moving as the desperate family man whose self-centered wife and kids remain impervious to his dilemma.
Murray Bartlett, as the unreliable drug-addicted resort manager in Maui, is a complete riot. At a certain point, he uses a guest’s open suitcase for his personal toilet—his revenge on that guest for getting him fired. As far as I can tell, no CGI or stunt double was used. The scene looked so real. So unparalleled is Bartlett’s dedication to his craft!
