The White Lotus

No clue why this has been so low rated. The first episode was great and sounds we have another HBO good series.
If you like drama, thriller and comedy don't miss this one.

It is rare for me to recommend television series because many shows do not intrigue me; in other words, I am a cinephile. When I recommend a series, it should mean significantly to the reader's interest. In the case of The White Lotus, it is not merely a superb miniseries, but it is a major comeback for its creator Mike White. White's last two efforts--Beatriz at Dinner and Brad's Status--were thematically shallow. Since it includes six episodes, White can develop each plot thread completely for the audience to grasp the complexity of his characters. The White Lotus concerns a wealthy group of guests at a Hawaiian hotel--The White Lotus--who enact or endure troubles during their trip for the hotel's employees. White begins his narrative with a clip from its ending to acknowledge a murder--like Big Little Lies. The initial question for the viewers is who the victim and killer are, but the mystery is the human behavior White examines. As a satire of classism, White humorously acknowledges the generational and ideological hypocrisies of the elite--specifically a family. White's writing has the kind of sociopolitical intelligence Luis Buñuel would respect. White derives his humor from a state of awkwardness, but he is never smug towards his characters. Whether they are amiable or obnoxious, there is a strange beauty to how White's satire causes audiences to care about these characters. Each performer--young and old--delivers the performance of their career. Jennifer Coolidge's performance, in particular, is hilariously manic and deeply moving in equal measure as a woman dealing with her traumatic past. As the series evolves, audiences witness the characters at their best and worst, and they are always believable due to the ensemble and White's astute writing. With The White Lotus, White successfully writes jokes with an undercurrent of tragedy, and the result is an oddly affecting achievement.

Side note:
I am unsure how to feel about this transforming into an anthology series.

only show i’ve ever tolerated watching weekly

Great first season, but true pain left behind my eyes

my wife and I started with Season 1 loves all the story line came with it. technically started slow but good.Well w
e we started the second season it was captivating we binched watch. Entertainment at its best

Why is this show so awkward?! i cant stop watching hahaha

Absolutely loved it! It's great for a binge watch, and kept me up far too late. I don't think it would be as good if waiting a week for each episode, hence other bad reviews. I am exciting for season 2 to finish so I can binge watch that too. I found it to be entertaining, amusing, shocking, surprising, educational, relevant and rather addictive,and thought provoking. Everything I love in a drama! Bring me loads more seasons... PLEASE!!

A really enjoyable, and in some ways quite traditional, social satire about race and class. This is very much a satire in the ironic and social type sense rather than a laugh out loud funny satire, even if it does have its moments. Because of the closed hotel set it really has a theatrical feel to it, and feels like draws from some of the drawing room social satires written in the early 20th century. But that traditional feel is infused with with a larger cast, and some of the ambivalences and ambiguities of contemporary television that HBO has done so much to develop in the last twenty years. Because of this you don't get the simple moral anarrative pay off that you might have gotten from those plays, but you do get a very interesting exploration about the nature of exploitation, both the environment and of people, without the show explicitly explaining who is exploiting whom. The cast are excellent, but special mention to Jennifer Coolidge who steals every scene she is in.

Both seasons are great in their own way. Second season delves much more into the sexual profligacy and perversion of rich people, than the first. The first season shows the pettiness and selfish nature of the wealthy class, while they put on the facade of charitable individuals. One could say these characters are the caricatures of what poor people think what the rich really are. But I think there's a lot of truth in everything shown.

This show always leaves me wanting more...

To pass the time before episode 3 comes out, I'll speculate about some of the characters' arc. Please feel free to reply or debate, if you'd like!

- Albi and Portia? [spoiler]He's almost too good to be true, c'mon. I don't really believe the whole spiel about "only being attracted to pretty wounded birds", right after implying that "he's a nice guy" and that "girls don't really like him for that reason". Plus, Portia's already been pretty upfront about wanting to just have fun, soooo my guess is that they're maybe gonna get together, only for her to leave him because she doesn't want anything serious. He's gonna get revenge by divulging everything she confessed to him about her boss, knowing that she signed an NDA.[/spoiler]
- Tanya and her husband? [spoiler]Ok, we already know that he's - allegedly - cheating. She's gonna come out of it unscathed, as rich people usually do. We're just gonna have to see what/if she does anything to hurt him back, though.[/spoiler]
- Harper, Ethan, Cameron & Daphne? [spoiler]It's pretty clear that Cameron is a sleazebag and only wants one thing from Harper, who, annoying though she might be, was right all along about him and his wife. I don't yet get Ethan's motives for hanging out with him, but he might just surprise us! Cameron and Daphne remind me of that rich couple from The Great Gatsby who end up messing up Gatsby's life, only to run away without a care in the world.[/spoiler]

Oh, and let's NOT forget about [spoiler]all those dead bodies floating in the sea from the first episode...[/spoiler] Just who might they be??