White Lotus
Regular readers will know that I am very allergic to following trends for movies and tv shows. I almost never watch Oscar winners, for instance, because I almost never like them. So, when my dentist told me with great excitement to watch White Lotus I resisted the urge for weeks. We have a history of recommendations, where I bring her a couple of titles I’ve (probably) reviewed and know she very likely will not have even heard of it, much less watched it. She totally gathers her video fan family around and they always watch what I tell them to, which is massively satisfying, and also leaves me owing her. I had to watch White Lotus.
I went into the show almost completely blank slate about what it is beyond knowing it was about rich people. The White Lotus on the show is an international, luxury hotel chain and each series follows the stories of guests and to a lesser extent, staff. Season one is set on Maui, not that I’ve ever watched it, because Max decided I wanted to begin with season three. I didn’t notice until we had binged half the season and decided to just stay with the characters we were used to. Every year there is the arrival episode, where that year’s characters and plotlines are introduced, along with the hotel space and employees. The guests’ storylines are told both as intertwined plots and individual stories of people or couples or family units, and then someone dies at the end of the last episode. I hadn’t realized, until doing a little research, that there are related storylines each year. Thailand as the most recent setting feels like it magnified the privilege and wealth aspect. After sampling the first two seasons I’m glad I started with three, mainly because of the more lush lifestyle displayed at that White Lotus.
Google calls the show a black comedy drama, but either I’ve totally lost my sense of humor or I don’t appreciate their type of comedy, even black comedy, because the show does not strike me as funny at all. The season I watched has what should have been a lot of very interesting characters but I never bonded with any of them and only kept watching out of curiosity for where everyone ends up. The acting all around is first rate and the interweaving of the plotlines is well done. This season’s death caught me by surprise, which it may not have if I had been watching before, but it didn’t make me feel anything beyond that surprise. I don’t know if that’s an issue with the writing or a personal thing. There is also a different cultural feel to each season, if I’m reading the room right. Italy seemed way more wide open and dangerous in a different way than the somewhat claustrophobic dangers of Thailand. Or maybe it was just the bigger differences between the mostly well heeled Caucasian guests in an Asian milieu. I might have to read about that subject if I can find something because I felt the cultural differences between seasons/hotel locations is probably the most interesting aspect.
If you don’t mind watching the super popular show of the moment, give this one a chance. The seasons are short, the acting is solid, and the locations are varied. Each anthology has some things in common, like the arrival episode, and there is a wee bit of carryover from one year to the next. I think I liked it? I feel like I could easily have stopped watching before the end, but I don’t mind that I finished.
Triggers: graphic sex, drug use, violence The White Lotus –
Available on: Max, YouTube primetime, The Roku Channel premium, Fandango at Home, Hulu, Sling TV, amazon prime, apple tv
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Hmm… I might watch this. However in the above trailer it looks like an elephant is crying so I am gutted and I hope that if that elephant is crying someone rescued it either in character/story of in real life or both. I also really hope that was just water and the elephant is fine and happy.
So maybe.
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