What to Watch (and why?): White Lotus

HBO's beautifully subversive comic drama frames of-the-moment meta narrative against beautiful scenery

Editor’s Note: J425 launched a Culture section earlier this week. Our aim is to replicate the Lifestyle section you used to get on Thursdays or Fridays. Obviously this is a much smaller and sporadic version. Point being, when we feel strongly about some instance of television, film, music, writing or pop culture —we’ll post an article and let you know why you should check something out. And, we’ve set the bar high. We will only pass on items that we feel very strongly about. This is gonna be only the good shit. - KTH

There’s really nothing else like White Lotus, which is one strong argument for watching it. There’s several more arguments in favor, stick with me for a minute. In a nutshell, the HBO drama shows one week in the life at a specific White Lotus location. (You can basically substitute Four Seasons in for White Lotus, because that’s what it is (and where the first season is filmed at) — a highest of the high end luxury resort property.)

The bare bones of the show contrasts the life of the guests versus the life of the staff, and each season begins with a group of guests arriving at the small self-contained properties (season one is in Maui, season two is Sicily, both filmed on location) and ends with the guests leaving at the end of the week. It gives away nothing to say that both seasons also begin with a flash forward showing the discovery of an unknown dead body later in the week.

There’s tons of obvious contrasts between the ultra rich guests and the darkly comic staff: the ultra rich navigate three-xanax-level disasters like their iphone charger not fitting European outlets… while hourly staff clean rooms glancing at, say, a $450k Audemars Piguet watch strewn across the back of a chair that could set straight three generations of local inequity.

The cinematography, sets, costumes, locations and music are vibe-worthy but its the screenwriting and the acting that make White Lotus the most talked about show of 2023.

The show has a knack for rolling out every of-the-moment meta discussion you can possibly think of and hammering out both sides of the argument between ridiculously characters holding preposterous unironic viewpoints. I can’t do it justice in writing, you’ll just have to watch.

I do give you this promise: this isn’t tough medicine to swallow. It’s not high-brow New Yorker art critic shit — although it may (purposefully) be disguised as such. Nope this is stuff that everyone will enjoy, learn from, discuss later and laugh with in the moment.

White Lotus is highlighted by memorable star turns from actors Aubrey Plaza (that’s why she’s hosting tonight’s live SNL — a show I no longer watch but will check out on her behalf), Steve Zahn and — most memorably — Jennifer Coolidge as “Tanya”. You’ll know.

So check out White Lotus. Give it a few shows, at the beginning you might find it pleasant but a little numb - believe me, it picks up. And it’s definitely worth watching.