The White Lotus has reached consensus: It’s a series worth watching., although the second season is not as round as the first. It is a rare case, since critics and the public agree on the quality of the product created by Mike White, the screenwriter of the mythical School of Rock. This Emmy winner knows what he’s talking about when he focuses on these white millionaires who spend their vacations in five-star hotels.
If the greatest weight of the first installment fell on the Mossbacher family, and especially on the strained relationship between Olivia (Sydney Sweeney) and her best friend, Paula (Brittany O’Grady), in the continuation the best developed story is the one starring the two couples who plan to strengthen ties: Cameron (Theo James)-Daphne (Meghann Fahy) and Harper (Aubrey Plaza)-Ethan (Will Sharpe).
It is Harper who says the line that gives meaning to the entire second season. She doubts that Cameron and Daphne love each other as much as public displays of love (kisses, hugs, cuddles). “It seems prefabricated,” she blurts out to her husband, while he returns her statement and asks why that bothers her. This is how a metamessage is posed, because the question can be transferred to the public: Why do we get so involved, as spectators, in the misfortunes of all these characters?
If in the cinema, and specifically in Spain and Latin America, the gaze has always been on the drama that the poor experience -something that the soap opera has been able to exploit very well- there is a growing phenomenon in telling stories that have millionaires in the foreground. The enormous success of succession and the triumph of parasites at the Oscar they have given rise to scriptwriters to review under the stones what can be said about a world that is alien to the average citizen. Along this same line is The Menuwhich threatens to become a cult work.
Sex, drugs and rock and roll
«The first season we highlighted the money and then the second season is sexWhite told the magazine People. “And I think the third season would be maybe a kind of funny satirical look at death in Eastern religion and spirituality; looks like it could be a rich tapestry to do another round on White Lotus.”
Indeed. While it is true that money permeates all production, in the latest installment there is a review, especially for men, of how we relate to sex. For this reason, among the choral cast there are two young people who take advantage of their precious genes to achieve different objectives: a position to sing in a hotel and feed the bank accounts to buy in luxury designer stores.
These two women end relationships with three men from the same family: grandfather, father and son. These three individuals travel to Italy with the goal of meeting their ancestors, but, as often happens with this type of search, the result is not as expected. However, the journey works to understand how the old generations connect -or not- with the new ones and how the conception of love, happiness, fidelity and, above all, affective responsibility, can be inherited… or not.
Of course, the showgirl from the second season is Tanya, a character who has given her a revival the charismatic Jennifer Coolidge, remembered for her role as cougars in American Pie. For those who watched the first season, it is interesting to follow the path and closure of a character who ended up becoming the director’s most beloved, as he himself accepts in the interview with Peoplebut also the audience.
However, again, it is in the relationship between the two couples that the series white lotus Get your highest points. And it is so because he questions the viewer. What is to be happy? Is honesty in a couple what guarantees love or is it precisely knowing how to keep certain things to yourself that allows passion not to go out?
Fortunately, the series does not advise, something that is appreciated in these times of political correctness and moral dictatorship. White only exposes that life is much more complex than Pictoline’s summaries. The human being is complex and it is this complexity that we see in the series, yes, among people who have overwhelming economic solvency. To cite an example: at a certain moment a character is scammed out of 50,000 euros, and the loss is not even discussed among those involved.
So the interesting thing about White Lotus is that we follow live what gave the title to a great Mexican novel: “The rich also cry.” Really the spectators are happy to see them tear up. But White doesn’t give in to corniness. Although he knows and exposes that any human being is at the mercy of passions and defects, he emphasizes that there is a big difference between doing it with a zero account and wiping away tears knowing that savings and properties continue to generate interest.
‘The White Lotus’: why we love it so much that the rich suffer?