105
TimeOff Reviews
TELEVISION
Vacation, all they
never wanted
By Judy Berman
vacation is no panacea. it’s a break from work, sure,
for those who can log off. But our real troubles, the ones that
infect our most intimate relationships, can’t be checked at the
front desk of any five-star hotel. They follow us, like human
remains in the cargo hold of a plane packed with tourists.
This grim metaphor constitutes the opening scene of
The White Lotus, a darkly funny, existentially terrifying HBO
miniseries from writer, director and actor Mike White. In a
Hawaii airport, a couple interrogates a somber-looking man
(affable Jake Lacy in frat-boy mode) about his honeymoon at
the White Lotus resort. “Our guide told us someone was killed
there!” the woman exclaims. Yes, says the groom; the body is
being loaded onto the plane. Then they ask where his bride is.
Though it’s tempting to theorize, the show takes its time re-
turning to who died and how. Flashing back to a week earlier,
it follows a handful of VIPs—including Lacy’s Shane and his
wife, struggling journalist Rachel (Alexandra Daddario)—at
the resort. If the newlyweds bring their incompatibility as bag-
gage, then weepy Tanya (an astounding Jennifer Coolidge)
has only her mother’s ashes to declare. Trailing powerful ex-
ecutive Nicole (Connie Britton) are her emasculated husband
Mark (Steve Zahn), their screen-addicted teen son Quinn
(Fred Hechinger) and their snarky socialist daughter Olivia
(Euphoria’s Sydney Sweeney), who’s brought a college pal
(Brittany O’Grady). The girls are as hypocritical (Olivia calls
Hillary Clinton “a neolib and a neocon”) as they are hilarious.
Coordinating their stay is resort manager Armond (Murray
Bartlett). Smooth with guests and exacting but philosophical
with staff, he starts to unravel when a new hire goes into labor.
Armond’s idea of good service is aptly
infantilizing. Guests, he says, “get every-
thing they want, but they don’t even
know what they want.” No one under-
stands this better than spa director
Belinda (Natasha Rothwell), whose com-
passion charms Tanya.
Yes, This is a hell-is-other-people
story. What makes it thrilling is the way
it filters that conceit through White’s
singular sensibility. Like his previous
HBO show, cult classic Enlightened,
The White Lotus is uniquely attuned to
characters’ internal conficts, their vary-
ing levels of self-awareness and how
that inner life shapes their interactions.
Shane has no idea he’s a jerk. Tanya
knows she’s a disaster and tries to warn
others. Staffers don’t have the freedom
to blurt out their own private thoughts.
It’s when the appetites and resentments
they’ve repressed come to the surface
that the White Lotus spins out of control.
There are political elements at play.
While the guests are mostly white and
straight, the staff is Indigenous, Black
and queer. The lofty principles charac-
ters espouse dovetail conveniently with
their own self-interest; Olivia clearly
bashes Hillary to rile her mom. But
would she or any of the guests truly give
up their privilege if given the chance?
For all its insight, The White Lotus
is still a summer-vacation romp. It uses
the Polynesian backdrop to its fullest;
in a luau sequence, the drums and danc-
ing heighten the intensity and absurdity
of each dinner conversation. The finely
tuned performances heighten the plea-
sure. Much of the humor comes from
having characters so vivid, we can sense
when they’re struggling to maintain out-
ward calm while raging internally.
It’s an approach Succession fans will
surely appreciate. If the butt of that
show’s jokes is corporate decadence,
then White, who brings more empathy
to his satire, has equally profound things
to say about the politics of leisure. Even
better: he never makes getting to those
revelations feel like work.
THE WHITE LOTUS premieres July 11 on HBO
◁ The long-suffering staff of the White Lotus
(including Bartlett, far left, and Rothwell,
center) greets the latest boatload of guests
‘Death is the
end of life;
ah, why/
Should
life all
labour be?’
ALFRED LORD
TENNYSON,
in “The Lotos-
Eaters,” as quoted in
The White Lotus
HBO
