White Lotus has returned, baby. And just like last time, a group of guests came to the resort with much luggage: adultery, sex addiction, an unhappy marriage and of course a mysterious corpse. This time, the film is set in Sicily, with no-nonsense hotel manager Valentina (Sabrina Impacciatore) and her subordinate Rocco (Federico Ferrante) trying (and failing) to avoid disaster at every turn. .
Who is real star of White Lotus? except Jennifer Coolidge, who returned as neurotic millionaire Tanya McQuoid, the show’s cast changes from season to season. So far, we’ve seen guests from Theo James’s (probably fake) penis, Laura Dern’s voice screams down the phone and Will Sharpe’s photoshopped abs. But the most important of them all is The White Lotus hotel. Regardless of the location, it is a place where wealth, beauty and suffering go hand in hand, where there is a nagging feeling that all is not as it seems and that something terrible awaits. waiting around the corner—maybe even In the next room.
The hotel is having a small screen moment. In July, Resort—a dark comedy mystery series that explores an unsolved crime set in a luxury Mayan Riviera resort—shows on Peacock. In 2021, by Hulu The Nine Perfect Strangers—with yoga retreat leader turned drug addict Nicole Kidman and a very suspicious Russian accent—received mixed reviews. Previously, Lady Gaga made her television debut In American Horror Story: Hotelwhere she plays “Countess” (no, it’s not Countess Luann de Lesseps), there is another highlight that is almost impossible to set. And who can forget Schitt . Creek? The sitcom follows a formerly wealthy family living in a rundown hotel in a forgotten town, capturing hearts and minds in the process.
American Horror Story: Hotel
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White Lotus Bringing the hotel’s clear narrative benefits to the forefront. It looks nice, but the hotel is a “pressure cooker” environment where different characters are thrown at each other, with all of their personal problems clashing and intertwined. They may be trying to leave their movie at home, but that’s why they call it “emotional baggage”.
Hotels are often the setting for dramatic and epiphany moments. In the last episode of Sex and the cityCarrie was in a luxury hotel room when she realized that Aleksandr Petrovsky was not the man for her. “I am someone who is looking for love. True love! Love is ridiculous, inconvenient, consuming, can’t live without each other,” she told him. “And I don’t think love is here to stay in an expensive room in this lovely hotel in Paris.”
Above Friend, Monica and Chandler first have sex in a London hotel room while attending Ross’ doomed wedding to Emily. And Rachel and Joey’s brief foray into romance – one of the most hated storylines in television history – also began in a hotel room in Barbados. Obviously, taking the characters out of their surroundings, to a place with a free bar, room service, and time to reflect on their life choices, allows the screenwriters to be apple more violent.
White Lotus is the latest in a long string of TV shows that have attempted to distract the wealthy. Are from heir arrive Billions, The Undoing and HBO Gossip Girl restart—following wealthy kids on the East Side, whose language fluency “tests their privilege”—American television criticizes wealth like never before. (While still celebrating – this is America, after all.)
White lotus’ The hotel is central to the show’s exploration of wealth and power. The characters all seem different, but are held together by the fact that they can afford a luxury vacation. Within the confines of luxury resorts, we see class-specific dynamics at play between staff and guests: the brutality of how the rich use money to protect themselves from the consequences and often mean must act according to basic courtesy. In Season 1, Belinda’s heartbreaking storyline — which ends with her dreams of owning her own spa being snuffed out — has viewers screaming “cannibals rich!” series. And this year, Coolidge’s character is inflicting the same misery on her assistant Portia (Haley Lu Richardson).
The idea of “trouble in heaven” is part of the making White lotus’ hotel such an attractive location—in terms of entertainment value. The first two seasons both begin with the reveal of a corpse, a mystery that lingers throughout the episodes as we try to figure out their final ride.
The idea that luxury may not be as enviable as it looks has also dominated reality television lately. More and more weird dating shows are set on the desert island, Bravo .’s superyacht actual franchise Below the tableand infamous Cast the trip on Real housewives, where women go to drink martinis and ruin each other’s lives. We also see this idea in hotels set in movies, from Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of Stephen King’s novel. shine to Wes Anderson’s whodunnit Grand Budapest Hotel. It gets to the point that if you introduce the hotel scene to the audience, they will immediately assume that something bad is going to happen.
But White Lotus Thrives on a sense of escapism too. Staying in a five-star hotel is an experience many will never have, and it’s no coincidence that the first season became hugely popular during the pandemic when most people (except for the Kardashians, of course) cannot travel. Similar to TV shows like Sunset sale or heir, White Lotus gives us a satisfying mix of beautiful, decadent surroundings and unhappy, flawed people. Because if we are going to watch these rich people with perfect bodies dance around a beautiful cliffside resort in Sicily, experiencing the trip of our dreams, we want to bask in the illusion that I will have a great trip. much better times if we were them.
The White Lotus Hotel presents familiar dilemmas year after year. Last season, we saw spoiled MAGA honeymooner Shane (Jake Lacy) develops an obsession with his room. He is locked in a battle with the hotel manager Armond (Murray Bartlett) after repeated requests to be moved to an even more colorful, ornately decorated place. This year, Dominic (Michael Imperioli) finds himself in a similarly tense moment with Valentina, after asking two local prostitutes to be allowed into his room.
As a space, The White Lotus hotel has its own language, like a shorthand easy to understand for viewers. The front desk is where staff and guests squabble, while, outside, shared breakfasts have become a recognizable part of both seasons. Next to the eggs and fruit, in front of the beautiful scenery, the guests talked (and judged) each other. Pools and sun loungers are places for guests to socialize and mingle—often with really great results, such as when journalist Rachel (Alexandra Daddario) tried to spread out by the pool with Nicole (Connie Britton), a GirlBoss CFO that she accidentally defamed in an article.
Sailing to the hotel has become another custom of the show. In the opening moments of Season 2, Coolidge’s Tanya gets off a boat in Sicily, wearing giant sunglasses that look more expensive than the average monthly rent. In fact, she’s the star of the show’s rotating cast, but The White Lotus hotel has a constant feel, drawing on influences from both classic and modern pop culture. Like so many of television’s most iconic protagonists, White lotus’ The hotel is beautiful, mysterious, and a bit scandalous—and that’s why it’s the best character on TV right now.
