THE WHITE LOTUS (2021) – The best thing on television this year!

The White Lotus from HBO is my personal favourite TV show for the year so far. It has a captivating story, superb all round performances from its cast, an incredibly insightful and hilariously written script, an infectious and haunting music score, and just simply great entertainment. It is a pity that the series only has 6 episodes as I just didn’t want it to end. The silver lining is that the series had garnered enough positive vibes to be confirmed for a second season albeit with a new cast and location.

The story takes place over a week in a luxurious beach resort in Hawaii as we follow the escapades of a selection of guests and some of the employees of the hotel. Right at the start, we are made aware of a death in the resort in a brief flash forward prologue. This sets an expectation to us that something bad is going to happen to one of the characters as the series moves along to its concluding episode. Each episode focus on what happens in a day so what we have is really a story that takes place over a course of 6 days.

The White Lotus is the brainchild of writer, producer and director, Mike White. It is a brilliant labour of love that he shares with the world an probably his best work to date. Amazingly he took just about 2 months to write the script and filmed it late last year amidst Corvid 19 SOP’s. This meant confining the plot in a single location (the resort), having a limited cast, and filming many scenes in the open air. Who knew such restrictions would be turned to the series benefit, as the natural scenery of the Maui island was spectacular above as well as below the sea level, and the Four Seasons hotel which was used as The White Lotus resort was truly magnificent. But what makes The White Lotus special is undoubtedly the vividly depicted characters. Everyone of them is uniquely interesting, and so well written they come across as being totally real and believable. Much of the dialogue and situations are laced with humour that is never forced. Mike White has a knack for drawing his ideas from conversations and personal experiences that are seem so familiar. Often the humour is subtle and at times so close to home, that he is subconsciously making us laugh at ourselves.

Underlying the story is the multiple theme and messages that Mike had infused to the plot. At the same time, there are the constant funny references to such current trends to the likes of the #metoo movements, white supremacy, cultural insensitivities, black lives matter and addition to phones. He is blessed with an amazing cast to deliver his writing. The cast is devoid of any big familiar names but yet everybody is so wonderful here. It is hard to single out who comes out the best but Murray Bartlett was brilliant as Armond, the hotel manager who always has to put on a smiling face to the guests. Connie Britton was the embodiment of the modern super efficient successful working mother, who is a workaholic and unknowingly super bossy to her family. Jennifer Coolidge’s character Tanya, is probably the one who gives us the best laughs. Her eccentric behaviour and constant need for emotional comfort is so believably played, one wonder’s if she was really acting or just playing herself here. Sydney Sweeney and Brittany O’Grady who plays teenage besties, were so deadly in their performance, they don’t even need dialogue to convey what they are thinking. Just their stare and body language speak volumes! The list goes on and on. Each actor doing their role tremendous justice, coming across as characters that are so unique, memorable and yes, loveable even with all their flaws.

I was sad to see The White Lotus end because I had gotten so attached and fond of the people there. Sort of like the feeling you get when you reluctantly depart and return home after an exceptionally great vacation. I was totally mesmerised by this series and cannot imagine anything else topping this for the rest of the year. It is television at its best and makes watching movies seem so obsolete.