The White Lotus

If you watched episode one of The White Lotus and thought, "Yes, quite good, but I'm not feeling the five-star ravings I've heard about it," then I say this: keep the faith and rest assured that it gets stonkingly good very soon. I have watched all six and, trust me, you're in for a treat.

Even in this nightmarish vision of paradise, there are plenty of human remains, and this sharp, funny series, quite possibly the comedy of the year so far, is all the richer for it.

Welcome to “Upstairs, Downstairs,” Aloha State edition. The series, called “The White Lotus,” named for the fictional resort where the action takes place, is a near-note-perfect tragicomedy. ... The actors are excellent across the board, but Bartlett, whose practiced amiability turns progressively feral throughout the series, is a revelation.

The White Lotus isn’t insisting itself as a state of the nation satire but White’s deft and unforgiving writing manages what so many others have tried and failed to do in the last five years. He’s created a deeply funny and bracingly topical piece of art that prods and provokes without preaching. His show says more about class, sex and race because it’s not directly about those issues, remembering, vitally, that to send a message, one has to package it well.

White’s latest work is also an ensemble showcase with a handful of unforgettable performances — Bartlett and Jennifer Coolidge top among them — as well as a paradox unto itself, in that it’s extremely addictive and consistently uncomfortable. Conceived and shot during the pandemic, “The White Lotus” is many things, but it’s nothing short of a marvel.

Alternately hilarious and unsettling, “The White Lotus” isn’t a feel-good watch, but it is a must-watch.

The White Lotus is one of the funniest, most addictive, and most unusual miniseries to come out from HBO in quite some time. The White Lotus doesn’t just herald White’s welcome return to HBO, it’s also the perfect hysterically bizarre summer series to get lost in.

“The White Lotus” sneaks essential questions in between the laughs. It is certainly among the year’s best TV offerings.

It’s to the credit of White and the wonderfully well-chosen cast that we keep watching, even knowing that these guests are probably not going to find much self-awareness. ... The splendid cast is led by Bartlett, who makes Armond’s growing resentment a volatile partner to his put-a-smile-on-everything professional demeanor. Rothwell emerges as the heart and soul of the series. ... Coolidge is outstanding, as she makes Tanya’s stunted emotional life kind of sympathetic. Britton and Zahn are pitch-perfect as a couple with their own challenges.

This series is a sharply etched satire of classism and white privilege, as well as a deft exploration of the power dynamics that define every relationship between and among the guests and staff in this upscale paradise. ... Armond’s behavior, like that of almost every character in The White Lotus, could and may launch a thousand think pieces, which is a testament to the serrated edges in White’s writing and the fantastic actors that make up the cast.

If you're itching for a tropical vacation, The White Lotus might cool those jets. The latest product from the dark and twisty mind of Mike White ("Enlightened") deals with class in a way few recent TV productions have, in an edgy, engrossing six-part HBO limited series that follows multiple stories in a kind of modern "Upstairs, Downstairs" fashion.

A darkly hilarious, existentially terrifying HBO miniseries. ... Yes, this is a hell is other people story. What makes it not just fresh, but thrilling is the way that Sartrean conceit gets filtered through the distinctive tragicomic sensibility of White.

As its characters circle the collective emotional drain, however, the show builds an undeniably hypnotizing whodunit with no ready conclusions. ... The entire cast pulls its weight, but “The White Lotus” leaps into a whole other gear when centering its two smartest performances. ... Bartlett and Coolidge are exceptional as they embrace every twisted knot of conflict inherent in their roles. As Armand’s and Tanya’s behavior reaches manic heights, the performances grounding them become ever more mesmerizing.

Some of the year's best television thus far. ... White has a deft way of interweaving storylines so they never feel contrived, and he gives everyone who appears multiple moments of first-rate comedy. The roving camerawork (by Ozark cinematographer Ben Kutchins) and tribal score (by Hunters composer Cristobal Tapia de Veer) contribute to the show's polish.

For fans of White's deathly sharp comedy, "Lotus" is a triumphant, deliriously funny satire of the privileged classes against a gorgeous backdrop. For those who don't know White well, it's an exuberant comedy that might introduce them to his other work, such as Laura Dern's HBO vehicle "Enlightened."

The series is less a situational comedy about the stress of vacation than a satire on white American privilege. But it’s one in which the laughs are often supplanted by intimations of a barely obscured and gathering darkness, and in which the plot often appears subordinate to the seductive atmosphere of Disneyfied decadence gradually sliding into degradation.

“The White Lotus” plods through its first episode — a cringe-worthy luau of misery — but the longer viewers sit with the show, the better and more engrossing it becomes.

The show is must-see TV, an incisive look into the psyches of the rich and the damage they leave in their wake.

In this self-dissection of wealthy Caucasian self-awareness, some subplots are just navel-gazing. ... Still, I got wrapped up in the dreamy dramedy. Looking's Bartlett stuns as a tightly wound perfectionist falling way off the wagon. Rothwell, hysterical on Insecure, goes 180 degrees as a wellness worker bee carrying the weight of moneyed sorrow. Coming off The Handmaid's Tale, Sharp Objects, and Euphoria, Sweeney confirms herself as the generational representative for soulful perversity.

The White Lotus isn’t quite a must-watch just yet, but if the hype from across the Atlantic is to be believed, the stage is set for one of the most intriguing series of the year.

White uses sly humor throughout the series and gets his best results from Bartlett, who unravels in unusual ways. He captures the manager’s approach beautifully and has plenty of fun getting even.

The White Lotus should be an interesting six-hour look at how privileged people mess things up with that privilege. It’s a fine marriage of smart writing and a fantastic cast.

It’s a lot of people to keep track of, yet White’s writing and direction intertwine their stories in an ambitious, novelistic manner. There’s the morbid fun of trying to guess who dies and how, as well as the subtler work of understanding these characters, none of whose behaviors are easy to predict.

The cast is all aces, upstairs and downstairs, embracing the beautiful character ambiguity woven into White’s script. ... Go in expecting a pleasing, intelligent, and well-paced romp, one that definitely won’t make you miss overseas travel.

“The White Lotus” could use more attention to the downstairs half of its upstairs-downstairs story; it flicks at, but doesn’t really explore, the lives of the native Hawaiian staff busing tables and performing dinnertime rituals. And it sometimes strains to be topical, with its culture-war Mad Libs references to triggering and cucking, canceling and doxxing. But this is a sharp, soulful series that knows its characters in full and gets richer as it goes on.

White Lotus is delightfully mean-spirited and unexpectedly big-hearted in ways that will probably polarize some audiences. I found it vibrantly messy and deceptively emotional, a show that I wasn’t convinced was working after one episode and that I didn’t want to end after six.

If you can't find something in here to enjoy, you're just not trying very hard.

“White Lotus” loses something in the last episode when, in an effort to bring elements together, it goes in search of a message and finds one, just in time for the finish. The experience ends up feeling sad and pedestrian, when it could have finished wild and senseless. Still, for five of six hours, it’s hard to argue with the experience.

It asks people to spend a great deal of time with a group of relatively unlikable people (one of whom may be the most toxically abrasive person on TV this year). Still, White’s overall love for the outsider and even his empathy for some of the insiders carry the project to a satisfying conclusion. It’s a little minor for White, who wrote and directed every episode, but it’s very well-acted and ambitious enough to make it a memorable trip.

Despite a strong start and some excellent performances, The White Lotus does wane towards the end of the series’ six stylish episodes. The attempted class commentary is only slightly developed, and the obvious disillusionment experienced by the staff is set aside for a focus on the guests.

The White Lotus seems to fit within a spate of recent HBO shows about rich people rotting in their own toxic privilege—Succession, The Undoing, Big Little Lies—but it’s baggier than those shows while also being, in fleeting moments, more insightful.

Unlike most peak TV series that drag on like a rained-out vacation, The White Lotus could use more episodes to explore its underused characters’ arcs, or at least let these rich nitwits twist in the wind a little longer.

Where The White Lotus ends up is, in some ways, the slyest joke of all. The Love Boat with class tensions, a smart summer soap, is fundamentally fatalist—and less riotously, a bit didactic. Still I wonder if The White Lotus’ indictment of class and race privilege doesn’t lose a bit of its bite from the company it keeps.

"The White Lotus" is a destination event, a safe, controlled daytrip into disquiet. Some will love the airy cringe that White purveys here, which intensifies as this series goes deeper into its run. Even if the agita gets to be too much to handle, you can still take relief knowing that like all good vacations, it comes to an end exactly how it should, and when it should.

There’s plenty here of White’s tart sensibility, queer boundary-pushing and serrated observations of how self-loathers tend to spread their wretchedness to those around them. The trollish timing of the show’s premise, that vacations are wasted on those who least need it, certainly deserves some grudging admiration. But a swerve late in the series disappointingly sails the story toward calmer waters. Once the turbulence is over, only froth remains.

A fitfully diverting and gorgeously filmed six-part limited series. [5- 18 Jul 2021, p.8]

Not every character gets as much shading as Tanya, making White Lotus feel a bit slighter than some of its creator’s other work. But it’s a welcome journey back into very specific territory for both White and HBO.