Courtesy of HBO
After years of ignoring dozens of recommendations from family members, friends and seemingly the entire internet, I finally pressed play on “Arrivals,” the first episode of “The White Lotus.” Immediately, I was captivated by the color grading, phenomenal cast and music that adds a layer of intrigue to every single scene. Now, I have been raving to basically everyone I know about how spectacular this show is. With season three coming out weekly, there is no foreseeable point that I will stop my pleading for everyone to watch “The White Lotus.”
“The White Lotus” premiered on July 11, 2021 on HBO boasting a stellar group of actors — with everyone’s favorite Jennifer Coolidge playing Tanya McQuoid (“That’s one syllable… well, two syllables, but the second part is one syllable”). Many other noteworthy stars such as Sydney Sweeney, Alexandra Daddario and Murray Barlett make for a wonderful arrangement of talent.
The White Lotus is a hotel chain that hosts a variety of American guests from around the country, the first season taking place in Maui, Hawaii, the second in Sicily, Italy and the third on the island of Koh Samui in Thailand. At the hotel, nearly every guest is revealed to be either morally gray, strangely disconcerting or immediately and unabashedly a bad person. The hotel staff and various local personalities also show up throughout the plot.
Most TV shows aim for one person or a group of characters to be the obvious protagonists that will entice audiences to pick favorites. While I certainly do have favorites, it is rare that The White Lotus will allow a guest to leave the hotel unscathed by an altercation, family drama, crime or straight-up murder. Satisfyingly, though, there are several many personalities that are easy to objectively hate.
Each dynamic is thoroughly fleshed out, and each season’s collection of guests bring a new, wonderful and intense series of interactions, twists and turns. In the first season, the majority of action takes place between a nuclear family and a friend along with them for vacation, a newly-wed couple, a wealthy woman looking to spread her mother’s ashes, a kind-hearted spa worker and a neurotic hotel manager.
One of my favorite details about “The White Lotus” is the ingenious soundtrack. Composed by Cristóbal Tapia de Veer, a composer who has worked on films such as “Babygirl” and “Smile,” the haunting melodies are mixed with Hawaiian sounds and instruments, creating an uncanny environment that is almost normal but off-kilter enough that it creates a wonderfully ominous ambiance. The tension underlying the melodies puts the viewer on edge. The stress makes it difficult to discern what is really going on between characters, and thus, never once did I have an idea of what would happen next.
While the action is consistently riveting throughout the whole season, by the third episode, you will be entirely sucked into the layered plot and strange characters. And as you reach the culmination within the final episode or two, you will not be able to look away.
I finished the first season of “The White Lotus” within three or four days and immediately began the next season, which takes place in Sicily at another White Lotus location.
Throughout the second season, queerness, sexual promiscuity, danger and romance are enacted in the most gorgeous locations with another set of extraordinary actors. Jennifer Coolidge as Tanya makes another appearance, along with her aggressively Gen-Z assistant, Haley Lu Richardson. Aubrey Plaza and Theo James turn up with their respective spouses on a double date vacation, and an Italian American grandfather-father-son trio, a large cadre of wealthy gays, a couple of sex workers and a raging lesbian or two perfectly completes this riveting assemblage.
Season 3, released on Feb. 16, 2025, is everything I have grown to expect and more. A trio of college girlfriends all in different stages of life, deeply disturbing family dynamics, revenge, love and yacht trips, what more could one want? Tapia de Veer mixes Thai music with his trademark eerie vocals and rhythm, setting the stage for another season of plot twists that spin my head. Parker Posey, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Lalisa Manobal (of Blackpink) and Aimee Lou Wood commandeer my laptop for an hour every Sunday night.
Not only does “The White Lotus” entertain with a well-paced plot, but it truly satiates the mind with symbolism, layered meanings and ethically-ambiguous circumstances that have you doubting everything you think you know. Becoming what I once swore to ignore, I have already successfully gotten one friend to start the show, and as instantly as I was, they are addicted. “The White Lotus” is carefully and cleverly crafted, satirical, thrilling, current — hilarious and jaw-dropping — a show certainly worthy of your binge.
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