TV Show Review - The White Lotus (Season 1)

Season: 1
Genre: Comedy/ Drama
Number of episodes: 6
Year: 2021
Starring: Murray Bartlett, Jennifer Coolidge, Connie Britton, Steve Zahn, Alexandra Daddario, Sydney Sweeney, Fred Hechinger, Jake Lacy, Brittany O’Grady, Natasha Rothwell, Molly Shannon

Description: Set in a tropical resort, it follows the exploits of various guests and employees over the span of a week.
 
Review: Vacationing is something people like to do. To let go of everything, and in the case of many vacationers, get yourself well pampered at an all-inclusive resort. A single women, a family plus the daughter’s friend and a newly wed couple all arrive at the same time, at the Hawaiian resort The White Lotus. The staff of the hotel is awaiting their guests and everything looks promising. But it’s going to be one hell of a week.

What an entertaining series. In a satirical and humorous way, they basically take everything and everyone to task. No one is perfect and everyone has their secrets and struggles. And since all of the characters we follow are either quirky, peculiar, irritating or highly unlikeable, the perfect vacation they all wished for, doesn’t go as planned. And this creates some fantastic, uncomfortable, silly, hilarious and embarrassing moments.

Each character has a role in the story. Ten of them to be exact. First there is the Mosbacher family. At the head, mother Nicole, a successful business woman who calls the shots. Her husband Mark has a health scare, son Quinn is simply bored and daughter Olivia brought her best friend Paula, who just want to relax and read complex literature. Then there is the newlywed couple, Rachel and Shane. They married quick after meeting and are now on their honeymoon. Where Rachel is a freelance journalist who wants to make it in the world, her rich new husband believes she doesn’t need to work anymore and just be his beautiful wife. Tanya came to Hawaii to spread her mother’s ashes, she is a lonely woman who befriends the owner of the resort’s spa, Belinda. And finally we have Armond, the resort manager, trying to make sure every guest is happy and taken care of. Which is a big challenge with the new arrivals.

Talking about Armond. He’s portrayed by Murray Bartlett and he is the absolute highlight of this series. I love everything he does in this series, he is so funny. And as a former customer service employee, I know exactly how it feels like to always try to please everyone, even the ones that you actually want to strangle. Always with a smile on your face, but mentally slapping the person opposite you complaining once again. Bartlett got a well-deserved Emmy Award for his role and he lifted “The White Lotus” to a higher level.
 
The ending of the show wasn’t all I hoped for. At least not for all characters. I especially didn’t like what they did with Rachel and Shane. I did like Quinn’s ending though. But overall, “The White Lotus” was a very enjoyable series, easy to watch. And there is a second season coming, which will be starring a bunch of new characters and is set at a different location.