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.
