The White Lotus Season 2 brings back some memories from Season 1, but it feels like one can appreciate this season even better. One reason is that you are already familiar with the characters (most of them) and can relate to their characteristics better this time around. It allows you to focus on other aspects of the show, such as the relationships between people, the subtle facial expressions which can completely alter the meaning of a particular scene, and of course the way people behave, which gives us an insight into their individual thoughts. There’s just so much in this show, and the music, both its pacing and tempo add to the substance. Every little bit contributes and that is why The White Lotus is such an amazing show.
There are just so many rotating characters and so many angles, and then so many relationships between almost every character in the show. And that’s just what makes it so interesting. And not all relationships start out on the perfect footing. For eg, the grandson, Albie hates the hookers at first, and then he ends up being in a relationship with one of them. He demands 50k euros from his Dad to help relocate the girl. But as we can see, the girl is just, probably, trying to scam him. His grandfather and father are all for the macho attitude about not getting caught while Albie is all about being soft and taking a cavalier attitude towards life and women in general. But ultimately, he just ends up being scammed repeatedly, once for one night and later for 50k euros (at this point, the 50k has not been handed off to him, but let’s see where that goes.)
Then there’s Mia and the hotel manager. Initially forbidden from even entering the hotel, Mia ends up sleeping with the hotel manager, who herself has never actually slept with a woman, but has been trying to sleep with one of her employees.
And the music, first of all, not every show gets me going with their original music as much as The White Lotus. The Intro music is simply perfect - it sounds exciting and majestic of sorts. And then we factor the musical thoughts throughout the difficult scenes and how the tempo and the quality of the music often unveils the tension between the characters.
My review keeps rambling on because if I end up writing in detail about each and every character, I’d be writing a book. While there’s the social aspect of all the different personnel, there’s also Tanya, the uber-rich lady, who is just looking for love. She’s confused as her husband leaves and doesn’t return for several days. She’s gone out with a bunch of gays. Meanwhile, the gays’ nephew is bedding Tanya’s assistant, Portia. She was initially starstruck by the bad boy routine, but soon realized it’s probably unsafe to be around badboys.
All the time, we have the two couples - Harper & Ethan - and Daphne and Cameron. Daphne and Cameron are the casual couples who pretend that there’s nothing going on in the world. they care only about themselves, have a very casual attitude toward money. Cameron was obviously the star kid in college and school.
Then we come to the other couple - Harper and Ethan. The duo is very serious. With Harper always having a resting bitch face. And the director plays off her resting bitch face, putting that face into her attitude. I think that storyline fits Aubrey Plaza’s resting bitch face so perfectly. Harper continues to believe that Daphne and Cameron’s relationship is all fake and a show for others. She latches on to every flaw in their relationship. But then after a series of misunderstandings, Harper and Ethan’s relationship nearly falls apart. The insecurities between the two highlight how they really feel about each other. They are constantly doubting each other and a small open condom packet basically tore apart their relationship. Meanwhile, Daphne tries to shove away any evidence or confession that Harper tried to tell Daphne.
I’m still just in Episode 7 and so far the show is very interesting. There are very few shows that actually catch my attention as The White Lotus S2 has. In fact this show’s storyline highlights some of the misgivings of other shows. And all the time that the show is going on, remember we started off with a dead body as the opening scene. So eventually someone dies. The show is based in Sicily and there are these weird statues everywhere. These weird statues have a lore. They portray the island’s story of a jilted wife/lover killing her man after she catches him cheating on her. And that plays into the entire show's story of a dead body and the numerous cheaters at the White Lotus resort. There’s also this couple of girls - prostitutes - who have relationships with almost every family at the hotel. So the ‘murderer’ could basically be anyone at the hotel and the suspense continues to build, even as the individual attitudes unravel as the episodes trudge on.
And when Ethan approaches Daphne about a potential romantic episode between their spouses, well, that’s where the true fun begins. Ethan suspects Harper and Cameron of having done something and he gets paranoid now, despite Cameron being the one to find an open condom packet on their sink a few days ago. And then starts the arguments and the infighting. It's really interesting because it brings out the insecurities. even though one would argue, Ethan and Harper are the more stable couple, they are as insecure about themselves as anyone else. In fact, you could probably make a case for the way Cameron and Daphne live, where they systemically avoid each other's flaws, to the point of ignoring it when it's right in front of your face. But is that the true way to live life? In denial?
One of the funniest scenes in the show was when Tanya approached the yacht driver explaining what she thought was happening - that she was being set up for murder. And she explains that her husband, Greg wants her murdered just so he could get her money as per the pre-nuptials. And the yacht driver - who doesn’t understand English - simply said, Yes! I’m gay too.
That made me cackle.
And then we have Tanya, whose paranoia makes her kill everyone else on the boat. She herself slipped and knocked herself on the head, dead. Meanwhile, Mia and Lucia end up as the biggest beneficiaries, partly due to the 50k that Albie decided to give them because he was gullible to believe her story. That’s the morale of the story. Things are not as they seem and you need to man up at times. There are imperfections in every person and part of your marriage is to understand and compromise as much as you can with those imperfections. The grass is always greener on the other side.
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