The White Lotus (Season 1)

⭐ 9.0/10

(Originally written by Tim)

This show is a real fun ride. It follows a bunch of rich white people as they show up in Hawaii for vacation. We have newlyweds, a single older woman mourning the loss of her mother, and a family where the mom is the CEO of a big tech company. They are all at the same resort, and each character has some form of an identity crisis.

There were a lot of interesting topics covered here, but it remains funny throughout. Lots of servant/master dynamics, as we spend a lot of time with the hotel staff, and see entitled people at their worst when they are on vacation. It's 6 episodes so the momentum stays high, and week to week I felt like I was really understanding each character more and more.

The show starts off showing a body being loaded onto the plane for the flight home, and then flashes back to the start of the week. I thought that setup might burden the show, making you constantly wonder which character is going to die, but they used it in a clever way and it didn't hold the show back at all. It did add a lot of suspense to the final episode.

I also really liked the finale, where we see some people become what most aspire to become on vacation, where as others get to the breaking point where change can occur and backslide. It is frustrating to watch, but feels more true to life. Looking forward to the next season, which is apparently about different people at a different resort.