The White Lotus (spoiler-free-ish)
Hey, so we just finished The White Lotus. I’m going to try to talk about how I felt about it without giving away any plot, but I will say that I’m mostly discussing the themes of it and some of the meta elements of it, which might clue you in as to plot as you’re watching it, so if that matters to you, don’t read the rest of this until you’ve seen it.
And now here is a photo, so you don’t accidentally see something you don’t want to see in the text.
Overall: ambivalence.
I am a huge fan of Mike White. I love pretty much everything he has ever done, from Chuck and Buck to Enlightened to School of Rock.
But.
In essence, The White Lotus is a television show that wants to steep itself in white privilege, to tell a story about white people. I couldn’t get over the fact that at one point a character of color accuses a white person of associating with them “for cred”, and that’s how the actors of color in this show feel to me. In the end, they are mostly in service to the self-actualization of the white storylines.
Oh and by the way, this show is impeccably crafted, beautifully shot, Jennifer Coolidge is a national treasure, the dialogue is sharp and compelling, it’s all wonderful. But it’s like the marriage that Rachel finds herself in… it’s perfectly appealing and hollow at its core.
This show isn’t really interested in telling Lani’s story, or Kai’s story, or Belinda’s story, or even Paula’s story really.
Which is fine, on some level I respect Mike White for saying, “look, I’m a white guy, I don’t want to pretend I can tell the story of colonialism and theft in a historical or present-day context”. But then… maybe don’t use those themes as set dressing.
Maybe just give us a fun juicy show about rich people in a hotel.
Don’t use stories of manifest destiny and oppression and class struggle for cred.
I feel like I could either write thirty pages more or just stop here.
Let’s stop here.
Have a great weekend.