How The White Lotus does Satire

//Park Chan-wook's DECISION TO LEAVE is streaming exclusively on MUBI in the US, UK, and many other countries. Get a whole month of great cinema FREE: mubi.com/skipintro// What do you think of The White Lotus and its second season? Is it a good satire? Is it too cynical? Too optimistic?

Paula was the most infuriating character for me across both seasons and I'm so glad they wrote someone like her. I can't help but roll my eyes when shows like this only have innocent, well-behaved and altruistic POC characters. Paula thought she was more self-aware than the wealthy family that invited her on their trip but in the end Paula pressured a desperate indigenous man to commit a crime and left him to fend for himself while she went back to her comfortable life on the mainland like nothing happened. A really great display of her character that I found more meaningful than any of the others.

the gag is that peppa pig scene was improvised which makes it even funnier 😭😭😭

I loved this new season; especially the pure irony of the young character thinking he’s saving the “poor”prostitute when in reality she played him; just genius.

Jennifer Coolidge is a fucking master actor in this show. Her mouth alone deserves an academy award. The stuff she does with her face is just unbelievable. I really never knew her as much more than Stiffler’s mom. And wow. She is just phenomenal.

“Women are depressing, and that’s ok. They have a lot to be depressed about.” - Tanya. That line will stay with me. I thought about it for days.

I think the point of kai's story ending off screen or the pregnant lady disappearing is exactly that. These people aren't even a 2nd thought around the wealthy. Out of sight, out of mind. Only those of us who truly care are supposed to ask.. "Hey, what happened to that guy?"

I really liked how the second season was even stronger than the first, without losing the magic of what made the original installment work. The actors all played their roles well, and the twist was very well executed.

not to mention how Albie sold out the only two women he's ever truly loved (his own mother and sister) to the sweet tune of 50k "I refuse to have a bad relationship with women"

The resort manager in the first season was my favourite character. The narrative about him being a recovering addict being pushed back into his old habits in an extreme and impulsive way due to the never ending nightmare of trying to keep people happy who will never be satisfied. He is continually tempted to find a way to cope and when he gets a hold of the bag of drugs, he goes bananas to take the edge off, eventually losing his inhibitions and taking revenge in probably the most graphic, hilarious fecal scene ever. I'm sure many of us were cheering him on. He felt so powerless and so disrespected that his sole mission became using what little he had (a master key and a digested meal) to regain his sense of dignity while ironically, doing so in an incredibly undignified way. It was very interesting because the pettiness of continuously badgering for the room upgrade led to incredibly petty retaliation. The two of them completely lost their minds over pretty stupid stuff and with it leading to a death, that is a good commentary on just how unreasonable a lot of human conflict is.

A lot of Greg's behaviour from earlier on in the season suddenly makes more sense after the finale. He's annoyed with Tanya inviting Portia along, since she wasn't part of the plan, and it would be easier to kill Tanya without her assistant lingering around.

Quinn and Lucia are my favourite characters from season 1 and 2...I just love the fact that Quinn preferred exploring the culture he's visiting and be part of it while Lucia uses a system that is supposed to be against her at her advantage. They're kinda what challenge the archetypes of the main theme of the season

one thing i want someone with more knowledge than me to talk about is the costume design in the show! i was OBSESSED with it. every character had a unique and consistent style that was easily recognizable as them and really reflected their character.

as a POC working in luxury tourism, the white lotus is PERFECTLY depicting the idiots we get some times. I can’t even count the Shanes and Nicoles of my life

Tanya's "Do you know these gays, do you know these gays" has to be one of my very favorite lines ever 😂

Portia’s character is the one I identified with the most as a young often dissatisfied woman. So in the scene where she talks about how fucked the world is and Jack disagrees, I felt called out in a good way. Because Jack is NOT speaking from privilege in this scene. He has had a tough life while Portia appears quite sheltered. She has less status than White Lotus clientele but in the scope of things still privileged enough that her worst problem is her life not being fulfilled or exciting enough. She is swallowed up by egotistical self pity and Jack calls her out on that.

Nobody can play Tanya as seriously yet as funny as Jennifer Coolidge. She was able to make us feel sympathy for her even though she was a crazy character. Amazing show and so glad how Mike White put Jennifer Coolidge on the spotlight while leaving room to other characters to tell their story.

Honestly through networking and using her friend Paula is just as privileged and the craziest part was when she screwed over a local when identifying with all of his real struggles through her history book, she pressured him to steal and felt good about it and got him arrested. She didn't even own up to stealing because she was even more entitled than the people who worked for that money with their privelege. Then she waltzed off with her friend back to her privelege paradise while that local kid lost the trust of every employer on the small island.

If you pause at 6:27 you will see a painting, which is depicting saint Lucy. To summ up the tale, Lucy didn’t want to be with a guy that didnt want to leave her alone, so much so that she gauged her own eyes out and served them to him on a plate. The attention to detail and symbolism in this show is quite admirable.

I don’t think we should put the Testa di Moro story in a “violence by white people against the colonised” context like we can do with Madama Butterfly (written and set in the 20th century). The Testa di Moro legend is from around the year 1000 when the Arabs had invaded and were ruling Sicily, so the Arab soldier who seduced the local girl and then abandoned her would actually be the “coloniser” in this story. I'd also argue against applying modern American categories of "white" and "POC" to a story set in the Mediterranean melting pot of 1000 years ago, but that's another story.