Index – Culture – This is the most entertaining series that HBO has ever made

When you look at the current television offerings, it’s easy to notice a recurring trend, quality drama series just keep pouring in. We could go on and on: House of Dragons, Sandman, Squid Game, The Last of Us, Better Call Saul, Stranger Things and more. No matter which of them you choose, there is a good chance that you will not be disappointed, as competent producers, working with a skilled cast, are almost sure of the way they put these productions together.

But where are the good comedies? The ones that are easy to entertain, and although there are some tragic fates and twists hidden in them, are they ultimately going to make us smile in front of the screen?

You don’t have to think about it much, we’ll say one right away, The White Lotus the title. Mike White’s dramedy, which is HBO’s own production, premiered its first six episodes in the summer of 2021, and the channel originally planned to end the fun there. Maybe even HBO didn’t expect that pont a holiday series wrapped in a murder mystery will be such a hit. It is The White Lotus it made a big splash, in addition to its high viewership, it became a critic’s favorite. THE Survivort as a competitor, known for his unique style – he made it Enlightenedalso to HBO – and after waiting for White, the channel asked him to make a sequel. The White Lotus its second season, like the first stage set in Hawaii, is about some vacationing Americans who are phlegmatic, rich, but they also have character flaws, so the big slap is inevitable for the majority of them. Meanwhile, we can hardly manage to stuff our popcorn.

In the new season of The White Lotus, we visit Sicily, and this time we also start with a death. Someone’s lifeless body is floating in the sea, which is noticed by Daphne (Meghann Fahy), who is debuting as a new face, who goes to take a dip in the waves on the last day of her vacation. After that, we jump back in time and, as in the first stage, we also now map the circumstances that led to the tragedy that claimed many victims.

Let’s say this is necessary for this series, which takes on a strong satire character and makes you laugh with black humor. The already mentioned Daphne, for example, turns out not to be the blonde princess she seems to be, but an out-and-out wench who is also cheating on her husband, Cameron (Theo James), and the guy’s two friends, the “love couple” who are terribly bored next to each other, Harper (Aubrey Plaza) and arrived on the Italian island with her wealthy husband, Ethan (Will Sharpe).

In any other series, the creator would stop here and present the relationship system of these four people full of deception, lies and deception. But here The White Lotusit’s about him, and of course Mike White, who throws in even more, equally crazy figures in addition to the already mentioned faces. Starting with two Italian pleasure girls, Lucia (Simona Tabasco), the bosom wonder, who, hand in hand with her girlfriend Mia (Beatrice Granno), who has singing aspirations, sleeps with men and women, not even shying away from the fact that the two of them will concretely ruin the lives of a few people. But the grandfather, father and son trio, i.e. Bert (F. Murray Abraham), Dominic (Michael Imperioli) and Albie (Adam DiMarco) are also worth their money, who also sink to the bottom morally, even though they only come to The White Lotusba to visit their Sicilian relatives living here.

It’s an anthology series The White Lotus, there are recurring elements, for example Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge), who we also saw in the first season in Hawaii, and now with her stupid assistant, Portia (Haley Lu Richardson), mixes in the seemingly benevolent company of wealthy gay men, initially having a good time. Speaking of gays: The White Lotusthis time we also get a manager attracted to his own sex, in the person of Valentina, whose self-discovery is brought out brilliantly by Sabrina Impacciatore.

Mike White again mixes the threads very skillfully in the series, as he brings these overwhelmed characters together, sometimes we really hold our stomachs from laughing. To top it all off, Jennifer Coolidge, referred to by many only as Stifler’s mother, is having a second flourish in the series, whatever the aging actress says, it’s funny. It’s no wonder that he was awarded a Golden Globe for his performance, God knows where Coolidge was plucked from the brutally strong cast and he easily steals the show even from a brilliant and particularly creepy Aubrey Plaza.

Sicily simply paints beautifully The White Lotus in its second season, in addition to the must-see locations well known to tourists, such as Cefalu, Palermo, Etna or Taormina, we also visit more hidden locations in these 7 parts. We, as film fanatics, especially like that The Godfather the actors also go to filming locations this season, for example the place where Michael Corleone’s (Al Pacino) wife explodes with her car, and the Albies also philosophize over a drink about the fact that the gangster generation is already a thing of the past, and in 2022 the male model it means something completely different to TikTok-addicted youth.

It would have been silly to rewrite the series’ iconic title, but the intro benefited from the update, and they really just tweaked it a bit, making it even more melodic in our opinion. The White Lotus overall, it can be said about its second season that it is a twisted, qualitatively written soap opera like its first season, only bigger, more beautiful, even funnier, even more entertaining,

This season, everyone really wants to do it, with pretty much everyone. The two young Italian prostitute girlfriends are at the forefront of this, but Tanya and her assistant, the unlucky beta Albie, her father and a bunch of others also revolve around sex. This is the aspect in which The White Lotus does not wish to go deeper, the creator does not deal with the issue of prostitution more seriously. It stops there, that those who start with pleasure girls or pleasure boys, and in the process also fall in love with them, suck it up. In this regard, Mike White could have gone deeper, but there it is.

The White Lotus its finale, although quite long, somehow slaps us in the face again, despite its 75-minute playing time. We’ve grown to love these faces too much and are sick of letting them go. As for the death… well, we will miss him a lot, we highly recommend that the already established third stage brings the character back.

But what makes the series so entertaining is not only the fact that it shows suffering rich people who eat each other, but also the great photography, the twisted, clever, thoughtful writing and the cast of characters delight our eyes and our brains. The White Lotus a rare treasure, if you haven’t seen it yet, do yourself a favor and check it out, you won’t regret it even from the point of view of falling from winter to summer for a few hours.

9,5/10

The first two seasons of Fehér Lótusz are available with dubbing and Hungarian subtitles on HBO Max.