Should I watch "White Lotus," please?

Is it as inventive and fun as I've heard, or just another by-the-numbers "ironic" and mixed-genre hip shit?

Thank you.

What are some examples of ironic hipster shit you despise? That'll help us assessing if it's a show for you or not.

Why don't you watch it and think for yourself instead of being told what to do? Are you even old enough to watch adult television, OP?

It’s a show with good acting (mostly) and shitty writing

I watched 1-1/2 eps of the first season and couldn’t get into it. I decided to check out season 2 for the scenery and because I was bored. It was good enough, but it’s not the best writing and it still dragged although not as much as the first season. I think it will heavily depend on whether you can get invested in the characters which I was unable to do the first season.

I watched a few episodes of Season 1 and thought it was was terrible. The outdoor scenes might as well have been filmed under cloudy skies in Tulsa as in "Hawaii." There was nothing to see and no luxury to the place which looked more like a very large nail salon than a luxury hotel. Murray Bartlett played a fidgety, uptight, nervous gay hotel manager with the look of smelling something unpleasant and without an ounce of professionalism, a Mr. Roper for our time, I suppose. Jennifer Coolidge played the dame character she always plays, but here drugged and slurry enough to endure that she was never funny, just sad and desperate. And those are the two actors I don't generally dislike.

There's cringe humor like that of Todd Solondz and then there's the cheesy, sticky-fingered cringiness of Mike White, which for me always falls flatter than a pancake. He rembers the ick factor but always forgets to be clever, smart, insightful, or funny.

Season 2 is a big improvement. A beautiful setting this time, some complexity to the sets, and the storylines, characters, and acting somewhat improved. Still, it's Mike White shit through and through.

Most people seemed to have loved season one. Partner and I hated it. Repulsive characters.

I've only seen season 1 and couldn't get into it. Everyone I know said to persevere, it paid off at the end, amazing character study, etc. etc. but it felt very cartoony and like some weird rehash of California Suite but with a load of cliche characters.

I watched season one and am 3 episodes into Season 2 - Season two is better imho. The beautiful setting doesn’t hurt. Great to see Michael Imperioli in this Season, he’ll always be Cristofah to me.

I watched 2-3 episodes and was not impressed

Should I watch another shitty series that focuses on the lives of the uninteresting, shallow and or/depraved only to find I wasted 10+ hours of my life on pure shit??

Season 1 was worth a watch.

Thanks. I appreciate your comments.

Pass!

I slugged through season 1 and found it pretty forgettable when it was over. There were no likeable characters (despite a rather good cast) and the writing was just 'blehh'. Season 2 promises more male eye candy and dick shots, but still - I'm not in a rush to tune in right now. Maybe in the slow days of January.

I'm watching Season 2 over xmas break. Its quite diverting. Realise that this kind of story is Big Rich Showbiz both glamorizing and snarking on rich unlikeable characters. The performances are good.

But I am especially enjoying the two young Italian ladies as party girls, 1 a prostitute. Really good performances and genuinely lovely casting. Not glamazons. Actresses often turn in great performances as whores. The tough sinewy mature Italian woman as the front house manager is quite good too.

A slight annoyance is that this is obviously not Sicily in summer. Filming schedules and all. But the light isn't summer Sicilian light at all. And they even include some poetic shots of bare trees, which I find bewildering. Why call attention to that?

I watched four of the episodes in the first season and hated it. I was surprised to learn the guy who made Enlightened also made White Lotus. I loved Enlightened but found White Lotus to be a bore.

Season 2 gets the tone better. The mix of caustic satire of the rich but with enough comedy and charm. The dose of Italians and Italian culture must have helped.

No, OP, but you should be listening to 1980s hair band White Lion.

R15, I can hardly remember anything about Season 1. It took me a long time to recall who died, and I didn’t even remember how, or who did it.

Season 2 was so much better, IMO.

I don’t get the hype at all. Watched the first season but skipping the second. There is absolutely nothing special about it.

You can't comment on the 2nd season if you haven't watched it. It is much better than Season 1.

yes, watch it over and over and debate on dl about the characters' unexplained motives until the next season comes out!

I wanted to sue HBO for the value of the time I wasted on the first season. I won't watch the second season. (I can't either as I no longer subscribe.)

[quote]A slight annoyance is that this is obviously not Sicily in summer. Filming schedules and all. But the light isn't summer Sicilian light at all. And they even include some poetic shots of bare trees, which I find bewildering. Why call attention to that?

I saw the bare trees too and thought it was odd to constantly call attention to them. It's not seasonal bareness, they have just been pruned back. They just did the same thing to my street here in Rome, Merulana. It was a beautiful treelined street but they pruned all the trees back about a month ago and the street looks like a nuclear holocaust.

After your done you may also enjoy Mother, May I Sleep with Danger.

Should i scratch my asshole or watch shitty white lotus?

Funny R30, Shitty White Lotus is what I call my asshole.

I am tired of lesbians and female bisexuals in every show.

I skipped it.

It is seasonal bareness because they are deciduous trees. The palm trees are browned in many shots, as well. They are likely plane trees. Sicily also boasts oak, chestnut and beech. The hills are grey in many shots because the deciduous species are bare.

The trees they showed just outside of the hotel R33 have definitely been pruned. There is not a single leaf and the branches have been cut back

Hot rough trade in S2. Nice arse on that one.

In Europe, many plane trees are pruned in the winter, AFTER the leaves fall. All new growth is cut back. Hello?

This was filmed in February 2022. I can't believe we are having an argument. In February, deciduous trees are BARE. And it also the season to prune such trees.

The argument is silly and fun R37. But the trees the one poster was referencing were the specific PRUNED trues right outside of the hotel. They look like the trees in r36. Maybe some deciduous trees with a few leaves made it into frame at some point in the season. But the trees they showed over and over again that the poster found disjointing weren't those.

Now you're gonna make me go through the season and get a screengrab.

Those are pruned trees. Deciduous trees that are pruned in winter, AFTER they have lost their leaves. There is NO pruning on earth that removes all the new wood and green leaves from from a tree in summer. For crissakes.

You can't change your argument now R39 if you are indeed R33. I stated that they were pruned and you QUICKLY corrected me to let me know it was indeed seasonal bareness and NOT pruning. Now you are backtracking and saying they are deciduous trees that were Pruned. I think you just are super proud of yourself for using Deciduous and you can't let it go. Anyway here is a screen shot of the PRUNED trees that were distracting. Sorry for the poor quality. It is a picture of a screen. HBO doesn't allow screengrabs. I don't know why they didn't film around them instead of showcasing them. For people who believe it is only seasonal bareness like R33, it looks like the dead of winter.

Gli alberi sono stati potati!

R20, I'm the Chair of their local Fan Club! How did you know? I think of "When the Children Cry" every time there's a Darfur Orphan post or one concerning dear Mrs. Patsy Ramsey's bad luck with that naughty child of hers.

Spis lort og dø, OP!

I didn't say it was only seasonal bareness. Some cunt said they were not bare, they were pruned. As in pruned to remove all leaves. I then further explained that the BARE trees are then pruned. R28 seemed to claim the issue is not bareness but pruning.

The issue is it is WINTER and the trees are bare. Then they are pruned, too.

I don't follow the crowds, but if a show is winning Emmys one year and then blows up on social media in Season 2, I take a look at what all the fuss is about.

There's so much bad TV out there, this at least has some interesting, introspective facets, great scenery, and a couple cute boy butts.

I'm surprised that so many people seem to prefer season 2. I just watched season 1 and I really enjoyed the level of satire and character development. Some of the satire in season 1 seems to be on the level of the very best of Evelyn Waugh (whom I adore for Vile Bodies and Decline and Fall)- that is, laughing at the characters and situation, having a moral point of view, and finally showing the sadness and pathos underneath the laughter. Jennifer Coolidge in the first season does this so well.

I am right now on the fourth episode of season 2. For me the second season is much less satirical and more ironical- there are fewer laughs and the characters aren't drawn as uniquely designed to butt heads. The Tom Hollander and Leo Woodall characters have just been introduced and have provided a huge jolt of creative interest into what is happening for me.

It seems there was a massive outlay of money for the second season which I think serves the series poorly. The Hawaii location, luxury hotel that it was, also became sort of a tacky bougie prison. The Sicilian location is too beautiful for satire.

R44, I feel the same way! I enjoyed both seasons but appreciated the satirical and ultra-awkward humor of the first season, which I did not feel the second season had.

Well, the hotel in Season 1: Hawaii had all the 5-star luxury of a grainy old Fawlty Towers episode and its cardboard sets.

I just watched the first episode of Season One. I was bored out of my mind. I don't get the hype about this show. It tries too hard to be a clever satire, but all the humor and critiques of the super-rich fall flat.

R42 even though it's winter here in Italy, the trees are not bare. Yes, they turn colors and some leaves fall but the trees don't go completely bare, it doesn't get that cold. If you look at the video in R28, you see the other side of the street hasn't been pruned yet. That is pretty much is the quantity of leaves they have all year round. And especially in Sicily much father south than in Rome where I am, I am sure the trees stay pretty much the same fullness. So I stand by my assertion in r28 that the trees were pruned and pruned WITH leaves on them. They do it in the winter season, yes, so they bloom and grow in the spring. But I am imagining they were not bare before they were pruned.

The first season was stupid and I felt I wasted hours of my life. Will not watch the second season

I watched one episode of the first season and stopped. That's probably not enough to make a fully-informed decision, especially since so many people seem to like it, but I just get the sense it won't be my thing.

It can't hurt to try; it may be your thing.

Looking forward to S3. There just needs to more male nudity.

They'll bring her back. It'll turn out that the one who died was her twin sister on the lam pretending to be her.

I loved it OP. Season 1 better than Season 2.

[bold]But there's NO WAY it can live up to the hype at this point for you.[/bold] Those of us that watched when it first aired didn't have all the raving and chatting about it.

Bitch, I don't know your numbers.

Take your chances like the rest of us.

By asking you've answered your own question . . .

The first season is worth watching for Murray Bartlett's performance alone. The second season is worth watch for the gorgeous settings and cinematography.

I'm trying. I enjoyed the first season. Great performances. I didn't even realize that's Sydney Sweeny. Interesting concept, but I remember thinking if there's another season, I doubt they can maintain it.

So...I'm having trouble getting into the second season. Despite Aubry Plaza and that fucking HOT Will Sharpe.

[quote]Is it as inventive and fun as I've heard,

How would I know? What have you heard?

[quote]or just another by-the-numbers "ironic" and mixed-genre hip shit?

Do you know what any of these words mean? Because you don't really sound like you do.

[quote]I'm trying

It's a tv show, hon. Can the dramatics.

If it's that much of a struggle you should probably stick to reality shows on basic cable.

Taormina, btw, is like a tourist trap kind of place for anyone thinking of going. It's a lovely little town, but it has an open air mall feel to it like Positano. There doesn't seem to be much life to it outside of the tourist industry. You walk around and all you see are other people on vacation from all over the world - Russians, Americans. The San Domenico is a gorgeous hotel and a bit removed from the main strip. I would only go again to see a performance in the Ancient Greek amphitheatre with breath-taking views. I know a decent reasonable hotel if anyone wants a recommendation.

If you are traveling to Sicily, I would definitely check out Syracusa, Ortigia. Now that is a beautiful place if you want a real Italian vacation. But if you want beaches they aren't there and you have to travel about 20 minutes outside the main city to reach it. Cefulu is another interesting place to check out.

R62 Fuck you, Andy Cohen. Stop pushing your "Hon" garbage. You're starting to look AND sound your age--the actual one and not what you put on GRINDR.

Personally, I hated every character in Season Two except for Tanya.

Murray Bartlett gets his ass eaten out in Season 1.

[quote] Taormina, btw, is like a tourist trap kind of place for anyone thinking of going.

Yes, and the “private” beaches with chairs and umbrellas, exactly like the ones in the show, are overrun by these poor Chinese women who have been somehow conscripted to offer foot massages all day long. So every 30 seconds one of them is saying to you, “Foot massage?” which they rhyme with “dodgy,” so it’s “foot massodgy? foot massodgy?” all day long. And you feel so bad for them because you know someone’s holding on to their passports that you can’t enjoy the beach or the foot massage.

And one more thing, which is funny: after our week of trying to avoid foot massages, we were at the airpot in Catania getting ready to fly back to Munich. My friend used the restroom at the Catania airport and then told me I had to use it just to see how disgusting it was, and he was right. We land in Munich and we’re waiting for our luggage. A German woman who had been on our flight and must have also used the restroom in Catania came out of the restroom in the Munich airport and said to us in German, “Now those are German standards!” obviously pleased with the Munich cleanliness. I’ve adopted that phrase.