You get an eerie feeling “The White Lotus” might be headed down a “Fantasy Island”/”Love Boat” path.
The second season opens with a death – and a flashback to the day the guests arrive. Then, it’s just a matter of sorting the keys, beginning the tours and letting the games begin.
Business as usual? Oh no. There are also a few key twists and turns that make the stay interesting and a look at rich people that makes you wonder how they got where they are.
Set in Sicily, the juicy second season has three generations of a family (F. Murray Abraham, Michael Imperioli and Adam DiMarco) who are eager to see the place where “The Godfather” was shot; two supposedly rich couples (Theo James, Meghann Fahy, Will Sharpe and Aubrey Plaza) and a professional gadabout, Tanya McQuoid-Hunt (Jennifer Coolidge), who wants to make like Monica Vitti on the streets of Italy.
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The hotel’s manager, Valentina (Sabrina Impacciatore), has a sly way of putting down guests and berating employees. She’s worried about the place’s reputation and doesn’t want anything bad to happen on her watch.
Enter: two locals who are ripe to sleep with hotel guests and charge plenty to their rooms. Before you get through the first episode, they’ve become better acquainted with the tourists than the hotel staff.
Written and directed by Mike White (who won a truckload of Emmys for the first season), “The White Lotus” has a different visual approach (busts appear to be watching at all times) but a nagging desire to stay at the hotel for most meals (don’t people go out and explore?). That means those who arrive together have a passing acquaintance that twists and turns as the week wears on.
Tanya, our touchstone, wants her lover Greg (Jon Gries) to buy into her fantasy. But, somehow, he’s not the person she thought he’d be. That leaves her – and her assistant (Haley Lu Richardson) – to look elsewhere.
If you were a fan of the first “Lotus” you’ll want to make comparisons (maybe it has something to do with wealth). The two couples, for example, are just ripe for ridicule. You can tell James’ crass (often naked) millionaire isn’t loyal and Fahy, his wife, doesn’t really care. Plaza more than adds the snark factor and discovers plenty that would make others want to pack up and leave.
As easily digested as gelato, this season has action that hinges on those two young women (Beatrice Granno and Simona Tabasco) making visitors feel welcome. That means the stakes are high and the room service bills even higher.
Coolidge continues her winning ways (Emmy No. 2? It’s possible) and DiMarco has just enough innocence to make you wonder what his future will be.
“The White Lotus” still ranks among television’s best. It’s the perfect getaway when politics, work and family threaten to make Thanksgiving anything but a reason to give thanks.
For this, we can be grateful.
“The White Lotus” begins Oct. 30 on HBO.
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