Ha ha!! We loved White Lotus, but you're right, many many loose ends. But maybe that was the whole point, to confuse the audience into guessing multiple outcomes. If that was the strategy, it worked perfectly, because for a rare moment, reminiscent of the old days when people would talk about last night's Seinfeld around the "water cooler," a good segment of the culture was obsessed with a film or TV show. And that is hard to achieve in this age of too much digital distraction and audience fragmentation.
I think the series is a dark comedy after all. Some of these questions don’t need answering because it’s not the point.
Portia at the airport with Albie asks for his number seconds after hearing about the dead people on the yacht and the body on the beach. The youth in the show, for all their considerate, thoughtful piousness, are just as vapid and shitty as the old men, the gays, and everyone that they look down upon.
”Why did sleazy couple invite uptight couple on vacation?”
Because they wanted newly rich uptight couple to invest in their sleazy company. Harper says so explicitly. And just as Cameron had routinely screwed all his college buddy’s girlfriends, he figured he could screw him out of his money.
“Do sleazy couple really love each other or is that an act that’s part of their hidden agenda?”
Both. They love each other as well as they can love anything, and they’re players in a pretty smelly shark tank.
“Do they have a hidden agenda? Is it about money? Sex? Blackmail? Something else?”
Clearly the main agenda is money. Sex? Why not? Cameron enjoyed using sex to humiliate Ethan in their college days. And they’re all too sexy for their shirts, right? This dystopia smells like teen spirit. Blackmail happened, though it’s not clear to me that Daphne was in on it, but so what?
“Why did sleazy guy wait so long to pay the hookers? He had the money. He risked having them expose his sins. Made no sense.”
But it makes perfect sense. He treats them the way he does because they’re less than nothing to him and he believes they have no real power. Treating them shabbily even strengthens his alliance with Daphne who, should he be exposed, would pathologically protect and punish him like she always does. After all, she’s no whore.
Is it really so important who actually fucked who?
“Why did the two couples have dinner together after rich guy had tried to drown sleazy guy just a few hours earlier?”
Because it’s dark and sad and fucking hilarious!
Who said the police wouldn’t track down the billionaire heiress’s assistant?
I love Jennifer Coolidge in this role. Love her.
I did have fun reading your take, but it would be awfully unfair to Mike White not to speak up.
It is interesting how the show subverts expectations by making likable characters less likable (with the exception of Jennifer Coolidge) as the show goes on (I felt this way in season 1 as well), so I’ll give them something for the surprise factor of that, but for me it’s deeply unsatisfying and just makes me feel like the writers are extremely cynical about humans. In the example of the cheating couples, I think it would have been a cool take for them (Ethan and Harper) to intelligently/ethically explore non-monogamy. That could be good medicine for people, but instead it’s like I’m pulling my hair out watching these people all just be terrible to each other, and then it all pays off in the end? The scamming Lucia gets her money, the assassin hiring husband gets his money, and it doesn’t even feel like Portia and Albie were particularly changed by their relative experiences. I don’t know. The conclusion for both seasons just fell really flat for me, and the actors are good enough to make me feel things, so I know it’s possible!
Just relax and enjoy the ride and realize that life often raises questions with ambiguous answers. People, scenery, dialogue, humor sometimes is enough. Sorry, I had a great time watching.
It’s NOT A GOOD SHOW! loved this rant review by Chris.
The show is a pretentious auteur piece that fails to deliver on every single aspect. It’s even disappointing as an escapism show (yes, I’d love to watch a show taking place in Sicily while I’m freezing my nuts off in Vancouver).
I question any film or series suggestions from anyone who liked White Lotus now.
I literally had this very discussion with my wife on the way to work this morning. We watched the last episode last night and as soon as the credits rolled I had to double check to make sure there was t one more episode we missed. In addition to all the unanswered questions you asked. I had several more:
- Was The Rich Billionairess’ husband behind the whole “abduction”. Was he gay???? Seems implausible if you watched season 1.
- What was with the guy stalking the hooker? Was he really a menace or just a plant to make Alvi want to save Lucia?
- Why would Alvi basically throw his mother, whom he sided with against his father the entire show, under the bus to get money for Lucia aka the hooker?
- WTF would the hotel manager jeopardize everything to experiment with the other hooker aka Isabella? This was an exact plot swap with season 1 btw.
- Why would Alvi dump 50K on Isabella, walk away and then reconnect with Portia after Portia completely ghosted him for the British Wanker?
- AND don’t get me started on Portia and the British Wanker. Most unbelievable relationship in TV history
- Did Lucia open a store?
With all that said, the one thing I did buy was that the Jenifer Coolidge character would fall off the yacht and bean herself on the dingy railing. She’s been a hot, uncoordinated mess for two season. This was just about the only thing that rang (pun intended) true.
“Star Wars without stars or war.” Hahaha I love this.
Triangle of Sadness (2022) is a movie that does class comedy much much better.
Ha ha!! We loved White Lotus, but you're right, many many loose ends. But maybe that was the whole point, to confuse the audience into guessing multiple outcomes. If that was the strategy, it worked perfectly, because for a rare moment, reminiscent of the old days when people would talk about last night's Seinfeld around the "water cooler," a good segment of the culture was obsessed with a film or TV show. And that is hard to achieve in this age of too much digital distraction and audience fragmentation.
I think the series is a dark comedy after all. Some of these questions don’t need answering because it’s not the point.
Portia at the airport with Albie asks for his number seconds after hearing about the dead people on the yacht and the body on the beach. The youth in the show, for all their considerate, thoughtful piousness, are just as vapid and shitty as the old men, the gays, and everyone that they look down upon.
Thank you for saving me from another app subscription
”Why did sleazy couple invite uptight couple on vacation?”
Because they wanted newly rich uptight couple to invest in their sleazy company. Harper says so explicitly. And just as Cameron had routinely screwed all his college buddy’s girlfriends, he figured he could screw him out of his money.
“Do sleazy couple really love each other or is that an act that’s part of their hidden agenda?”
Both. They love each other as well as they can love anything, and they’re players in a pretty smelly shark tank.
“Do they have a hidden agenda? Is it about money? Sex? Blackmail? Something else?”
Clearly the main agenda is money. Sex? Why not? Cameron enjoyed using sex to humiliate Ethan in their college days. And they’re all too sexy for their shirts, right? This dystopia smells like teen spirit. Blackmail happened, though it’s not clear to me that Daphne was in on it, but so what?
“Why did sleazy guy wait so long to pay the hookers? He had the money. He risked having them expose his sins. Made no sense.”
But it makes perfect sense. He treats them the way he does because they’re less than nothing to him and he believes they have no real power. Treating them shabbily even strengthens his alliance with Daphne who, should he be exposed, would pathologically protect and punish him like she always does. After all, she’s no whore.
Is it really so important who actually fucked who?
“Why did the two couples have dinner together after rich guy had tried to drown sleazy guy just a few hours earlier?”
Because it’s dark and sad and fucking hilarious!
Who said the police wouldn’t track down the billionaire heiress’s assistant?
I love Jennifer Coolidge in this role. Love her.
I did have fun reading your take, but it would be awfully unfair to Mike White not to speak up.
(Oh, and I’m old too. So that’s not it.)
Thank you for this. Spared me another waste of precious time for all the reasons you mentioned.
A terrible series for Gay male characters. Not a bad one, though, for female prostitutes.
It is interesting how the show subverts expectations by making likable characters less likable (with the exception of Jennifer Coolidge) as the show goes on (I felt this way in season 1 as well), so I’ll give them something for the surprise factor of that, but for me it’s deeply unsatisfying and just makes me feel like the writers are extremely cynical about humans. In the example of the cheating couples, I think it would have been a cool take for them (Ethan and Harper) to intelligently/ethically explore non-monogamy. That could be good medicine for people, but instead it’s like I’m pulling my hair out watching these people all just be terrible to each other, and then it all pays off in the end? The scamming Lucia gets her money, the assassin hiring husband gets his money, and it doesn’t even feel like Portia and Albie were particularly changed by their relative experiences. I don’t know. The conclusion for both seasons just fell really flat for me, and the actors are good enough to make me feel things, so I know it’s possible!
Just relax and enjoy the ride and realize that life often raises questions with ambiguous answers. People, scenery, dialogue, humor sometimes is enough. Sorry, I had a great time watching.
It’s NOT A GOOD SHOW! loved this rant review by Chris.
The show is a pretentious auteur piece that fails to deliver on every single aspect. It’s even disappointing as an escapism show (yes, I’d love to watch a show taking place in Sicily while I’m freezing my nuts off in Vancouver).
I question any film or series suggestions from anyone who liked White Lotus now.
I literally had this very discussion with my wife on the way to work this morning. We watched the last episode last night and as soon as the credits rolled I had to double check to make sure there was t one more episode we missed. In addition to all the unanswered questions you asked. I had several more:
- Was The Rich Billionairess’ husband behind the whole “abduction”. Was he gay???? Seems implausible if you watched season 1.
- What was with the guy stalking the hooker? Was he really a menace or just a plant to make Alvi want to save Lucia?
- Why would Alvi basically throw his mother, whom he sided with against his father the entire show, under the bus to get money for Lucia aka the hooker?
- WTF would the hotel manager jeopardize everything to experiment with the other hooker aka Isabella? This was an exact plot swap with season 1 btw.
- Why would Alvi dump 50K on Isabella, walk away and then reconnect with Portia after Portia completely ghosted him for the British Wanker?
- AND don’t get me started on Portia and the British Wanker. Most unbelievable relationship in TV history
- Did Lucia open a store?
With all that said, the one thing I did buy was that the Jenifer Coolidge character would fall off the yacht and bean herself on the dingy railing. She’s been a hot, uncoordinated mess for two season. This was just about the only thing that rang (pun intended) true.