(TV SERIES) The White Lotus Season 1 - An HBO Original Anthology Drama Comedy Series with Unconventional Humor and Satirical Approach

I was aware of this HBO original series few weeks ago where it was said to be praised by movie critics and was categorized as drama comedy. Since it was available on HBO Go, it was easily accessible for me and I managed to finish it very fast cause it only have 6 episodes overall. Now why don't I get to the series.

Brief Story Line

Set in Hawaii, a group of VIP travellers went for a vacation at the White Lotus resort for a week. The group included a newlywed couple on their honeymoon Shane (Jake Lacy - Johnny English Strikes Again, High Fidelity TV series etc) and Rachel (Alexandra Daddario - Baywatch movie, Why Women Kill TV series etc), a wealthy single woman named Tanya McQuoid (Jennifer Coolidge - The Emoji Movie, A Cinderella Story etc) and the Mossbacher family consisted of a successful career woman Nicole (Connie Britton - Friday Night Lights TV series etc) with her husband Mark (Steve Zahn - War for Planet of the Apes, Stuart Little films etc) and their children, college student Olivia (Sydney Sweeney - Euphoria TV series etc) & her younger brother Quinn (Fred Hechinger - The Woman in the Window, Fear Street trilogy etc) plus Olivia's best friend Paula (Brittany O'Grady - Black Christmas etc).

When they arrived at White Lotus, the guests were greeted by the cheerful resort manager Armond (Murray Bartlett - Guiding Light TV series etc), the spa manager Belinda (Natasha Rothwell - Insecure TV series etc) and other staff members. The staff tried their best to make these guests enjoy their stay at the resort. However, things did not really went well with so many challenges and personal problems the guests and staff faced during that week.

So what would happen to them? Find them all in the first season of this anthology series

End of Brief Story Line

Well that was a bit unexpected. When I read about the series being praised by critics for its humor and I thought it would be a straight up comedy. Apparently it was not the type of comedy that I had in mind, and it was classified as a Satire. The first few minutes of the 1st episode did intrigued me, and that scene totally changed the way I looked at the series. As I continued watching with excitement and curiosity, I found myself to be enjoying looking at the guests and the staffs' dynamics.

The second episode though did not truly excite me. Not until the 3rd episode (which later became my favorite of all) that I felt the comedy outshone the dramatic moments. It was full of scenes that I liked due to its dark humor. However, the subsequent episodes actually felt darker and having more drama. Until it culminated in the final episode which I liked because it managed to give me a surprising twist. One repulsive scene aside, the 6th episode was actually quite brilliant. Although I was not too satisfied with the ending as it did not seem fair for few. 

The large ensemble cast of this series did their job amazingly. They were convincing in their roles and I even really hated the two college girls Olivia and Paula who were so cynical, obnoxious and hard on the socially awkward Quinn. Btw, the series have few nudity scenes which might be shocking for people (a bit too graphic to my personal taste) and quite a lot of substance use. Every episode has like > 50 minutes which was quite long. But as I said above, since it only has 6 episodes, it did not take too much time to finish. And in addition to enjoying the acting and the story development, the lovely Hawaii sceneries were quite breath taking. Not even I who am not really a beach person could deny such beauty paradise-like views.

Overall this anthology series which started of as a limited series but later renewed for a second season, might not be the type of drama comedy series which could be enjoyed by all people. I myself was not loving it entirely and only half enjoyed them. I like the humor of 3rd episode and I like the twist in last episode but other episodes just went by without leaving too much impressions. I get why critics love this with the combination of wonderful writing, acting and story but on a personal level, I would prefer one with more comedy. Oh before I forgot, the series was created, written and directed by Mike White (writer of movies like Orange County, School of Rock, Nacho Libre and few other comedy films). So if you like this kind of series, then you can give it a try on HBO Go.  

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Definition of Satire according to Wikipedia: 

Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, with the intent of shaming individuals, corporations, government, or society itself into improvement Although satire is usually meant to be humorous, its greater purpose is often constructive social criticism, using wit to draw attention to both particular and wider issues in society.