HBO satire ‘The White Lotus’ hit uncomfortably close to home for its creator, Mike White
- White privilege and the perils of wealth are the themes of this comedy set at a Hawaiian resort
- Writer-director Mike White pokes fun at the entitled rich, and hopes viewers see something of themselves in the characters
Money is the root of all satire in HBO’s The White Lotus.
Specifically, well-heeled white holidaymakers at a Hawaiian resort are the targets of writer-director Mike White’s barbed take on class and privilege in the six-episode limited series.
The White Lotus explores “how money – and who has the money – can pervert even the most intimate relationships, and how it courses through all our relationships,” White says.
The resort guests include dominant tech exec Nicole (Connie Britton) and her insecure husband Mark (Steve Zahn), an out-of-balance power couple accompanied by their two teen children and a friend; needy Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge), grieving the loss of her mother, who forms an awkward bond with helpful spa manager Belinda (Natasha Rothwell); and honeymooner Rachel (Alexandra Daddario), increasingly horrified about her new partner, the petty, self-satisfied Shane (Jake Lacy).
The arrival of Shane’s mother (Molly Shannon), there to help him deal with his eternal dissatisfaction over having to settle for the resort’s second-best suite, might not be the stuff of honeymoon dreams. “I do not think that bodes well for the future of that marriage,” Lacy says.