Season 2 of Mike White’s The White Lotus swaps Hawaii for Sicily, brings in an (almost) entirely new cast of resort guests and employees, remixes its iconic theme song, and lets loose yet another tidal wave of chaos. However, despite the makeover, The White Lotus Season 2 feels very much like its predecessor — for better and for worse.
The White Lotus Season 2 boasts an incredible cast
Fresh off her Emmy win, Jennifer Coolidge returns as the wealthy Tanya McQuoid, along with Jon Gries as her husband Greg. Their marriage is anything but paradise: Tanya is still deeply unhappy, and she worries that Greg isn’t telling her something. Coolidge is brilliant as always, although early episodes of the season (I have seen the first five) give her less to do. Things pick up for her after she meets a group of gay men who are utterly obsessed with her, leading to some of the season’s funniest and most poignant conversations.
Accompanying Tanya is her twenty-something assistant Portia (Haley Lu Richardson), who is desperately seeking a career change. Yes, she’s at a five-star resort in Sicily, but she still feels unfulfilled and without purpose. She hits it off with Albie (Adam DiMarco), another guest who’s in Sicily with his grandfather Bert (F. Murray Abraham) and his womanizing father Dominic (Michael Imperioli).
With a wife and daughter who hate him due to his behavior, Dominic is our major introduction to the season’s main themes of fidelity and sex — themes that will quickly consume every character. He makes contact with local sex worker Lucia (Simona Tabasco), who brings her friend Mia (Beatrice Grannò) along with her to the White Lotus. The intrusion of the locals aggravates hotel manager Valentina, played by the hilariously no-nonsense Sabrina Impacciatore, who I truly wish we got to see more of.
That’s already a ton of characters to keep track of, and I haven’t even gotten to the core four. The centerpiece of The White Lotus Season 2 is undoubtedly a pair of married couples played by Aubrey Plaza, Will Sharpe, Meghann Fahy, and Theo James. Cameron (James) and Daphne (Fahy) have invited Harper (Plaza) and Ethan (Sharpe) on vacation. Cameron and Ethan were college roommates, and now that Ethan has sold his company, Harper is convinced Cameron is trying to get Ethan to invest in him. Harper in particular is disdainful of Cameron and Daphne’s extreme wealth and unwillingness to engage in the world around them — they don’t vote or read the news.
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All four actors play the uncomfortable power dynamics within the group to perfection. James gets to go full jerk mode, making for a great foil to Sharpe’s more passive Ethan. The entire season seems to be building up to Ethan’s breaking point in the face of Cameron’s gross misconduct, but when (and how) it will occur remains an exciting mystery. Then there’s Fahy, so brilliant as a character who appears to be a vapid housewife until we truly get to know her. Fahy peels back the layers of Daphne and her relationship with Cameron bit by bit until we realize that she is full of surprises — some quite funny, others absolutely heartbreaking. Rounding out the quartet is Plaza, whose acerbic delivery and understated comedic timing remain unmatched. Watching the tensions between these four come to light is a delicious treat in a season that can at times feel overstuffed. Other plots are engaging, but every time White cuts away from these four, you’ll wish you could spend a little more time with them.
An undeniably horny season
While sex definitely figured into The White Lotus Season 1, it shoots to the forefront in Season 2. Luckily for us, this iteration of the show is at its best and by far most interesting when it’s examining its characters’ relationships to sex and to their partners. It’s also where The White Lotus embraces its messiness, which is perfect if you want the chaos of a reality show like Love is Blind paired with gorgeous cinematography and the sheen of prestige TV.
The White Lotus‘s portrayal of sex and relationships ranges from the awkward first interactions between Albie and Portia, to the sad disconnect between Tanya and Greg, to the absolutely gut-churning…whatever is happening with Harper, Ethan, Daphne, and Cameron. In the show’s first episode, Cameron strips down near Harper in a violating power play, which Ethan later dismisses as a total accident. And that’s not even close to how unhinged this season gets.
The guests of the White Lotus can’t escape questions of sex and monogamy, and neither can the viewers. The new opening credits sequence is chock full of sexually charged and occasionally violent murals. A major recurring motif throughout the season is the appearance of Sicilian ceramic heads, a staple of art around the island that comes from a legend of a jilted woman cutting off her lover’s head. Like with much of the rest of the show, White lays this symbolism on a bit thick. How many times do we have to see shots of these heads underscored by foreboding music?
The White Lotus Season 2 occasionally succumbs to Season 1’s pitfalls
This latest installment of The White Lotus is full of the kinds of jaw-droppingly uncomfortable conversations that made Season 1 must-watch TV, yet it also retreads story moments we’ve seen before, which dulls some of its surprise. As per what is becoming The White Lotus‘s formula, the season opens with the death of some unknown character and then flashes back to a week prior. Only this time, in a deviation from the formula, multiple people are dead! Later, Valentina also gets stuck with what feels like watered-down elements of Armond’s Season 1 storyline. At a certain point, a bag full of drugs becomes a major plot device — where have we seen that before?
Like with Season 1, Season 2’s satire is at times far too on the nose. « We’re saying something important! » The White Lotus crows at seemingly every opportunity. However, it is so focused on the mere fact that it’s addressing class and privilege that it rarely takes a chance to dive deeper. Remarking that wealth makes people behave differently — most often badly — is not nearly as revelatory as the show seems to think it is.
The White Lotus‘s shortcomings as a concept are certainly on display this season, but the performances and the outrageous plot twists are so compulsively watchable it’s impossible not to keep tuning back in. Like the ideal holiday, it’s enjoyable, frothy, and seductive… although unlike said holiday, there are times when you wish The White Lotus was a little less over the top.
Season 2 of The White Lotus premieres Oct. 30 at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max, with new episodes airing weekly.
