Warning: the article may contain spoilers on The White Lotus, Nine Perfect Strangers, Acapulco, Succession, The Resort
The seasonal anthology tv series of Mike White, The White Lotus, continues to dominate international trends for months. Since the weekly release of the first season, designed as a one-off miniseries, in July 2021, the dark comedy of HBO she established herself with a peculiar style, abrasive and irresistible as much as her most emblematic star: Jennifer Coolidge. Thanks to the first production, the show has earned a unanimous opinion consent of public and critics, so as to win 5 Primetime Emmy Awards and get a lucky one renewal for a second season from Format anthologicalbut somehow continuous, thanks to the iconic and tormented character of Jennifer Coolidge, Tanya. The White Lotus is a winning mix of cynicism, black humor, dark drama and an all-star cast deftly combined to an uncomfortable, controversial and provocative story like few others in such a dense landscape of television shows.
From the first to the second season, The White Lotus maintains an unmistakable style that is repeated in the plot, in the characters and in the glue of the events.
The White Lotus is an acid story that starts from luxurious vacation of a group of wealthy guests at the White Lotus resort chain, run by turns by a chaotic hotel manager. From utopian Hawaii to dreamlike Sicily, the stay of vacationers, different from time to time, is united by plots that highlight their discomfort and ineptitude. Games of money, power, sex and deadly sins that move characters unable to consciously govern their own trajectories and who are destined to be shaken, ridiculed. That of The White Lotus it is a journey that leaves no escape to anyone in a scenario that is only apparently idyllic. And it is precisely for this and many other reasons that the success of the HBO TV series is unstoppable. The empty left by the vision of stories of this type is often unfillable. Speaking of which, today we offer four shows to venture into for lovers of unscrupulous dramas like those The White Lotus. Or for those who have appreciated some characteristic elements.
1) Nine Perfect Strangers
Nine Perfect Strangers takes up the recurring and prevalent concept of The White Lotus. The subtle and pungent criticism of the seemingly perfect and idyllic world of the richest. Nine Perfect Strangers it’s a eat-the-rich less immediate than in the history of The White Lotus which, on the contrary, is much more direct and accessible. From the atmospheres almost dreamlikethe TV series of Hulu (available in Italy on Amazon Prime Video) has an almost similar structure: a group of nine very rich and apparently perfect guests, unknown to each other, go together to a very expensive refuge in nature. With the aim of embarking on a spiritual journey and ritual within the luxurious structure, the misfit protagonists are destined to live an experience beyond expectations. Guided for 10 days by the creepy Masha inside the Quiet House, the nine complete strangers believe they can pay to heal their dramas and traumas. Within a few episodes, all the discomfort and ineptitude of the tormented vacationers are highlighted, and of Masha herself, who hides much more than it seems.
2) Acapulco
acapulco is the story of social climbing of the young Mexican Maximo Gallardo. Starting from a family of humble origins, the enterprising protagonist seeks success and social and economic revenge as the new employee of the luxurious resort in Acapulco, The hills, together with his lifelong friend Memo. Run by the superfluous and eccentric Diane Davis, the hotel is known to the locals for being a place where hovering corruption, materialism and capital sins. Warned by his very traditional mother, Maximo embarks on his journey inside the structure for wealthy Anglo-Saxon holidaymakers. acapulco above all, it is a comedy that recounts with an ironic, sweet and light language the roaring eighties and the youth of the protagonist, who in the present is a grown and accomplished man, economically speaking, who looks back at his past and at the journey he has made up to that moment. Frantic, colorful and sparkling, the show by Apple Tv+ inspired by the 2017 film, How to be a Latin Lovermakes fun of the rich and the poor, with a humor between Latin and Saxon which refers in a satirical tone to the classic South American soap operas. A story apparently halfway between a dream and a fairy tale, acapulco it is immediately an indispensable comfort show.
3) Succession
Succession is an American television series hosted on the same broadcaster as The White Lotus, HBO. It’s about the quintessential family drama recent years: in its three seasons currently available, Jesse Armstrong’s show tells the story of the tumultuous Roy familyowner of the conglomerate Waystar Roy Co, one of the largest media and entertainment companies in the world. The head of the family Logan Roy, his wife Marcia and the four very different children from different marriages, implement a mosaic crossed by constant and renewed power games and corruption. In an ecosystem where control and hegemony prevail over everything, the characters are constantly driven by the lust for power and to hold more and more of everything. Succession starts from the patriarch’s precarious health conditions, a pivotal element that highlights the dysfunctionality family and personal life of the Roys with acid and comical tone. A modern tragicomedy which stands out from the rest, so much so that it constantly collects prizes and awards, among Golden Globes, Primetime Emmy Awards and so on. Succession it is vivid, provocative, fierce and full of pathos, imposing itself as one of the cult dramas in the serial world.
4) The Resort
The Resort is a dark comedy that takes up one of the central themes of The White Lotus: a group of holidaymakers in a resort that offers them much more than they can expect. As in the HBO TV series, both seasons start from the revelation of a mysterious death, also the show of Peacock faces a hidden riddle about the disappearance of a couple of individuals. Noah and Emma are on vacation for their tenth anniversary on the Riviera Maya, in the Caribbean seas. There crisis interior and couple that crosses the duo of protagonists runs in parallel, together with a mystery in which they end up involved. Noah and Emma are accidentally compromised with no return: immersed in an unsolved crime of fifteen years earlier, the two participate in the investigation into the disappearance of a couple who preceded them. The challenge even tests the intra and interpersonal problems of the spouses with a dark and comic tone that characterizes in an identity way The Resortamong the most pleasant surprises of last year.
