The season received critical acclaim. It received 11 nominations at the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards and nine nominations at the Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards. The season received ten wins across both ceremonies. Despite being developed as a limited series, HBO renewed the series on August 10, 2021, for a second season, making it an anthology series. The second season premiered on October 30, 2022.
Cast and characters
Main
Murray Bartlett as Armond,[1] the manager of the White Lotus resort who is also a recovering drug addict who has been clean for 5 years
Connie Britton as Nicole Mossbacher,[1] a CFO of a search engine and Mark's wife
Jennifer Coolidge as Tanya McQuoid,[1] a troubled woman whose mother recently died
Shane Patton watches as a box containing human remains is loaded onto an airplane. Seven days earlier, wealthy patrons arrive at the White Lotus resort on Maui. They are greeted by manager Armond and his pregnant employee, Lani. Shane and his new wife, Rachel, arrive for their honeymoon. He becomes fixated on a booking error, causing Rachel to question their relationship. Tanya McQuoid, who came to spread her mother's ashes, wants to schedule a massage, but it is fully booked. Belinda Lindsey, the spa's manager, instead guides her in a ceremonial chant. Tech CFO Nicole Mossbacher argues with her husband Mark about his potential cancer diagnosis; Mark decides to spend time with their son Quinn. Their daughter Olivia and her friend Paula lounge by the pool and make snide remarks about Rachel, a professional listicle writer. Lani's water breaks, but Armond does not notice. She begins to give birth as the guests dine. Mark receives a call from his doctor, but is disconnected before he learns his diagnosis. Rachel and Shane agree to put the day's conflict behind them and resume their earlier tryst.
Mark is elated when his cancer diagnosis is negative, but learns from his uncle that his father died of AIDS, having been a gay man. Shane calls his mother to have their travel agent reprimand Armond over the booking error. Rachel considers accepting a new writing assignment, but Shane insists she does not have to. Rachel meets Nicole, advising her to maintain her independence. However, Nicole begins to criticize Rachel's reporting upon realizing she wrote a listicle mentioning her, causing Rachel to doubt her career. After Shane's insistence, Rachel abandons the job. Olivia and Paula use ketamine on the beach, but are approached by Tanya and leave, forgetting Paula's bag of drugs. The bag is turned over to Armond, who keeps it and uses them to manage his stress despite being a recovering addict. Olivia becomes jealous when she sees Paula flirting with Kai, a hotel employee. Tanya invites Belinda to dinner and offers to fund a possible wellness business, which Belinda considers. When Quinn is kicked out of the hotel room by Olivia, he decides to go to the beach, where he is fascinated by watching a group of whales jumping in the ocean.
As the guests of the White Lotus wake for the day, Paula hesitates about her tryst due to Olivia's increased suspicions, while Quinn's electronics are washed away as he sleeps on the beach. Shane and Rachel have sex, but Rachel worries whether their marriage is predicated on Shane's sexual attraction to her. To console her, Shane plans a romantic dinner. Armond, displeased with Shane's incessant complaining, recommends for it to be a sunset boat ride, withholding the fact that Tanya chartered it to spread her mother's ashes in the ocean. Tanya believes the honeymooners are supporting her, and the ensuing discomfort enrages Shane. Mark remains distraught regarding his discovery regarding his father, and gets drunk while proceeding through awkward encounters with his son, Rachel, and other women at the bar. It culminates in a tepid speech when he joins his family for dinner and is rebuffed when attempting to initiate sex with Nicole. Armond also spirals after relapsing from his five-year sobriety, drinking and taking Paula's prescription medication. He flirts with hotel staffer Dillon, and reveals to Mark that he is gay, even propositioning Mark when he expresses his curiosity about anal sex. As the guests return to bed, Olivia follows Paula and sees her and Kai have sex.
Quinn wakes on the beach again to see Hawaiians singing and bringing their canoe ashore. He introduces himself later that afternoon. Tanya informs the girls that the staff does have Paula's backpack, and when they confront Armond, he decides to give it back, drugs and all; however, after Shane angrily demands to speak with Armond's boss, a livid Armond takes the drugs and returns the backpack without them. Tanya and Belinda plan to have dinner together to discuss the wellness center, but the former cancels when she is asked out by Greg, a sport fisherman staying in the room next to hers. Kitty, Shane's mother, arrives at their honeymoon hotel, much to Rachel's chagrin. Mark reveals to Quinn that he cheated on Nicole. However, at dinner, Quinn unwittingly reveals knowledge of Mark's affair in front of Nicole. Armond invites Dillon to his office to take drugs and have sex, in exchange for preferred work shifts. When Shane learns that Armond gave him a fake number for his boss, he storms into the manager's office and comes upon Armond performing anilingus on Dillon.
After getting caught having sex with Dillon by Shane, Armond is forced to move Shane and Rachel into the Pineapple Suite free of charge to avoid repercussions. Rachel begins to worry that she has become a trophy wife after talking with Kitty and second-guesses marrying Shane. Belinda tries to get Tanya to look at her business proposal, but Tanya is more concerned about Greg's interest in her. Tanya admits to Greg that she is an emotional wreck, but Greg is undeterred. Quinn enjoys paddling with a group of locals. Paula gives Kai the code to the Mossbachers' safe and convinces him to steal a pair of expensive bracelets to pay for a lawsuit against the hotel. Nicole rebukes Mark for confessing his affair to Quinn. As the Mossbachers prepare to go scuba diving in the ocean, Nicole breaks down over the pressure of having to provide for her family and receiving no respect for it and goes back to the hotel, with Mark following her. Unbeknownst to them, Kai is in their hotel room trying to steal the bracelets. Mark saves Nicole, but is beaten by Kai, who escapes. The hotel comps their stay and Mark finally gets respect from Nicole and their children, but Olivia is suspicious that Paula is involved with the robbery.
Rachel tells Shane that she regrets marrying him. Tanya decides to stay with Greg despite his terminal illness and tells Belinda she wants to end her dependency on transactional relationships, leaving her a large sum of cash instead. Dejected, Belinda discards her business plan. Kai gets arrested and the Mossbachers' stolen jewelry is recovered, confirming Olivia's suspicions about Paula. Paula admits her involvement in the robbery, but accuses Olivia of being as privileged as the rest of her family. The two later reconcile when Paula expresses her regret. Quinn tells his parents he wants to stay on the island to join the local paddlers, which they dismiss outright. Shane hears of the robbery while talking to the Mossbachers and calls his travel agent, who informs Armond's superior. This in turn gets Armond fired from the White Lotus. Armond spends his last workday getting heavily intoxicated on Olivia and Paula's remaining drugs. That night, after serving dinner, Armond sneaks into Shane's suite and defecates in his suitcase. However, Shane returns before Armond can leave. Sensing an intruder, Shane arms himself with a pineapple knife and inadvertently stabs Armond, killing him. Armond's body is loaded onto the guests' return flight. Rachel arrives at the airport and decides to stay with Shane. Quinn leaves the airport to join the Hawaiian paddlers after the rest of his family boards the plane.
Production
Development
On October 19, 2020, HBO gave The White Lotus a limited series order that consisted of six episodes.[9] The series was created, written and directed by Mike White. White also serves as executive producer alongside David Bernad and Nick Hall.[10] Mark Kamine serves as the co-executive producer.[11] In an interview with Ben Travers of IndieWire at the 2021 ATX Television Festival, White explained his creative inspiration for the first season. White wished to explore the question of "how money can pervert even our most intimate relationships," to examine the "ethics of vacationing in other people's realities," and to present the "flesh and blood" experience of being gripped by the power dynamics of "today's culture wars".[12]
Following the first season’s critical acclaim and viewership numbers, the show was renewed as an anthology series, which will tell the story of a different group of travelers during their stay at another White Lotus property.[13]
Filming
Principal photography for the first season began in October 2020 in Hawaii under COVID-19 guidelines.[14] By November 21, 2020, the series was halfway through filming at the Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea and was scheduled to film in December at locations around Maui. This included Lana'i Island where they shot some beach scenes.[15][16][17] Zahn told The Hollywood Reporter that the Four Seasons was closed during filming, which resulted in a bubble for the cast and crew. Both he and Hechinger got PADI certified for the scuba scenes.[18]Ben Kutchins served as the director of photography for the season.[19]
Chilean composer Cristobal Tapia de Veer was hired by White to score the season. The theme tune for the season, "Aloha!", was composed to evoke sounds of the jungle. Tapia de Veer used unusual methods, including over-blowing into a flute and performing squawking vocal noises and "monkey sounds" himself. He also used a South American charango, a dozen or so drums from different cultures (mostly handmade drums fashioned from wood and animal skin), a variety of natural shakers, and some piano.[23]
Budget
According to Vulture, the costs of production for the season was under US$3 million per episode.[24]
Release
The season premiered on July 11, 2021, on HBO and HBO Max.[25][26] In the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, the season premiered on Sky Atlantic on August 16, 2021.[27]
Home media
The season was released on DVD on September 13, 2022.[28]
Reception
Critical response
Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 90% for the first season of The White Lotus based on 97 critic reviews, with an average rating of 8.4/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Though its true intentions can get a bit murky, gorgeous vistas, twisty drama, and a pitch perfect cast make The White Lotus a compelling—if uncomfortable—viewing destination."[29] On Metacritic, the season has a score of 82 out of 100 based on 39 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[30]
Matthew Jacobs of TV Guide rated it 4.5 out of 5 and wrote that it is "some of the year's best television thus far."[31]Rolling Stone's Alan Sepinwall graded it 3.5 out of 5 stars and called it "frequently uncomfortable, sometimes poetic, occasionally hilarious, and deeply idiosyncratic throughout."[32] White's attention to character detail was praised, with Naomi Fry of The New Yorker lauding his "affection for his characters, who never feel like caricatures", and Judy Berman of Time commenting he is "uniquely attuned to characters' internal conflicts as well as their varying level of self-awareness."[33]The New York Times's James Poniewozik commended White's signature balance of "sardonic and sincere" tones and his "ear for how people can weaponize idealism", though he also noted the writing "sometimes strains to be topical, with its culture-warMad Libs references to triggering and cucking, canceling and doxxing."[34] The performances of the ensemble cast were widely praised, with Roxana Hadadi of RogerEbert.com giving four stars out of four and writing it reveals a "combination of performances that are nearly universally enthralling."[35] Of the character of Armond, Poniewozik wrote Bartlett shows "the invisible gymnastics that go into this job" and plays him like "a coiled spring".[34] Hadadi lauded Rothwell's "nuanced, elastic work" with a "haunting" final onscreen moment.[35] Berman said Coolidge is poised to be the series' breakout but also praised Zahn, Bartlett, Rothwell, Lacy, Sweeney, and Daddario.[33]
Criticisms of the first season lamented that the nonwhite, native Hawaiian characters who work at the resort, such as Lani and Kai, received little screen time and were the least developed characters. In this way, critics argued the show did not sufficiently engage in the topics of issues the show seemed poised to critique in its satirization of the affluent, white upper class.[34][36][37] Poniewozik felt the show "could use more attention to the downstairs half of its upstairs-downstairs story; it flicks at, but doesn't really explore, the lives of the native Hawaiian staff busing tables and performing dinnertime rituals" for the guests.[34] Mitchell Kuga of Vox wrote, "scraping at imperialism, The White Lotus mimes a moral center but never engages the topic beyond mere gesture...how successful can a piece of satire be if it replicates the very power structures it purports to satirize?"[37] White has said the intention of giving native characters less screen time was to show how "interchangeable" the workers appear to the more privileged.[38]
Inkoo Kang of The Washington Post said the characters and performances "make for a twisty, queasy, sweatily claustrophobic drama", but opined that next to other popular TV shows that center on white, affluent people, such as Succession, Big Little Lies, The Undoing, and The Crown, The White Lotus does not have anything new "to observe about the trail of casual destruction the moneyed and connected can leave in their unhappy wake."[39] In The Observer, Kyle Turner wrote, "as someone who is very fond of White's usually tender, deft hand at balancing tone", he hoped the show had "more precision in its aimed poisoned arrows."[40] Turner added the show is "too broad to be a good satire, too pointedly critical to be a straight tragedy, too invested in its melodrama to be a broad comedy, until it becomes ouroborosian in its indecision on tone and ethos. It's not that these genres and tropes can't coexist. It's that here, they float adrift, devoid of alchemical balance."[40]
Critics were divided about the season, with Kang saying the "swerve late in the series disappointingly sails the story toward calmer waters. Once the turbulence is over, only froth remains."[39][41] Other critics, such as Emily St. James of Vox, argued that what they considered the anticlimactic nature of the ending was precisely the point of the show and underscored White's commentary on the powerful and the privileged.[42][43]
The first season of The White Lotus ranked number one among all series on HBO Max and achieved consistent week-over-week growth for both the premiere and digital audience.[13]
More specifically, the second episode showed a 9.29% increase in premiere ratings from the first episode, while the third episode only saw a 4.14% increase, the fourth episode saw a 7.74% increase, the fifth episode saw a 5.05% increase, the sixth and final episode saw a 57.12% increase making it the largest ratings increase in the season. The first season also reached an average of 0.544 million viewers in ratings.[45]
Ratings
Viewership and ratings per episode of The White Lotus season 1
