This should be the start of the Fall television series in the United States. However, that’s not going to happen now as the big Hollywood studious just made a deal with the Writer’s Guild of America but still have to find a consensus with the Screen Actors Guild. So, in the meantime, I’ve taken the opportunity to catch up on my massive backlog of television programs that I’ve either neglected to see because I didn’t have access to them when they were vogue or just never found the time to do so.

With regards to the former, that’s where HBO’s The White Lotus comes in. I’ve had the HBO Go service for a few months now but I never heard of anyone talking about the show here in the Philippines. So, I decided to take a bit of a risk and go see The White Lotus and I’ve actually watched both seasons already. While I will say it was good overall, in my opinion, one season is greater than the other.

Ss there may be people who were on the same boat as me, I will be making this review of both seasons of The White Lotus SPOILER FREE. Besides, while the overall premise, which involves various rich people going on vacation to luxury franchise resorts and you know someone is going to die by the very end, is very simple, each season has a lot of overarching stories with some of them eventually intersecting. So, yeah. SPOILER FREE to keep things simple. And, yes, I’ll be reviewing both seasons here, starting with the first season.

The first season involves different families going on holiday at The White Lotus resort in Maui. The visitors include a newlywed couple, a rather dysfunctional family and a aging rich socialite who wants to scatter her mother’s ashes somewhere in the resort area. Among the resort staff members who play a central role in their stories is the recovering addict of a hotel manager and the spa manager who has dreams of opening up her own wellness treatment center.

I will say everyone acting is really good. Unfortunately, it is a little too good as most of them come off as very insufferable. I’m not sure if that was the goal but I can’t help but think that was the goal of this season of the show as it seemed to target how superficial and unempathetic the super rich can be without realizing it. If that was the goal, then bravo! All of the actors did a wonderful job of making me hate them.

One big problem I have with the first season is that The White Lotus is supposed to be a comedy and drama program. Well, it’s almost like they forgot the first part as I didn’t find it all that funny. I guess you can chalk it up to how much I didn’t like the majority of the characters. It’s kind of hard to laugh when they encounter awkward situations when you just want to see them suffer. The only one I really found funny was Jennifer Coolidge character as you do kind of sympathize with her a little bit as she’s just too awkward and she doesn’t know how to interact with people. I hate to say it but I kind of identify with her in that aspect. So, when Jennifer Coolidge’s character asks funny, I can kind of understand her situation and chuckle.

Despite me practically hating every character in the show, I still kept on watching. Why? Well, I actually did want to see the ends of each of the vacationers stories because I had no idea where things were headed. I knew there was supposed to be someone who dies at the very end but that really didn’t interest me all that much. I was genuinely curious about what would happen to these people. Not that I cared for them, no. Heck, if half of them died, I would’ve leapt out of my seat to cheer! But I wanted to see what would happen to them because I honestly didn’t know how things were going to wrap up for any of them. This is coming from a guy who saw the trailer for Armageddon and know what was going to happen to Bruce Willis’ character instantly! So, when I can’t figure out what’s going to happen based on all of the information I’ve seen, I just had to know. Well, they all got some form of closure and I do like that, let’s just say, most of them didn’t get the happy endings they didn’t deserve.

The second season of the White Lotus did fare a little better with the story and the characters as I did find them much more likable than the first season. This time around, we had two rich couples, with one pair being fairly down-to-earth as they’ve only recently hit it big and the other pair being more douche-y and superficial. We also have three generations of men who are at this White Lotus to try to get in contact with their roots and for one of them to avoid the conflict he currently has with his wife. There’s also a couple of high-class prostitutes who visit the resort to find people to hook up with but one of them has dreams of being a singer. These two always get the side-eye from the resort’s manager, who wants to keep this kind of trash out of the classy resort. The only returning cast member from the first season is Jennifer Coolidge’s character who is on somewhat of a honeymoon with someone she met in the first season. Oh, and she brought her assistant along with her, which does throw a wrench in the husband’s plans for the holiday.

This time, I was a little more accepting of the type of humor as, like I mentioned before, the characters this time around are a lot of palatable. And this time, some of them actually have a story arc and some character development as the series goes. The interactions between all the parties involve do come off as better intertwined, as if they do have some purpose in how they influence one another as we move from episode to episode. I also do love the foreshadowing done here, especially with Jennifer Coolidge’s character’s story.

Like with the first season, I didn’t know what was going to happen with the characters early on. However, the second season is a little more predictable but I was only able to really string things together during the final couple of episodes. Still, I was able to figure things out eventually. Even though I could predict what was going to happen, they did throw a few out-of-nowhere curve balls, which I do appreciate.

Overall, I can’t really recommend the first season of The White Lotus. Despite it having the more unpredictable stories, the characters were just too unlikable and it can be a little hard to get through. The second season, however, does get a thumbs up from me. Thankfully, even though Jennifer Coolidge’s character being the carryover from the first season, the second season can stand on its own without you having any knowledge of the previous one. So, basically, skip the first season and go right to the second.

Have you seen the White Lotus? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments section below!