via @mcjeppy
Mike White’s Predictable Formula
An unidentified body is discovered. Cristobal Tapia de Veer’s addicting tribal score kicks in. The narrative flashes back to a week or so beforehand, whereupon the hotel staff (and audience) is introduced to a new crop of guests. This is how every season of The White Lotus begins.
True fans of The White Lotus know that the mystery plot is merely a backdrop to explore thorny themes of privilege, class, and uncomfortable social dynamics among the mostly ultra-wealthy characters. It’s not until right before the finale that people begin to care about who isn’t going to check out of the hotel. It’s a classic example of what screenwriters call a MacGuffin—a device used to set the story and characters in motion, but it’s ultimately a means to a greater end. In other words, it’s never about the murder plot. It’s about how the high stakes situations deepen and reveal the characters’ true selves, which are more often than not, pretty detestable. Anyone remember those uncomfortable scenes between Jake Lacy’s smug guest and Murray Bartlett’s self-destructive manager in season one? Or how about the biting yet seductive rivalry between Aubrey Plaza and Theo James last season? These are the moments where The White Lotus really shines.
Normally, one would expect a mystery of this kind to have classic misdirections, where we think one person is going to be the culprit the whole time until the rug is pulled out from underneath the audience and a true villain is revealed. That’s not how Mike White approaches the narrative momentum of The White Lotus.
Instead, it’s all about tense exchanges between the characters that gradually bubble to the surface in surprising ways. The shocking moments are more about social taboos and the darkly comedic sides of human behavior rather than traditional, thrilling plot twists. Even in the end, after the identity of the victim is unveiled, the vast majority of the characters’ lives are not changed much by the revelation, which only further illustrates White’s point of view on the lack of empathy that his vapid, superficial cast of characters possess.
Why the Formula Still Works in Seasons 2 and 3
That narrative trajectory was subversive and fresh in the first season of The White Lotus, which was initially billed as a limited series before its success led to a surprise renewal. HBO had done this before to varying degrees of success. Season two of Big Little Lies was not nearly as critically acclaimed as season one, with many reviews dismissing it as unnecessary fan service (though I would call that great fan service). Given that the structure of the second season of The White Lotus would strongly resemble that of the first, one would think the audience reception would have been more critical, and yet, it was even more widely praised. Part of that was because of the virality of Jennifer Coolidge, whose performance won her two Emmys for the series.
However, I’d like to think that what has made the reception of these later seasons so positive is precisely because Mike White did not try to dress up his series as something that it isn’t. Sure, new areas are explored within the overall themes of class and privilege, but White’s choice to double—and now triple—down on the same structural and thematic framework is, in its own way, a flex.
It’s an insistence that the formula works and that fans do not need classic action and intrigue. Instead, fans want those 20-minute cringeworthy dinner scenes that come nearly every episode, where these unlikeable yet incredibly watchable characters are constantly one-upping each other with witty barbs and piercing glances. We want to see these wealthy people argue, sin, and grapple with their own warped worldviews.
That’s what I’ll be looking forward to when I tune in every Sunday night this month, and I believe it’s why the hype for the third season of HBO’s anthology still persists despite having taken a two-year hiatus between seasons. Superfans do not love The White Lotus because of any so-called prestige factor, although the impressive roster of actors joining the series from Walton Goggins to Parker Posey certainly is exciting. Rather, superfans love The White Lotus because it has a formulaic structure that works. It consistently executes its predictable subject matter well, thereby providing an endless amount of satisfaction for its audience. That sounds a lot more like comfort TV to me than anything else.