Broey Deschanel

The White Lotus | Review

Added 2021-10-04 14:17:14 +0000 UTC

Shows like The White Lotus, which present themselves as allegorical of a greater societal problem, tend to leave viewers clamouring to dissect just what exactly the point really is. But with a show that tackles perhaps some of the most macro-scale questions attempted in recent media history; a global, existentialist scale to be exact, it is difficult to know what exactly the point really is. Some have taken away that The White Lotus is a total indictment of its privileged guests, others have viewed it as an important learning experience both for the privileged characters and for viewers, and others see it as a hapless attempt at white self-critique. I think, in many ways, The White Lotus is all these things. It is prestige television, with wonderful performances, cinematography, and writing. It is a nuanced look at complicated individuals who stride the line between archetypal and idiosyncratic. It is also a contradictory attempt to paint a searing portrait of neo-colonialism and Western abundance which simultaneously films on Hawaiian land for profit and features very little of the native Hawaiian perspective. It can be all these things at once. I thoroughly enjoyed The White Lotus, and I believe it came at a good time - since the problem of tourism is becoming ever more salient (Hawaiians are literally begging people not to visit right now). I think a lot of critiques of the show profoundly miss the point - and that a show, just by focusing on the antagonists, is not vindicating them. Yes, The White Lotus does pose complicated problems of representations that go beyond the general critiques I've seen out there - maybe enough so that I’ll make a video about it?