11 Recent TV Shows That Surprised Everyone
8. The White Lotus
HBO rarely
misfires. Their quality over quantity approach has seen them earn consistent
plaudits since the release of their first original drama, Oz, twenty-five years
ago. The bar has been set very high by the likes of The Wire, The Sopranos,
Band Of Brothers and Curb Your Enthusiasm, but they seem to keep hitting it,
with recent success stories including Succession, Mare Of Easttown and The
White Lotus.
A dark comedy-drama centred around a mysterious death at a luxury hotel resort, the White Lotus succeeds at both drawing laughs and shocks from its ensemble cast in equal measure.
The upper-middle class guests and the resort employees that are both essential and anonymous to them could’ve easily been caricatures, but each is written to be deep if not likable, hitting the jackpot on a host of contemporary topics from the growing gulf between rich and poor to the ‘struggles’ of being a straight white man.
An on-fire Jennifer Coolidge steals the show, whilst Alexandra Daddario’s listicle writer gives hope to all WhatCulture authors that we might be sent on assignment to Maui one day!
Initially envisioned as a self-contained limited series, The White Lotus has now been repurposed as an anthology, with a second season focusing on a new cast of characters in another resort. True Detective crashed and burned with such an approach, so here’s hoping that lightning doesn’t strike twice.