The White Lotus, I think, is best when it accepts its limits: there’s only so much that Mike White, who apparently filmed the first series of the show to “get out of LA”, and owns a property in Hawaii, can do in the way of critiquing white American privilege, when he himself has said that the joy he gets from being there is on the “backs of people who have had a complicated history with people like [him]”.
My hope is that White has learnt from the mistakes of Season 1, and that this new season engages with the beauty and complexity of Thailand in a way that goes beyond throwing the odd Thai song over the credits. If we’re going to have a season in Thailand, we need Thai characters with their own interiority and fleshed-out storylines. Whatever happens, I’m begging you, Mike White: no more canoe scenes. And for God’s sake, not another close up of Steve Zahn’s d*ck.
