HBO’s “The White Lotus” Renewed for Second Season

By Jill Brooke

In the language of flowers, lotus flowers symbolize renewal.

And that’s a good thing because the satirical HBO series, “The White Lotus” has just been renewed. Taking place in a resort hotel in Hawaii, there is plenty of tropical fabrics, flowers and heat between the very flawed characters. It was a six-part series that attracted more than 450,000 viewers a week.

Created, written and directed by Mike White, “The White Lotus”  premiered on HBO on July 11, 2021. The series was filmed in Hawaii in late 2020.

The next series will take place in another “White Lotus” resort with new cast members and locations.

As Roger Friedman of showbiz411 pointed out, it’s too bad “White Lotus” came out after the Emmy deadline since several performances were award-worthy. And there are no Golden Globes from them to look forward to either.

“A lot of the cast deserves nominations for acting, and the writing has improved from week to week,” he says. “Jennifer Coolidge would have been a slam dunk for Best Supporting Actress, easily.”

Coolidge plays a single, boozy down on her luck broad named Tanya McQuoid who adds tragic levity to the series. The hotel manager Armond, who is a recovering drug addict who goes off the wagon after taking a guest’s drug stash, is played memorably by Murray Bartlett.

I particularly appreciated Amanda Whiting’s review in Vulture where the flower is a metaphor – as it always is – for plot.

“In Homer’s Odyssey, the lotus fruit is so enchanting that Odysseus’s men who unwittingly eat it lose all desire for home — not a bad analogy for a good vacation,” she observes. “But by the time Tennyson’s mariners wash up on the peculiar island, getting high on lotus is an act of moral rebellion: “Ah, why Should life all labour be?”

“The narcotic on this island isn’t release from the obligation of home, but from the world of consequence. Tanya will never care or perhaps even notice the accidents she leaves in her wake.”

But it is no accident that the series got renewed. Too many insights into the foibles and narcissism of so many around us.