If anyone refers to "Sunday Scaries" during August,vintage eroticism I will assume they are talking about watching HBO's The White Lotus.
Mike White's miniseriesfollows a crooked crew of wealthy tourists and skeptical staff at a luxury resort in Hawaii. Episode 1 establishes that someone will indeed die during their weeklong stay, but we don’t know who, how, or when, and the uncertainty, per Mashable’s Alexis Nedd, is enough to make you "chip a molar."
Plenty of shows and movies tease a Big Event in the beginning and then spend their runtime revealing how it happened — so why is The White Lotusso exceptionally stressful? The sun-drenched paradise setting swiftly becomes threatening instead of inviting, and White’s direction offers scarcely a breather from constant foreboding about what the hell is going to go wrong.
White expertly ties all the characters together in scene after scene through montages; even when they aren’t crossing paths or even in the same location, he and the editors cut rapidly between concurrent action while Cristobal Tapia de Veer’s score heightens the anxiety by approximately 7000%.
"[White] wanted to have the music bubbling all the time underneath, with the characters and adding some sense of tension or mystery," Tapia de Veer told Mashable in a Zoom interview. "I thought that people could find the music groovy or whatever, but I didn't think people were going to pick all the subliminal dark stuff that's happening in there."
Tapia de Veer likened the White Lotus's characters to animals in a zoo who appear domesticated but are actually wild. In some scenes, he said, "the music is laughing at them." He uses tribal drums, primitive flutes, and even real animal noises to underscore this. The resultant "harmonic tension" ("I don't think I have one flute that is in tune with another flute") can be jarring, especially to those accustomed to Western music.
This points to another source of boiling unrest that the show finally calls out in episode 4: the legacy of colonialism. Most of White Lotus' characters are rich and white, and the few that aren't are either working for rich whites, or visiting on their dime — like Paula (Brittany O'Grady), who exits in the middle of dinner because she can't stand watching Native Hawaiians enact a luau performance for the very people who stole their land. She and Olivia (Sydney Sweeney) try to explain race and gender dynamics to Nicole (Connie Britton), but to little effect. For three episodes these characters could have been naïve to their rampant privilege; as of now, they are willfully choosing to turn a blind eye.
The girls have their own drama now, with Paula sneaking out nightly to hook up with Kai (Kekoa Kekumano) because she's afraid Olivia will try to take him if she finds out. Olivia, on her own power trip, responds by doing exactly that, flirting with Kai at the luau. Maybe it's the fact that Sweeney plays a terrifying teen so well (we all remember Sharp Objects!), but every interaction with Olivia is one errant eye roll from leaving the other party shattered. But what's a luau without a roast?
All these elements come together expertly because White is a master of his voice. The show's dark comic tone hits exactly that part of your brain that wants to cringe, hide, and also watch even more closely. It practically incites the muscles in your jaw to grimace with dread and secondhand embarrassment. Every light moment peels away at something more insidious, and by episode 6 that's all we'll be left with. The White Lotus resort may not include a theme park, but it is one harrowing rollercoaster.
The White Lotusairs Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO and HBO Max.
Topics HBO The White Lotus
Putin and Saudi Crown Prince got real broHuge Canadian cow Dozer claims to be bigger than KnickersAmazon's Christmas tree delivery is great if you own a handsawThe big cow has inspired a lot of hope and joyAll hail Cardi B eating crab legs on a planeThe skate culture parody of Instagram poets calls out bad menDick Van Dyke, 92, puts Piers Morgan in his place on TwitterThe internet mocks Donald Trump's new superhero alterScientists challenge researcher who edited the genes of baby girlsThe internet mocks Donald Trump's new superhero alter A checklist of 75 things we are willing to predict Trump will do in the near future The silliest stuff on Oprah's 2017 list of Favorite Things Police graffiti PSA becomes an online hit, because it's not very good Watch this student remix a Lil Uzi Vert song into study material John Kelly makes controversial Civil War comment on Fox News J.K. Rowling responds to Donald Trump Jr.'s tweet about socialism Trump Jr. went as his dad for Halloween because he is a desperate man An animal shelter sorted dogs into Hogwarts houses and, of course, there were lots of Hufflepuffs Hillary Clinton guest Trump's Twitter followers just 4,000 after deleted account is restored
0.1793s , 10027.109375 kb
Copyright © 2025 Powered by 【vintage eroticism】HBO’s ‘The White Lotus' elevates tension to an art form,Feature Flash