Currently Consuming: The Unsettling Privilege on Display in "White Lotus"

Last time I did “Currently Consuming,” I wrote about Manifest which was really more of a hate watch. This is different. I ate White Lotus up with a spoon. It’s currently streaming on HBO Max, having just completed its limited 6 episode run, so it’s easily bingeable now. I’m sad it’s over and wish there was more to it, but sometimes these HBO limited series are the best, because you know the creators have fully thought out each episode, every detail is crucial to the plot and it’s all leading to a wrap up that makes sense. In White Lotus, we know where the show is going from the start because it opens with an unidentified body being loaded onto a plane. The rest of the episodes take place a week earlier where we eventually learn who, where, why, and how. And if you haven’t watched it, don’t worry. I’m not giving any spoilers.

The setting for the entire show is at a high end resort in Hawaii called the White Lotus, telling the stories of both the wealthy guests and the staff who serve them over the course of one week. Each episode takes place in one day, opening on tech CFO Nicole Mossbacher (played by Connie Britton and her amazing hair) trying to get her ungrateful family up and out the door for the hotel breakfast buffet. I think every mom can relate.

The other guests at the resort include an entitled frat boy (Shane) steeped in generational wealth who can’t get over the fact that he was given a room slightly less luxurious than the one he paid for and his new wife (Rachel) who is quickly regretting her decision to marry rich while simultaneously realizing the limits of her own potential. Unfortunately, Shane is the character who you would most wish dead, but since he is in the opening scene, you know he survives his honeymoon.

Another guest is an aging alcoholic woman named Tanya, played by Jennifer Coolidge, who came to Hawaii to rid herself of her mother’s ashes. While going through an emotional breakdown, she finds comfort in Belinda, the manager of the hotel spa. Tanya then tries to befriend Belinda, essentially using her for companionship while she is on vacation by dangling the possibility of going into business together, saying that she will fund the endeavor. Their relationship is incredibly painful to watch, because while well-intentioned, it shows how privileged white people can often use service people of color to advance their own personal narrative, never seeing anyone else’s story as important but their own.

This is a criticism I read of White Lotus— that white people like the show because it centers them in a story about race, class and cultural appropriation. That’s fair and nowhere is it more obvious than in the story of the Mossbacher family, who are all staying in one big hotel suite. Actually, another nitpicky criticism that I have read repeatedly about the show is that a family as wealthy as the Mossbachers would have gotten separate rooms for their teenage kids. Instead Nicole and Mark’s teenage daughter Olivia and her friend Paula sleep together on a pull-out couch in the living room, while their teenage son Quinn sleeps on a cot in the closet, which eventually leads him to start sleeping on a lounge chair on the beach, a crucial plot point.

I don’t know, I’d love to have a discussion about this because the comments I read made it sound like the Mossbachers are terrible parents for subjecting their kids to these conditions. To me, it seemed very believable. Granted, I am nowhere near the level of wealth that the fictional Mossbachers portrayed (made clear by Mark’s gift of $75K bracelets to Nicole), but we’ve stayed in our share of high end resorts and making the kids sleep on the pull-out is pretty standard. I think more likely the Mossbachers were investing in a bonding experience for the family and not quite resigned to the idea that their kids are getting too old for this kind of family togetherness. Plus additional rooms makes an already expensive trip twice as expensive, and since Nicole and Mark are self-made millionaires, this little bit of frugalness seems unsurprising. Not to mention, giving the teenagers their own room would give them a level of freedom the parents were probably not comfortable with, as well as a larger sense of entitlement than they already have. But that’s the parent in me talking.

It’s an interesting question actually. My dad found success later in life, after I was out of college, but he always made it clear to us that it was important for his kids to earn their own living and not have everything handed to them regardless of whether he had the resources or not. I’m not sure whether this was out of principal or necessity (probably both), but I have always subscribed to the same idea, so it gave me pause to read the criticism of the Mossbacher parents on twitter as being selfish and uncaring for not giving their children the same level of comfort that they gave themselves. If they were more generous, wouldn’t that result in spoiled kids? Or is this an outdated idea? Is denying your kids certain comforts helping to instill a work ethic (as I always believed) or it just being cheap and self-serving? Serious question.

As for the teenagers, Olivia Mossbacher and her friend Paula are two of the most terrifying creatures I have ever seen on television. From the very first second of the trip, all the girls do is judge the other guests at the hotel, with their commentary, their reading choices, their eye rolls and their cold, cold silence. But nothing really compares to the level of judgement the girls dole out to the parents, even if Nicole and Mark are deserving of it. Olivia possesses an especially dangerous combination of wealth, entitlement and social awareness. Throughout the vacation, she wields her social justice cards with devastating accuracy at her mother, all while keeping tabs on Paula (who is of mixed race and doesn’t come from as much money) as if she had ownership over her, in exchange for taking her along on the trip. There is one scene where Nicole is trying to explain her heroic ascent to a high powered position in a male dominated industry and Olivia delivers the blow that her mother’s compulsion to achieve is a sign of emptiness and her success just makes her part of the problem. Oof. All Nicole seems to want is for her family to be grateful for the things that her success can provide for them, while her kids seem not only unappreciative but embarrassed by it. They make it clear that the values that their parents were brought up with (like working hard to find as much personal success as possible) are no longer the qualities considered righteous or admirable by today’s youth. This is all while they are taking full advantage of killer clothes, fancy meals and the hotel pool.

All throughout the show, the wealthy guests play the victim of their own stories. Shane has been cheated out of the fanciest suite, Rachel can’t figure out how to find meaning in her new life as a trophy wife, Tanya is too much of a mess to find love, Nicole and Mark can’t find a way to earn their kids’ respect, Olivia is jealous of Paula’s fling with a hotel employee… all completely oblivious to the fact that they are surrounded by people with real problems who spend their days catering to their every want and need. Perhaps the biggest moment of victimhood is when Nicole tries to garner sympathy for her teenage son Quinn because straight white males feel “alienated from the culture right now” (cue the eye rolls from Olivia and Paula). There’s also this moment from Mark when he is confronted with the unvirtuous nature of his privilege during breakfast. He says, “Nobody cedes their privilege. That’s absurd. It goes against human nature. We’re all just trying to win the game of life. How are we going to make it right? Should we give away all our money? Maybe we should just feel shitty about ourselves all the time?” 

He says it sarcastically, but this is the thing I think a lot of us have been wrestling with over the past few years, as we continue to wake up to more and more social injustice and suffering in the world. It’s never ending. And really, to see it and do something about it is to let go of a lot of the things that we have been taught are important and have been working towards our whole lives. Namely, personal happiness and success. Paving your own way, earning a living, advancing up the social ladder if possible. Are these just options for the already privileged? Is it ok to want more for yourself when you already have a lot?

White Lotus asks, can we still be good people and enjoy a luxurious vacation in Hawaii? What happens when we work hard to afford that vacation and then when we get there, we can’t help but notice that the fun luau night is being held on stolen land by people who had no other choice to make a living other than by performing for their oppressors’ enjoyment?

For me, the luau is the quintessential scene in White Lotus, not the murder. It’s a clear indictment of the rich white people paying $10K a night for their fancy suite and the privilege of sitting down to dinner and live entertainment. Whether they were born with that lifestyle, like Shane, married into it, like Rachel or worked for it, like Nicole. They all started several levels ahead in the “game of life” whether they want to admit it to themselves or not. And as a viewer, who’s been brought up to aspire to that level of wealth and luxury, can I ignore that it always comes at someone else’s expense?

That to me is why Olivia Mossbacher is the most fascinating and scariest character. As a wealthy member of Gen Z, she is righteous in her ungratefulness. It’s easy to cast judgement when you’ve never worked for any it, but still have it all. With the exception of Shane, Olivia might be the most privileged of them all.

Did you guys watch White Lotus? What did you think?

Apparently is a newsletter with free and paid options. You can subscribe or upgrade your membership below!