27 Comments

Yeah, I'll pass. I don't think I can deal with that privilege even for entertainment right now. So many times, I've traveled and noticed that the only people who look like me are working in the kitchen - NOT THE WAITER/WAITRESS - or cleaning my room. I want to bring another side to this conversation. Can we really find this entertaining right now? Can I watch a show about rich white people with rich white problems? I can't. Too close to my reality, from the service staff, not the guests. I work at a law firm in Los Angeles and I'm slapped in the face with white privilege all day every day. I get to see how the ladder gets whiter and whiter the higher up you go, the fact that the most diversity exists amongst support staff. I get to hear about their lavish vacations that sound familiar to the show. All the while knowing that as hard as I've worked, gone to a good college, have a degree, I'll never reach that kind of wealth. So, it's a pass for me.

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I know someone like Olivia, I agree... She is the scariest person I have befriended, unfriended, befriended and unfriended. She also has BPD which causes her to present differently. Amazingly attractive person based on how she pays to look and what she says, but very creepy manipulative behaviors.

I was not impressed with this show. I felt like it is talking about all the common issues of the day, that most of us see in the micro communities around us. We see them with the ladies wearing Lily Pulitzer, boat shopping on their social media’s, then helping the poor unfortunate women they have brought up from the bottom by “loving” them… but would they part with cash, give them connections, help them start a business…absolutely not.

The staff were so used. What seems crazy is the lack of boundaries between what these privileged guests want and think they are paying for. Customer service is a bullshit job. It needs a new definition. I give you the service you are paying for, I’m not here to be your friend. Just shows how lotus eaters think they can buy companionship and friendship… tale as evident as time. Like people at their jobs don’t want to give out therapy or and be questioned about their personal lives while working. Everyone who is different than you isn’t a fucking tour guide of a new culture.

Get in a group/hobby, befriend the person different than you, invite them to your house for dinner. Don’t use people who are working to help broaden your understanding. That’s what I’ve noticed with this show and how it relates to life. Using the already used people to feel better about being white. It’s old.

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I feel conflicted on the room thing. I hear the points you’re trying to make about why it’s believable they wouldn’t have gotten another room, but I’m not sure they care about their kids feeling entitled (I.e. the mother ordering a brand new phone the minute her son demanded one) and I’m not sure they were that concerned about the kids having too much freedom - given that they didn’t do everything they could to prevent their son from sleeping alone on a beach! It feels entirely plausible that they’d get another room and have the Dad and son share it. It’s not like Nicole and her husband were all that into alone time together. I’m also no where near the level of wealth they have in the show, but tbh, watching what unfolded with Quinn, I think the most realistic option is that they ask Armond if there’s a smaller room that they could get for 2 people and have Quinn and his dad stay there!

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About the Mossbacher room thing... What makes it unrealistic that they wouldn't have had a another room or at least better accomodation for the kids is not the fact that they can afford it but rather the fact that Nicole and Mark are too much self-centered narcissists. She insists in having breakfast together - as a family - but doesn't do much about the fact that Quinn sleeps in the kitchen or even where he is and what he does most of the time. She is all the time talking about their vacation - as something she idealized - and never stops working. Mark is constantly self-involved in his own drama and all conversations he has with Quinn is more about him having to unload. Olivia is scary, I agree, but at the same time sad because she acts as this righteous wokester Zoomer and she is completely unaware of how much she is just like her parents as she denounces them. When questioned at the dinner table about her own system of beliefs she is left with nothing to say. Olivia is just a continuation of the Mossbachers and all she says is empty as in the end she'll do the same as her parents.

The thing that strikes me the most though is that in the end, there is only redemption to the guests. The staff is left as they always were: unseen, unthought of, we don't even learn more from their fate other than what connects to the guests. Just like Armond announces in the beginning, they are there just to give some kind meaning to the guests' experience.

I completely enjoyed the show and I think it did a terrific job making those characters multidimensional. And when you learn who dies, you feel like it couldn't have been different, but it's not disappointing because the show has been showing you why it couldn't have been different. It leaves you with a lot to think about.

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Honestly, I found the entire thing cringe-worthy (even as someone who is white and has stayed at these types of resorts in Hawaii). I felt it did a complete disservice to Hawaii, it’s people and culture. I kept watching because everyone was raving about it, but I didn’t get the obsession personally. They could have at least cast the resort employees as local Hawaiians. The two they did, just disappeared. 🤷🏼‍♀️ So many missed opportunities to tell a worthwhile story in my opinion and they missed the mark. Hawaii is barely holding on with the influx of tourists visiting the islands this summer…it’s a real problem.

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We finished it last night and still not sure how I feel about it. I wanted to keep watching to find out who was killed but was also uncomfortable the entire time. Maybe that was the point.

I also read some criticism of the use of Hawaiian music and the use stereotypical characters/storylines (Kai).

But I also would love to know what happens with the son and does Lani return to work?

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Loved reading all of your thoughts! Fun show that also drive me crazy and I kept coming back for more.

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Watched the whole thing because of you!

The room thing didn’t bother me, although the privilege displayed was insane, but I felt it was true. Of course these people treated the employees of the resort like shit.

Oh man did I want Shane to be the one to die, but no such luck. I did keep watching to the very end to see who did die.

The storyline that was redeemable was the brothers.

Not a bad show, but not sure I would waste the time again.

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Hi, a new subscriber here an late to the party, but I loved this show and can't help commenting. In some ways I think the things that people criticize the show for, are exactly the things that make us think, and thus they serve their purpose (except the teenagers not getting a room - that was weird :D). All the guests were very unlikable and even if they themselves left the resort somewhat happy, I don't think anyone in the audience was happy for them in the end, Quinn being the exception, and I really liked his storyline - he was the only one whose character actually developed and grew. And he wasn't even planning on it! Maybe that is why it felt so genuine.

So basically we have these awful privileged characters, who learn nothing and don't grow as people - and that is what makes the show brilliant. The viewers are left uncomfortable, and we need that in order to see what's wrong with the world and make us want to change something in real life. If the people had changed for better somehow, it would just be another forgettable show about rich white folk realising the error of their ways and everyone holding hands in the end, and that's not what usually happens in real life.

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I want to dig into so many of your thoughts from this recap. Your synopsis of the show is fantastic and I agree with almost everything you said!

I agree though, I was having a VERY hard time believing the Mossbaucher’s wouldn’t get multiple rooms. Even if the sharing of the suite was crucial to the storyline between Quinn being kicked out and sleeping on the beach leading to discovering his love of nature, and of course needing to use the parent’s safe - it just is so hard to believe!

1.) Nicole is the “CFO of a major search engine” so of course we naturally assume an equivalent of Google. I researched Google’s current CFO Ruth Porat and her compensation package and this definitely put things into perspective for me.

2.) Olivia and Paula may be teenagers, but they are also college sophomores. I know it’s a difficult transition for parents to have their older children back under their roof. I remember arguing with my own parents because they required a curfew when I was home from college on school breaks. The Mossbachers don’t seem particularly strict with their children, so it seems off-brand for them. They clearly aren’t monitoring the kids very closely considering how Paula snuck out frequently and Quinn slept on the beach without their knowledge.

3.) Paula is Olivia’s friend from college and does not appear to know the rest of the Mossbacher family very well - she isn’t a longtime friend of the family. From my own personal experience of being the college friend that gets to tag along on trips, I can’t imagine how uncomfortable that would be for Paula to know that any family member could come out to the area she was sleeping in, at any time. Add in Olivia’s crude comment about what her brother might be doing while Paula slept

4.) Finally, after working at a resort previously, I know is extremely common to have a regular room attached to suites where you can utilize the connecting door, basically for this exact kind of scenario. The parents would’ve been in the fancy master bedroom, Quinn would’ve been on the pullout, and the girls would likely have been in a two Queen room attached to the living room.

I have spent wayyy too much time thinking about this and I just can’t buy it!

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Loved your write-up of the show and the show itself. Here’s another article that i also really appreciated. It’s a great dichotomy of Belinda and Quinn’s character, two characters that I thought were the purest in the show.

https://slate.com/culture/2021/08/white-lotus-finale-hbo-quinn-belinda.html

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We dropped it after episode one. The acting was phenomenal and the characters interesting. I just couldn’t get into the privilege. I‘ve never been one for Kardashian type watching but it is fascinating to me to see how upper class wealth lives. Not the super unbelievable wealth, but the “don’t have to check your bank account balance before making a large purchase” wealth.

I can remember as a child thinking my friends were rich because their parents had clean carpets and served us shell Mac & Cheese. As an adult now, those ideas have shifted to families who allow their children to pick their colleges without limits & then pay for them to attend. Or have personal assistants/nannies or just anyone “on staff” in their homes/private lives.

So, this level of wealth fell into my “I wanna be a fly on the wall” fascination. But then I was so disappointed by the fact that every single one of them portrayed unappreciative and nasty behavior and I realized I could not deal. I’m not jealous or a hater of people with wealth but I cannot process living without some sort of financial insecurity AND not appreciating that. It was painful to watch. Almost offensive. As a person who pulled herself out of poverty and worked my butt off to ensure my children never experienced life without food or utilities, I want my wealthy people watching to include gratitude and empathy. It hurts when it’s not there and busts my idealistic fantasies.

Rachel seemed closest to that but then her husband was so icky I couldn’t imagine him being worth that financial freedom.

I might try it again because this post has intrigued me. Or someone can just send me a spoiler and maybe that will satisfy me. 😉

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My husband grew up on Maui and we watched the show together and both enjoyed it but he didn’t care for what he referred to as the cheesy, stereotypical portrayal of the 2 local Hawaiian characters on the show.

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I don't have HBO or else I would check it out.

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We binged and finished it last evening. Husband didn’t like the ending. I love how their son really came into his own and found a purpose outside of his electronics. That was one storyline I enjoyed. I really wanted Shane to die, because he was a massive douche, but no such luck. I agree that the 2 girls were the most miserable people on the planet, especially the daughter. She acted so entitled. Overall, I liked the series. I love watching limited series on HBO.

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Have not watched, and I think your synopsis is enough for me to decide not to watch.

Your description of the family all sharing a suite makes me remember one of my favorite Mary-Kate and Ashley Movies, Holiday in the Sun. They play privileged brats in this movie. It opens with their dad pulls them out of school by having his assistant pick them up in a limo, then greets them up in a private jet. "Where are we going?" "Atlantis!" "Atlantis.... the lost city?" "No - Atlantis, the resort in the Bahamas! We're going on vacation!" And they're BUMMED because they were looking forward to a trip to Hawaii with their friends. "What does the Bahamas have that Hawaii doesn't have?" "Ummm.... your mom and me!" HAHA When they arrive at the resort, since they made all As in school, their parents surprise them with - THEIR OWN PRIVATE SUITE! It's right next door to mom and dad's, but it's pretty sick and almost enough to make the girls stop pouting about not being in Hawaii.

That movie has been my point of reference for rich people, so I would also assume that these rich kids at the White Lotus should get their own suite. Or at least a room with beds instead of pull-outs.

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