Critic Reviews

Alternately hilarious and unsettling, “The White Lotus” isn’t a feel-good watch, but it is a must-watch.

White’s latest work is also an ensemble showcase with a handful of unforgettable performances — Bartlett and Jennifer Coolidge top among them — as well as a paradox unto itself, in that it’s extremely addictive and consistently uncomfortable. Conceived and shot during the pandemic, “The White Lotus” is many things, but it’s nothing short of a marvel.

The White Lotus isn’t insisting itself as a state of the nation satire but White’s deft and unforgiving writing manages what so many others have tried and failed to do in the last five years. He’s created a deeply funny and bracingly topical piece of art that prods and provokes without preaching. His show says more about class, sex and race because it’s not directly about those issues, remembering, vitally, that to send a message, one has to package it well.

Welcome to “Upstairs, Downstairs,” Aloha State edition. The series, called “The White Lotus,” named for the fictional resort where the action takes place, is a near-note-perfect tragicomedy. ... The actors are excellent across the board, but Bartlett, whose practiced amiability turns progressively feral throughout the series, is a revelation.

Even in this nightmarish vision of paradise, there are plenty of human remains, and this sharp, funny series, quite possibly the comedy of the year so far, is all the richer for it.

If you watched episode one of The White Lotus and thought, "Yes, quite good, but I'm not feeling the five-star ravings I've heard about it," then I say this: keep the faith and rest assured that it gets stonkingly good very soon. I have watched all six and, trust me, you're in for a treat.

A mercilessly sharp satire of toxic wealth, entitlement and class exploitation with a truly radical, subversive tone that separates it from the crowd.

In Season 2, he [Mike White] doesn’t just recreate the magic of the first installment, but he stretches his own creative muscles. The White Lotus Season 2 is a resounding triumph.

Whip smart, sexy and with an artistic sentiment as relentlessly focused on audience gratification as the lowest-denominator reality TV: this is as moreish, and mouth-watering, as a big bowl of spaghetti alle vongole. Grazie (prego).

The second season of The White Lotus is better than the first, as it feels like it’s not trying to prove as much. The characters are given the freedom to take precedence and the action unfolds from there on more smoothly.