The scene is pure travel porn: striking blue waters, untouched richly green forest, and a small group of tourists clad in Loro Piana, Ralph Lauren, and Vineyard Vines about to dock on the shores of the White Lotus Resort in Thailand.
For the uninitiated, or those living under a rock, this is one of the opening scenes to the third season of HBO’s White Lotus, which has caused quite the media frenzy in recent weeks, as critics speculate if it will continue to be a hit among the masses.
The first two seasons of White Lotus were compulsively bingeable and remarkably popular in an age when even well-cast shows can be lost in the endless abyss of streaming services and new episodes. Much like this season, they featured an ensemble cast of unimaginably wealthy travelers and jaded hotel employees in far flung locations like Italy and Hawaii. The formula for each of the seasons was almost scientifically perfect: impossibly attractive wealthy people with burrowed secrets, petty opinions, and fragile relationships coupled with the spectacular backdrop of white sand beaches or weathered Italian palazzos. From the first episode of the third season, it seems as though the scientists on the set of White Lotus are using the same formula. And I am not complaining.
The smash hit is not unlike another HBO show that led to nearly daily articles on “quiet luxury” and “corporate culture”: Succession. While the stark New York City offices featured in Succession seem worlds away from the plush white linens of the White Lotus Resort, one cannot help but see the similarity. Musings on the wealthy class. With endless options for streaming across a variety of services, one must ponder why we feel so drawn to shows that feature the worst of America’s upper crust: the empty consumerism, the nihilistic view towards helping others, the dysfunction.
Although the current economy is strong, income inequality between the wealthiest and the most vulnerable continues to widen. Even those in the middle feel squeezed by rising costs of housing and grocery store prices.
Succession and White Lotus, for some, may be a hate watch – a reticent glimpse into the cushy, yet troubled, lives of the ultra wealthy. Their tumultuous relationships, all-consuming addictions, and paranoia for back-stabbing make it difficult for the jaded to turn their eyes away. The grocery bills seem infinitesimal compared to losing billions because a close family member betrayed you.
For others, these shows may simply provide a welcome escape from the humdrum of 9 to 5s and errands. For a moment, we escape the harrowing news notifications and confiningly small bedrooms and step into a sleek hotel lobby, bathed in white marble and scented with expensive perfume.
White Lotus may come and go, but our compulsive urge to peek into the lives of the ultra-rich will most certainly not fade. Whether it taps into our own buried class insecurities or leads us to a moment of Schadenfreude, expect the satire of the 1% to continue. Maybe it will be the one hour a week we all agree that excess wealth cannot solve our problems.