Abductions

For those who love to watch people eat, have sex, and talk about themselves, look no further! The White Lotus season 2 is your show. And the epitome of this slavishness is on fully display here in episode 6!

How long do people stay at a hotel that probably costs $1k a night, anyway? Answer: Many many many nights. The grandfather, father, son trio talk about their Italian heritage and visiting a place nearby to search for distant relatives every day, multiple times a day - they don't go until now. Before today, they just drank and ate and slept with sex workers!

Conversations have become repetitive. Ethan complains to Cameron that Aubrey Plaza thinks HE's the one who had sex with a prostitute, but he's already told Cam this, like twice. Does Aubrey Plaza think he did it? Yes, maybe, maybe not, definitely.

And wasn't Tanya's husband supposed to fly home for two days? That was like episode 2. It feels like a week and a half ago. Do they ever talk on the phone? No. It's like he was just written off the show.

The hotel manager subplot doesn't quite work- it feels forced and has gone nowhere.

People swim, and look forlorn, and eat. And they drink. The only change really comes from the Sopranos guy, who's stopped sleeping with hookers and looking at porn. Tanya's character kind of grows, and has a nice moment with Portia early in the episode, but then she's doing blow later with the same gay guy friend she saw having sex with his "nephew" the night before.

Lucia's pimp was introduced late, like episode 5, so we have some other possible murder in the offing. Now he takes her into his clutches. Uh-oh!

Whenever the show starts to drag, which is does a lot, eerie music plays and we see an image of a creepy statue or a stormy sky.

Ooooh the mystical secrets of Italy...

Driving the people mad with lust and jealousy!

No, the ghosties aren't driving this madness. It's because the people staying here at this ridiculously opulent resort are insulated and shallow.

I have to say, TWL season 2 started with some promise. Aubrey and Ethan commenting about the state of the world before the redhead and Cam poohpoohed such talk (and didn't understand much of it), that was cool, and felt true to life. But soon Aubrey and Ethan are acting just as bratty and spoiled and vapid as cam and his wife are.

It must be the island's spooky juju!

No, it's just what happens when you put people into a situation where they have nothing to do but eat and drink and screw and think about themselves. Welcome to hedonism. Even the nice kid who gets rejected by Portia just starts banging one of the sex workers. Oh, I know they "like each other," but come on. I stopped rooting for that kid the second he acted like Portia no longer mattered to him. He's now as shallow as everyone else.

Halfway through episode 6, I've tuned out. I'm sure the big reveal ending of who dies will be amazing. But unless the whole place gets suddenly hit with ballistic missiles and they ALL die (except the sex worker who sings - save her) it wouldn't satisfy me at this point.

Just when you think this show can't get any better, it does. This might be the tense episode of the White Lotus, yet. And it was also heartbreaking in its own way. I wouldn't change a thing about this episode. The way they have built up the tension between Harper and her husband and her husband's friend is amazing. Aubrey Plaza was an amazing choice. She seriously deserves an award for her performance. And she is so hot it's not even funny. But it isn't just their story. Every storyline is on point, and all the characters are captives in a way in their own mind and in their own personal circumstances. At first, I didn't like the grandson with the sex work, but now I think it actually works really well. They have an interesting dynamic, and it is fun to see how that relationship affects the father and the grandfather. It's just so good I can't wait to see see what happens next, and I can't believe it is ending.

The intensity got much better with this episode. I felt like the prior one was a bit of a letdown but this one had the drama I was looking for. The Di Grasso family with Lucia is a pretty crazy situation. Having her being chased down was nuts and I'm curious if they will even show her in the finale. The Spiller and Sullivan couple has a wild situation going on. It was hinted in the first episode with the inappropriate way Cameron is approaching his best friend's wife. Portia and Jack is also an interesting dynamic. Jack opening up to her being near blackout drunk might have pushed her away from pursuing him but we'll see how it all turns out. 4/5 stars.

I used to love the show. Season one was much more tasteful and had more class. Season two is nothing but sex, more sex and more sex. Even my daughter in her 20s said this season is all sex. You really lose the storyline. There's so many good actors in that show. There are so many things that they could do to make it really funny. The story line gets really old fast. If people really want to see that much sex they need to go to a porn shop. The produces need to get their heads out of the gutters. I'm an no longer a fan. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way. Raunchy! Don't watch it. Waste of time.

The previous episode was a let down. A lot of random twist and unexplained developments. It looked like most of the story thread had to take an unexpected turn.

This episode is a bit better as it makes more sense and is more focused on characters motives rather than plot events. This episode we are (finally) starting to see people motivations more clearly and it feel somewhat refreshing.

The biggest reveal of course concerns the subplot of the gays and Tanya. Until now it looked somewhat uneasy and strange but there was no concrete element to say what was going on for sure. Now, it is clear that it's simply a giant con. Personally, I am a bit disappointed again that Tanya did not storm out of the room at the end, when she discovers it. She ends up in a number of situations where her behavior is not in line with her character. All this time, she was somewhat assertive and impulsive. Now that she is stuck in this surreal rabbit hole; most of that seems lost and forgotten, and she is now basically submissive and timid.

One thing that started to bother me, was the fact that the series was disconnected from its Sicilian environment. And the small acknowledgments felt more like lip-service than anything meaningful. Until now the show could have taken place almost anywhere. Yet, we finally got some immersion. The Di Grassos go to the countryside, have run-ins with the mob and a couple of typical Sicilian nonnas. Also the mob is mentioned! And the final party scene is very deliciously baroque and decadent. It feels Italian, it feels representative.

One aspect that was I liked very much was the whole Ethan-Harper-Cameron love triangle. First of all because it is a plot thread that is not as predictable as the others, and it is well executed. The role-reversal in the infidelity is very interesting, and justifies Harper's beaing a b-word earlier; it is clear that Ethan is very bad at communicating. The whole situation could have been diffused with a simple conversation between adults. Of course that would not make for an interesting show. But it is great to see him almost confronted with his own actions.

I feel that there was too many twists and turns in the previous episodes just for the sake of it. Characters behaving and doing things out of the blue. That somewhat turned me off this series. It feels like this episode attempts to justify many of those previous choices after the fact. Some of it lands, some of it fails, like Valetina's arc. It looks like everything is geared towards a very sinister conclusion; you kinda expect the worst a bit like in Black Mirror. Yet, I do not feel like all these stories are as sophisticated and meaningful as we are told they are.