‘White Lotus’ returns in fine form
“The White Lotus” (9 p.m. Sunday, HBO, TV-MA) enters its second season in Sicily, a whole new locale — and a refreshing change in tone.
Like the first season set on a Pacific island, “Lotus” follows a series of characters, “Grand Hotel”-style, as they interact over the course of a week. And as in the first, the action begins with a grim discovery, leaving viewers to wonder not so much whodunit as who was it done to, and when and why?
Nobody stays at the White Lotus if they are not ridiculously wealthy. But too many of the characters in the first season seemed deliberately vile. This season’s vacationers are neurotic, flawed, self-deceptive and vain, but they lack the entitled sociopathy of the first bunch.
Tanya McQuoid Hunt (Jennifer Coolidge) and her new husband, Greg (Jon Gries), are the only returning characters. Tanya is a White Lotus regular and just as insecure as ever. She is so helpless, she brings her personal assistant, Portia (Haley Lu Richardson), along on the romantic getaway, much to Greg’s chagrin, and ours. Portia is a great character, a bright and obviously educated young woman who finds herself in a subservient position to a clueless hot mess of a boss.
Michael Imperioli (“The Sopranos”) stars as Dominic Di Grasso, a prominent Hollywood fixer who has brought his father, Bert (F. Murray Abraham), on a trip to the old country, along with his naive college student son, Albie (Adam DiMarco). Dominic’s wife and daughter have remained home due to one of his adulterous transgressions — not his first, or, as we are soon to learn, his last.
Brash finance bro Cameron (Theo James) is accompanied by his pretty and suspiciously uncomplicated wife, Daphne (Meghann Fahey), along with his old college roommate Ethan (Will Sharpe) and his glum and judgmental wife, Harper (Aubrey Plaza). A bookish nerd in college, Ethan has recently struck it rich as a tech entrepreneur, a change in status that both Cameron and Harper have yet to calibrate.
Lucia (Simona Tabasco) and Valentina (Sabrina Impacciatore) are young local women who insinuate themselves into the hotel’s clientele. Lucia is a talented musician out for a big break, while Valentina operates as an escort, and soon gets Dominic’s attention.
Aubrey Plaza has really graduated from the eye-rolling disdain of “Parks & Recreation” to inhabit a three-dimensional character, a deeply dissatisfied woman who cannot help displaying her disdain for her company.
Abraham is also convincing as the affable grandfather who is not afraid to admit that he may set a bad example for Dominic. The three Di Grasso men spend an uncomfortable lunch at a theme park dedicated to the scenes in “The Godfather” involving Michael and his doomed wife, Apollonia. Eager to show how “woke” he has become, Albie lectures his elders on how “The Godfather” is merely a fetish for those worried about losing “the patriarchy.” Over the course of a few episodes, Albie discovers how his male feminism plays with the ladies, Portia in particular. But perhaps I’ve said too much.
Lucia and Valentina pretty much steal every scene. Look for Tom Hollander as Quentin, the head of a local gay expat entourage that adopts Tanya as their own.
A vast improvement on the first season, this “White Lotus” is filled with staggering scenery, stunning architecture and subtle and often hilarious takes on human foibles, interactions and misunderstandings.
Sicily’s rugged coast and ancient ruins remind us that men, women and gods have been misbehaving in these environs since the legend of Leda and the Swan was spun. You simply won’t want this week’s vacation to end.