WHITE LOTUS

PICK OF THE WEEK

Neon, from Monday

In a couple of weeks, when The White Lotus has replaced Mare of Easttown as the next show we’re all talking about, remember this trivia: the show’s creator Mike White wrote nine episodes of Dawson’s Creek, wrote and acted in School of Rock and was a contestant on both The Amazing Race (two seasons) and Survivor.

His new six-part HBO series, The White Lotus, is quite unlike any of those, or anything else on television at the moment — part painfully awkward comedy, part existential drama, potentially a murder mystery? It’s set at a luxury Hawaiian resort and spa, following three groups of guests over the course of their week’s holiday. And the first episode starts at the end, with a body being loaded on to a plane.

In the Tradewinds Suite, the Mossbacher family consists of a dad (Steve Zahn), who’s convinced he’s got testicular cancer, workaholic mum (Connie Britton), their two warring teens and one of the teens’ friends. In the Hibiscus Suite is Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge playing one of the most Jennifer Coolidge characters yet), one of the adults they mercilessly judge, who’s there to get a lot of massages and at some point maybe scatter her mum’s ashes.

Then there are honeymooners Shane and Rachel (Jake Lacy and Alexandra Daddario) in the Palm Suite, who are having the worst time of everybody — him because he’s at war with the resort’s scene-stealing Australian manager Armond for putting them in a room without a plunge pool, and her because she’s realised she’s married the biggest manchild in the world.

It’s dark, funny, singular and often excruciatingly cringe-worthy viewing — and quite likely the next big show everybody will be talking about.