{"id":17430,"date":"2022-10-31T17:50:11","date_gmt":"2022-10-31T15:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/?p=17430"},"modified":"2022-10-31T17:50:18","modified_gmt":"2022-10-31T15:50:18","slug":"emmys-smasher-the-white-lotus-returns-with-a-decidedly-sexier-second-season-set-in-sicily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/blog\/2022\/10\/31\/emmys-smasher-the-white-lotus-returns-with-a-decidedly-sexier-second-season-set-in-sicily\/","title":{"rendered":"Emmys-smasher The White Lotus returns with a \u201cdecidedly sexier\u201d second season, set in Sicily"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The most awarded series at this year\u2019s Emmys, The White Lotus<\/em> is back with a sizzling new season coming to Showmax weekly on Mondays, express from the States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With an (almost) all-new cast, Season 2 trades Hawaii for Sicily, where a different group of ultra-wealthy vacationers will spend a week at a different – but just as exclusive – White Lotus resort.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Season 1 of the acclaimed HBO wealth satire took home 10 of its 20 Emmy nominations, including Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series, Directing and Writing, as well as Supporting Actress for Jennifer Coolidge, and Supporting Actor for Murray Bartlett, both of whom also won at the Critics Choice Awards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The White Lotus <\/em>was originally intended as a limited series \u2013 until HBO ordered a second season before the first had even finished airing. That means it\u2019ll be competing in the drama category if and – we\u2019re betting – when<\/em> it makes its mark at next year\u2019s Emmys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This seems likely, since Season 2 is getting even better reviews, with a 91% critics\u2019 rating on Rotten Tomatoes<\/em>. The Daily Beast<\/em> says, \u201cThe White Lotus<\/em> Season 2 is better than the first\u201d – high praise since they call the first \u201cthe best TV show of last year.\u201d Independent (UK)<\/em> raves, \u201cThere is nothing more enjoyable to watch on television right now than The White Lotus<\/em>.\u201d <\/em>In their five star review, Times (UK)<\/em> says it\u2019s \u201ca whodunnit like no other.\u201d <\/em>And Daily Telegraph (UK) <\/em>calls it, \u201cbrilliantly bawdy fun \u2013 brimming with zinging dialogue, physical humour and sharply drawn critiques of the super-wealthy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than just the location and cast has changed this season. \u201cSeason 2 is decidedly sexier than Season 1,\u201d says Teen Choice nominee Meghann Fahy (Sutton in The Bold Type<\/em>), who USA Today<\/em> is hailing as the breakout star this year. \u201cThe environment lends itself to that romantic summer vibe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Series creator, writer and director Mike White agrees. \u201cSicily is the perfect place for romance and sexual politics. It was such a beautiful location and it just sold this kind of old world European summer vacation\u2026 Last season really got into privilege. This season, it\u2019s more of a kind of bedroom farce – with teeth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just before writing Season 2, Mike went to Sweden with his dad. \u201cAs soon as my dad starts talking about sex, I\u2019m 14 again. \u2018Oh my god\u2019,\u201d he laughs. \u201cBut here\u2019s my dad: he\u2019s an upstanding, great guy, but he can never escape his animal self. We will be humiliated throughout life because of this part of ourselves that exists. What do we do with desire? What is a \u2018good man\u2019? What is sexual selection? It\u2019s been changing throughout my lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn Season 2,\u201d Mike says, \u201cI thought it would be interesting to have three generations of men travelling together and have the older men [played by Oscar winner F. Murray Abraham from Mythic Quest<\/em>, Amadeus<\/em>, and The Grand Budapest Hotel<\/em>, and Emmy winner Michael Imperioli from The Sopranos<\/em>] grappling with the reality that their sex drives have essentially ruined their legacies and families, while the grandson character, Albie Di Grasso [Adam DiMarco from The Magicians<\/em>] is more, \u2018I\u2019m sorry, I actually don\u2019t have a sex drive.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only returning characters this season are Teen Choice nominee Jon Gries (Napoleon Dynamite<\/em>, Get Shorty<\/em>) as Greg, and – raise your glasses, please – Jennifer Coolidge, who reprises her \u201ccareer-best\u201d role as Tanya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time round, Jennifer says, \u201cIt\u2019s about how awkward we all are, and how sexual tension prevents us from knowing each other and being able to accept each other.\u201d If that sounds serious, brace yourself for Tanya being even more cringingly, achingly, hilariously Tanya than last season. \u201cThe great thing about Season 2 is: Tanya really gets to come out of her shell,\u201d Jennifer teases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mike explains that Jennifer was part of the reason he wrote the show in the first place. \u201cPeople really responded to her performance and I said, \u2018If we go to Italy, I have to bring Jennifer.\u2019 I could totally see her in an Italian opera; there\u2019s that tragic aspect to Tanya that felt rich to mine again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMostly I wanted to see her on that Vespa,\u201d Mike laughs. \u201cI wanted her in a mod \u201860s dress, scarf on her head, sunglasses \u2014 the ultimate gay-icon. And actually, all of this came straight from Jennifer. I asked her, \u2018If we go to Italy, what do you want to do?\u2019 and she\u2019s like, \u2018I just want to be on one of those Vespas while hot Italian guys in shark-skin suits light my cigarette.\u2019 Okay, oh my god, we have to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The performances of Abraham and Imperioli have also already drawn critical acclaim, along with those of Peabody Award winner Aubrey Plaza (Parks and Recreation<\/em>) as Harper Spiller, and Italian actresses Simona Tabasco and Beatrice Grann\u00f2, who, USA Today<\/em> says, \u201care magnetic, as they work (and con) their way through the luxury hotel.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ensemble cast also includes People\u2019s Choice winner Theo James (Divergent<\/em>), BAFTA winner Tom Hollander (The Night Manager<\/em>), and BAFTA nominee Will Sharpe (Landscapers<\/em>, Giri\/Haji<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, somebody needs to wrangle all these privileged monsters, and this season that falls to the likes of multi-award-winning Italian actress Sabrina Impacciatore as the harried hotel manager, and Haley Lu Richardson (Five Feet Apart<\/em>) as Tanya\u2019s personal assistant, Portia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As with Season 1, there\u2019ll be loads of characters you\u2019ll love to hate. But, as Jennifer puts it, \u201cMike can write characters that don\u2019t have a lot of redeeming qualities, and he gives them a break.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wrangling multiple storylines, ever-shifting character sympathies, acerbic social critique and deliciously wicked comedy is a lot of plates for one man to spin, but the three Season 1 Emmys with Mike\u2019s name on them are testament to his dexterity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo me,\u201d Sabrina says in her gorgeous Italian accent (fully 20% of the show is in Italian), \u201cMike, he\u2019s a maestro. He can make you laugh and cry about life in the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs long as Mike White can cut to the core of today\u2019s culture of wealth and excess, viewers will want to book into The White Lotus<\/em> again and again,\u201d says Empire Magazine<\/em>, adding that, \u201cSeason 2 prods and provokes as mischievously and movingly as the first time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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