Another Week in Paradise

The White Lotus returns.

- By Roxana Hadadi

It's easy to forget that the first season of The White Lotus was only six episodes. The show, which followed a group of vacationers and hotel staff over a disastrous week at a resort in Hawaii, unleashed its scathing satire and prickly characters so quickly and thoroughly that its effect was outsize. Each installment written and directed by creator Mike White was like a snake rearing back and baring its teeth.

Season two, which premiered October 30 and is set in Sicily, seems like it should be the same. White is still the sole writer-director-this time with seven episodes-and the narrative again follows wealthy, self-involved people in a beautiful resort hotel that employs locals but frowns on cross-pollination and the visited. The ensemble is sprawling, the couples are unhappy, and the season begins with a dead body before jumping backward a week. But it is newly tentative in a way that keeps it from hitting as hard as its predecessor.

In Hawaii, the inverse relationship of the accumulation of assets and general human decency was clearly on White's mind. He put class criticism first and cishet marital tension second. This time, he switches his priorities. Paramount now are the miscommunications, resentments, and competition that can develop between people who swear to love each other, for richer and for poorer-and the effect is part Tennessee Williams play, part