'The White Lotus' review: Season 2's as good, maybe even better, than season 1

WHAT IT'S ABOUT At the White Lotus in Sicily — this second season was mostly filmed at the Four Seasons San Domenico Palace, Taormina — Tanya McQuoid (Jennifer Coolidge) arrives with her new assistant, Portia (Haley Lu Richardson). There they are greeted by the slightly neurotic, utterly harried manager of this deluxe hotel, Valentina (Sabrina Impacciatore). The other new guests include three generations of Di Grassos — lecherous granddad Bert (F. Murray Abraham), his sex-addicted son Dominic (Michael Imperioli) and his own still-innocent son, Albie (Adam DiMarco). High finance bro Cameron Sullivan (Theo James) and his wife, Daphne (Meghann Fahy) have invited along his  college roommate, Ethan Spiller (Will Sharpe) and his wife Harper (Aubrey Plaza). Suddenly wealthy after selling his tech company, Ethan is now richer than Cam — and Harper wonders if that's the pretext to this invitation. (Tom Hollander as Quentin — a wealthy gay voluptuary — arrives later in the season.)

 Meanwhile, a pair of Italian friends — Mia (Beatrice Grannò) and Lucia (Simona Tabasco) — observe these rich Americans with amusement. They're not at the White Lotus for the people-watching, however, but on business.

Like the first season,  "2" was written and directed by Mike White. 

 MY SAY In the opening moments, a body drifts close to shore, spoiling — briefly, anyway — a perfect Mediterranean idyll. Guests on the beach scatter, then gawk. The polizia arrive, followed by the White Lotus' general manager. Practical concerns intrude upon her: Is the hotel perhaps liable? Then … cut to the title card, which reads: "One week earlier …"

White didn't (and doesn't) want to repeat himself this second season, but the formula remains intact. Both begin with a death, and we're left to work (and guess) our way backward from there. The new characters are recognizable, if not quite facsimiles from season 1. Dropped into paradise, they remain burdened with baggage — work, marriage problems, the kids back home, and above all, their self-delusions. 

Tanya at least is Tanya. Still looking for that perfect room with the perfect view — emotionally speaking — she has no clue why love is so impossible to find. She now has an assistant (Portia) who she's made long-suffering too.

 But it's those differences that make this season so irresistible. Foremost, "2" has made full and effective use of the Sicilian locale. The beauty spills off the screen right into your lap, and if you come for nothing else, do come for the fashions. Those exceed anything from "Lotus 1."

This sequel is also funnier and kinkier than the breakout hit from 2021. Success (and lots of Emmys) appear to have unrestrained White. 

 While "2" works well on all those levels — eye candy, comedy, sex romp — a deeper, darker level clarifies them. There's a recurring motif, the "teste di moro," that could be a red herring but feels like Chekhov's gun instead (You know that famed gun — if mentioned in the first act, someone will surely be shooting it by the last.) The "teste" is an old Sicilian legend about a young woman who cuts off the head of her faithless lover. Ceramic casts of the decapitated head are prominently placed in guests' rooms and — I suppose you should also know — the San Domenico Palace was once the site of a convent. La forza del destino hangs over this old palace and its guests, but whose destiny? Whose fate? 

That's the mystery of "The White Lotus 2," but there's no mystery to the prevailing theme. This is all about the corrupt and the incorruptible, and how effortlessly the former can convert the latter. Funny, kinky series — to be sure — but one with a sobering message for our times.

 BOTTOM LINE Equal to season 1, and in some ways (the fashions, humor) superior.