White Lotus | BONUS
Show Notes:
White Lotus first premiered on HBO Max on July 11, 2021 and is lousy with wealthy people. Mario Mello from Movies with Mr. Mario on Instagram is here and we dive into Jennifer Coolidge playing Tanya, new money versus old, and all the deaths in between.
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Transcript:
Julia: Hey friends, this is pop culture makes me jealous where we analyze pop culture through the lens of race or gender, and sometimes both. I'm your host Julia Washington and Mario Mellow is here, and we are talking about the White Lotus, which will probably turn into a Tanya Stan episode.
Julia: White Lotus first premiered on H B O Max on July 11th, 2021. Season One Stars, Connie Britton, Murray Bartlett, Steve Z Alexandria, daddario, and Jennifer Coolidge, just to name a few. It takes place in Hawaii and is just lousy with wealthy people. Season two takes place in Sicily and Jennifer Coolidge's character is back.
Julia: New characters are played by Aubrey Plaza, Theo James, Michael Imperiali, and Megan Faye. And. So many others. But before we dive in, let me introduce you to my guest. You know him, you love his movie reviews. Mario Mellow is back. He is the creator of movies with Mr. Mario on Instagram, where he reviews current movies and shares industry news.
Julia: Welcome back, friend.
Mario: How's it going? I'm so happy to be back.
Julia: I'm glad you're here.
Mario: Feel like it's been a while, .
Julia: I know. After you yelling at me about not watching White Lotus, I finally watched White Lotus, so I figured I'm so happy. You the perfect guest .
Julia: Yes. And there's only certain
Mario: people I would recommend it to cuz I'm like, they get it.
Mario: They'll get the, they'll get the behind the scenes, they'll get the Yeah. What they're trying to say and stuff. So I'm so happy that you watched. .
Mario: Yeah, so we'll get into it, but like I keep saying, season one was a hard watch for me, but season two I was like, this is the season. .
Mario: Mm-hmm. . It just got better.
Julia: It really did.
Julia: Oh my God. Okay, we'll get into it, but, okay. So for folks who may have not seen the series yet, or you know, have seen it, we're just gonna do a friendly reminder. This is not a spoiler free show, . No. So if you haven't spoil seen it and you want the spoil and you don't wanna be spoiled, stop listening for everyone else, continue on.
Julia: Okay. So here's the summary, just to kind of refresh ourselves, and this is from the Googles. An all-star cast head to a resort and unleashed their worst, most privileged impulses. This series is a sharp social satire following the exploits of various guests and employees of the fictional white lotus resort chain who stay, become affected by their various dysfunctions.
Julia: A week in the life of vacationers is unraveled as they relax and rejuvenate in paradise. With each passing day, a darker complexity emerge. in these picture perfect travelers, the hotels cheerful employees, and the idyllic locale itself. Ka Mario informed me this week that they filmed season two at the Four Seasons in Sicily, and I was like, of course they did.
Mario: It's beautiful. I'm like, oh, I just wanna go, especially the Sicily one. I'm like, I don't know why, but I've been like watching tos about Rome and all this stuff. I love that. I, I
Julia: just wanna. I really like because, you know, I think I told you this, my grandfather came over from Italy. Mm-hmm. . So like, I'm like, I'm sure I have still direct family and two, my mom desperately wants to go back to Italy to visit.
Julia: So, but we're not Sicilian, we're mainlanders. But part of me is like, we can hit Sicily too, right?
Mario: Like, yeah. One thing that he forgot to say in the summary is that somebody always. Oh, and then the whole, the whole show, you're trying to figure out who dies. Cause it always starts up with somebody died. Yeah.
Mario: At the hotel .
Julia: Yeah. That's interesting that the Googles didn't put that in there. I wonder why.
Mario: Hmm. Yeah. Because I feel like the whole time you're trying to figure out which character is gonna be
Julia: Yeah. And sometimes you think you know, and then you're wrong. Yep.
Mario: And then you're, yep. And then season two, they even said multiple people died.
Mario: So now you're trying to figure. How many people are dying and who dies. Yeah. So I gotta say season two, I was like perplexed cuz I was like, anybody could die right now. Mm-hmm. , I get what? Season one. I felt like I had narrowed down to a couple people, but season two I was like, it's wide open. Anybody could do it.
Julia: I agree. There's a point in season one where it's like, oh, I know who's doing the killing and I know and I think I know who it's gonna be. . And then I was right. And I was like, fuck, I'm so smart.
Mario: No, that's not,
Julia: that's not humble at all. ? No. Okay. In a review by the New York Times writer, James Panwa z I hope I said that right, had this to say. Quote, this is a sharp, soulful series that knows its characters in full and gets richer as it goes on. It's a vicious and a little sudsy, and then out of nowhere sneakily uplifting, along with its class conscious bite.
Julia: It has a sincere sense of beauty and awe and quote, and I feel like this is very true for both seasons and H B O has confirmed there will be a season three, which I'm Yes, dying to. So excited. . Mm-hmm. . So let's, you know, let's keep talking about why we like what, what we thought about season one and season two
Mario: Oh man. We could just talk about a whole, whole episode on season one. I know,
Julia: and I gotta tell you, Mario, and I've told you this already, and I'm telling you now, live on the show. Season one was like, I can't with these fucking privileged white people. Like I get, it's a satire, but it's like that. I, I feel like that's my life 90% of the time in my business world.
Julia: I'm like these fucking rich white people. Like, do you understand people are actually in pain ?
Mario: Yes. Uh, season one was a hard watch for me too. Like, it's one of those shows that's very heavy, so it's like, I didn't watch it when it first ran. I watched it after it had finished and people were still talking about it.
Mario: So I was like, you know what? I need to check it out. So, Binged it, but I usually can bingeing like two to three episodes a night. Like this show, I literally had to do one, one episode a night. Cause I was just like, oh, there's just, there's so much going on and it's so heavy and it's just some of these characters are just so bad that you're just like, but we're supposed to like them at the same time, I feel like.
Mario: So it's just like, yeah. Oh man. So I literally did. only watch one episode a night. So it took me a week to finish it, cuz I believe it's only seven episodes the first
Julia: season. I think so. Great. Yeah, seven or eight I think was seven because the second, the second season was eight. And I was like, oh, that's interesting.
Mario: Yeah. So, um, so yeah, it took me a week to finish it, but by the end, like I re I had to like think about it. I literally had to process it and then I was like, man, that was a really good show. Like, even though it was. Hard to push through and like the characters are the worst and you're just like, mm-hmm.
Mario: get away from me. . Yeah. You have, you have to applaud the way it was filmed, the way it was, you know? Um, Wow. Like satire in it. Mm-hmm. , the way it was written. And then just like if you think about the characters, like what they're actually going through and like yeah. That's probably how they would act and like yeah.
Mario: How holistic it is, especially to our world right now. You're just like, okay.
Julia: Yeah, and I think the other part for me too, that was hard. So like you, it took me a couple, like I think by episode five I finally binged like five, six, and seven. All in one sitting, but the rest was like one here, one there. And the other part of it, the reason why I think it was hard for me, I've been Brittany O'Grady's character Paula, where you're like the brown friend and then the white family just like says stuff and you're just like, oh my God.
Julia: Like. Especially that same scene. Same. I thought that scene where Britney, um, Paula and Olivia, Olivia are sitting there and then Connie Britton's characters comes up and she's like, you know, you need to, you such a hard world for white boys right now. You really need to take care of your brother, da da da da.
Julia: And it was such, that scene is so like, that is perfect. It was such a perfect scene. It completely encapsulates the satire. Mike, Mike White, right. Is going for, yeah, and like it just, it was like, this is it. This is, this is why this show is brilliant. Is like everything that led up to that moment. And then Britney O'Grady's character's like, he's gonna be fine, but she means it in such a different way than her mom.
Julia: Then the mom means it, and you're just like, this is why we have a disconnect. And that was so beautifully executed. .
Mario: There were, I was, I just re-watched the last, the finale, um, tonight before the show. Mm-hmm. . And she talks with, it's Paula talking with Olivia, and she is like, Olivia, you act like you're this big rebel, but really you're just like your parents.
Mario: Yeah. Like, you may not mean to be, but you are like, yeah. And it was just, and she kind of stop there, and then Olivia obviously goes into the room and she ends up crying because she knows. Yeah. But it's like, yeah, like you don't. Hard. Like you may think your life is hard, but you don't, you got everything handed to you, don't
Julia: Yeah. And once your friendship is over, you're gonna go back to living in your echo chamber of whiteness and wealthiness and you're gonna forget about, you know, oh, you can't say things like that. Or, you know, being, um, appalled by the racial things that the parents say that are not supposed, we really, really shouldn't say anymore.
Julia: But they're like, what? What's wrong with that kind of stuff? Yeah. Those days are numbered for her. Mm-hmm. . Okay. Jelly Pops. That's all you get for the White Lotus episode with Mr. Mario Mellow. If you want the full episode, head on over to Patreon. patreon.com/pop. Culture makes me jealous. It's really easy to join and you can get the episode and all other bonus episodes for the low low price of $5 a month, plus the bonus content in each episode of season three, which was the season we took a look at high school movie.
Julia: My personal favorite, 10 things I hate about you. Thanks for tuning in y'all. I love this show and I love you all for listening and if you join Patreon, I can't wait to see you over there too.
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