THE LAST RESORT (THE WHITE LOTUS)

If you were to pick one drama at the start of this year that would turn out to be the critical darling of 2021, 'The White Lotus' probably wouldn't have been tipped.

'Mare of Easttown' looked like a pretty good bet to take that honour and it didn't disappoint.

'Your Honor,' 'Time,' series four of 'Unforgotten' and the Channel 4 AIDS drama 'It's A Sin' have also proven to be strong contenders.

The sixth series of 'Line of Duty' in the UK was also going to be a huge ratings grabber but it fell at the final hurdle.

Yet here's Mike White's HBO comedy drama 'The White Lotus,' which has gripped audiences on both sides of the Atlantic this summer and earned the kind of reviews most writers dream of.

Set in a holiday resort on a Hawaiian island, it is a comedy and a mystery tale that tackles white privilege, wealth inequality and family dysfunction without even breaking a sweat.

Following events over the course of a week, White's tale is structured like a well written novel.

It begins in an airport as holidaymakers prepare to return to the US mainland.

Jake Lacy's Shane is sitting alone at the gate, cutting a rather forlorn figure.

An elderly couple tries to strike up a conversation and he basically tells them to piss off after they find out he was staying in The White Lotus resort and try to get him to gossip about a death that occurred there.

Getting up to stare out the window at the tarmac, Shane watches the dead body being loaded onto a plane 

Having set the mould on the mystery at the centre of his show around who has died, White then rolls events back a week.

A boat is arriving at the luxury island resort and as The White Lotus comes into view we are introduced to each of the guests.

Shane is traveling with his new wife, Alexandra Daddario's Rachel, ready to embark on their Hawaiian honeymoon.

Also onboard are the Mossbachers - Connie Britton's high profile tech CFO Nicole, Steve Zahn's self-obsessed husband Mark and their awkward, smartphone and smartpad glued 16 year old son Fred Hechinger's Quinn.

Their daughter, Sydney Sweeney's college sophomore Oliviahas brought her friend, Brittany O'Grady's Paula and they make bitchy observations about the other holidaymakers as the boat heads towards the resort.

Jennifer Coolidge's emotionally fragile, lonely middle aged woman Tanya is travelling alone, clutching a box containing her mother's ashes.

Waiting for them as they arrive are Murray Bartlett's resort manager Armond and Jolene Purdy's trainee Lani who he chides for having a stain on her shirt.

Armond is an uptight Australian resort manager who appears to strive for perfection but really has a contempt for his guests.

But while The White Lotus prides itself on its service, it doesn't take long for things to go awry.

Spoilt little rich boy, Shane starts to obsess about the fact that he and his wife have not got the suite his mum booked.

Despite Rachel's insistence that the room is lovely, he is determined to get what they were promised.

His insistence on getting the room occupied by a German couple only makes Armond equally determined to deny him.

It emerges that Lani has been hiding her pregnancy on her first day on the job and her waters break, causing pandemonium during dinner as staff try to hide her labour from the guests.

Meanwhile Mark Mossbacher is obsessed by the fact that his testicles are swollen and he anxiously awaits news from his doctor over whether he may have cancer.

Nicole cannot stop working for her search engine company while on holiday, fretting about her choice of background for Zoom calls.

Her daughter Olivia and Paula intimidate Quinn into initially sleeping in the kitchen rather than allowing him to share their room.

He eventually winds up sleeping on the beach, as the tide destroys his digital devices.

Paula becomes romantically involved with Kekoa Scott Kukamano's Kai, a member of staff and goes off for midnight trysts much to the annoyance of her controlling friend Olivia.

The always stressed Tanya tries to book a massage but is instead treated to a meditation that Natasha Rothwell's spa manager Belinda guides her through.

Soon she is wining and dining Belinda and encouraging her to open her own business, claiming she might be able to find her the funds to help her do that.

However it is not clear that she wi follow through on the promise.

Meanwhile Rachel is getting increasingly disillusioned as Shane insists on forcing Armond to admit the hotel made a mistake over the room.

She is mostly irritated by his treatment of her as a trophy wife, insisting now she has married into money she no longer needs to pursue her career in journalism.

Olivia and Paula accidentally leave a bag on the beach while trying to ignore Tanya as she tries to make conversation.

The bag which contains their stash of drugs is handed into Armond who is a recovering addict and falls spectacularly off the rails.

With all these tasty ingredients, White serves up one hell of a spicy stew - keeping the audience on the edge of their seats as to who will die.

There are some spectacular revelations along the way for Mark, Nicole, Rachel, Quinn and Armond and it seems with every twist in every episode, the bar gets raised for the next and then is comfortably cleared.

White expertly times his shocks throughout the six episode miniseries brilliantly and peppers the show with some great comic set pieces.

He also does an impressive job as a director, teaming up effectively with cinematographer Ben Kutchins who captures some stunning shots of the Hawaiian coast at sunrise and sunset and some telling, fleeting images.

As for the cast, they are simply excellent - squeezing every drop of comedy and tragedy from White's script.

Bartlett is a real joy as Armond, injecting quite a bit of John Cleese's Basil Fawlty into his role.

In what should be a star making turn for the Aussie, he does a terrific job as his character spectacularly combusts.

Macy and Daddario are also perfect as the mismatched newlyweds - the former channeling the arrogant, spoilt rich kid vibes of Donald Trump Jr and his brother Eric and the latter brilliantly using her eyes to convey a growing sense of frustration and disillusionment for the life she has chosen.

Zahn is wonderfully brittle and self-obssessed as Britton's husband who has played second fiddle to her and retreated into self-obsession.

Britton is on point as an executive who is too wrapped up in work.

Sweeney and O'Grady convince as college girls who wear their cynicism and contempt for others as a badge of pride.

As the series wears on, O'Grady is particularly effective in portraying her increasing sense of alienation from the white privileged family she is staying with.

Hechinger handles Quinn's struggle to find himself impressively, while Coolidge provides many of the show's laughs as a haphazard mess of a woman.

Molly Shannon turns up as Shane's overbearing mum, while Natasha Rothwell is wonderful as the remarkably calm and tolerant Belinda.

Purdy, Kekumano, Lucas Gage and Alec Merlino also delight as various staffers.

Slowly bringing his ingredients to the boil, White keeps his audience guessing about the likely person to die right up to the last 15 minutes of the miniseries.

It is masterful storytelling - beautifully written, thrillingly directed and acted. 

It is so brilliantly done, you will find yourself rooting for certain characters and hoping others will get their comeuppance.

The great news is that White will get to do it all again with a new set of guests, now that HBO has commissioned a second series.

Having crafted a series that is quite frankly a masterpiece, it'll be fascinating to see if he can reach those heights again.

('The White Lotus' was broadcast on HBO in the United States on July 11-August 15, 2021 and was made available for streaming on Sky+ and NowTV in the UK and Ireland on August 16, 2021)

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