White Lotus is a delicacy that you should always take small

This evening, when a certain old man, after three and a half weeks of tension that the children could not bear, has finally earned the credit for the gifts I invented, bought and wrapped, and left for his country, I have a meeting with a group of stinking rich Americans and their assistants, hotel clerks and prostitutes. Me on my soft, warm and comforting sofa; he in a luxury Sicilian hotel which, like the smelly people themselves, was the founder of television producer Mike White. WhiteLotus is one of the best series of the moment, and every Monday there is a new episode of the second season on the HBO Max streaming site.

It is customary for HBO to schedule their shows on Sunday evenings (in the US; in the Netherlands it is late at night), one episode at a time. Water cooler TV, it is called in English: episodes that everyone watches at the same time and that are discussed the next day at the office (at the water cooler). It’s interesting that the streaming service is bringing this limited experience back to the Netherlands.

Television selection it’s another, better word. I have a date tonight, and I know it WhiteLotus it will not fail. This season, like the first, revealed at the beginning that a murder would happen. A great storytelling trick, because the Hitchcockian tension building (even better than Sinterklaas) does a great job of keeping the viewer glued to the screen alone – with the help of the villainous characters who all have amazing adventures, the treatment of contemporary topics and. scary but wonderful environment. Everything is irresistible and scary at the same time, and the conclusion of the most recent episode is unexpected, disgusting and terrifying, and probably has a lot of significance for what is yet to happen.

No one is participating

Unfortunately, I can’t talk about this with a few people in my area, because no one is willing to participate in the selection. They all say we should wait until all the episodes are online, so they can continue in a few episodes binged it could be. Otherwise they are sad about the “long” periods. I saw a colleague tweet that he wondered if he would make it to the finish line.

They are friends and valued friends, but I really have a problem with this unyielding mentality of need. It’s like a crazy marshmallow experiment. In the 1970s, children were tested on their ability to delay gratification by allowing them to choose one marshmallow immediately or two marshmallows later. Netflix has conditioned us to wait until we are born with a bacchanal gift.

But WhiteLotus it’s way too good to pass as fast food. You have to take a bite, let the taste sink in slowly, talk about it with your dinner companions – or in the case of the series: submit to tweets, posts and podcasts that discuss each character, each moral issue and analyze many details. Entertainment is ubiquitous, and waiting provides good exercise for our information-laden minds.

Be a foodie and join us tonight. Should you close before the first four sessions? drunkenness.