‘The White Lotus’ returns for Season 2, slowed down and sexed up
As I stood in the lobby of a hotel room watching the Season 2 premiere of The White Lotus on Cinemax one night in mid-July, I expected to see a remake of the 1983 sexploitation classic about three siblings and their white-maned cat.
In fact, it didn’t take long for the show’s creators (who had previously worked on the original) to show that Season 2 would contain some of the same sex, violence and nudity of the original.
If you’re a fan of the original, you probably know the backstory. It involves a wealthy Chinese-Indian family and their cat. The cat is white, in an attempt to hide its blackened and scarred face from its wealthy owner and siblings. However, the cat takes a liking to the brothers, and the three eventually fall in love. However, the ’cat’ is also capable of human interaction, and eventually becomes pregnant by one of the brothers.
The cat’s race is not the only difference between this show and the original. The producers have added sex and violence to the mix, and some viewers will undoubtedly be turned off by the content, particularly if that violence includes sex. And, it’s not like the show has the potential to become all that great, either. However, some of my friends were more open to and willing to be open-minded on the subject.
In fact, that’s exactly how I began this first week of Season 2. My wife and I were chatting about our favorite television shows, and it was at this moment that I asked her if she was open to having our 9-year-old daughter watch The White Lotus. It turns out that my daughter, while open-minded, did not enjoy the show as much as she would have preferred.
We watched together, and it was the first time ever I was forced to watch something with my 10-year-old. Because of the sex, the nudity and the swearing, the episode ended up being more uncomfortable to watch for me, and I was disappointed that my daughter and I didn’t watch