This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.

This is The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick.

The first season of HBO's White Lotus chronicled the visit to a Hawaiian resort of a select group of the very, very privileged, a tech mogul in her family,

a pair of newlyweds having second thoughts, and an heiress who's grieving and in need of

therapy. When I saw my mother's ashes hit the water, you know, I just, uh, just reminded me of,

you know, sprinkling fish food in an aquarium.

And I was just like, oh my God, you know. Am I feeding my mother to the fishes?

All the while the resorts manager is having a complete meltdown that's both hilarious and

kind of harrowing to watch.

New Yorker staff writer Nomi Fry called the show a near-note-perfect tragic comedy.

When I first watched the first season of White Lotus, I was really interested in its combination

of scathing, and kind of just basic plot enjoyment, right?

So it was about watching a bunch of rich people in a luxury resort supposed to be having the time of their lives, and through a series of events,

having, like, the worst time of their life, pretty much. But it also said something bigger

about where we are right now as a society. And I think it's fairly rare that a show manages

to do both of these things without being too ponderous or too

flimsy. I think one of the things that interested me to talk about with Mike White, he's a very

successful writer and creator. He wrote movies like School of Rock. He's a very well-respected

and successful screenwriter and

producer. But another funny and interesting thing about him that maybe some people don't know is

that he's also a huge fan of reality competition shows and has even participated in a couple of

those shows himself. He was on Survivor on the David versus Goliath season a few years ago.

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