“A five-star hotel is what prostitutes are for.” Simona Tabasco as Lucia in the new season of *The White Lotus*.

Pillow Talk

Set on the Sicilian coast, Season Two of The White Lotus is yet another pitch-perfect take on the fake smiles and excessive privilege of the oversexed guests swanning around five-star hotels

By Imogen Edwards-Jones

Something strange happens to guests as soon as they come through the revolving glass doors of a five-star hotel. With the everyday tasks like bed making and fixing breakfast taken care of, guests can let go, and the results are extraordinary; as I saw when I spent a year investigating the five-star hotel business for my Hotel Babylon books, which inspired the BBC1 television show of the same name. There was drinking to excess, falling through windows and, my own favorite, a man who brought a sheep into reception and tried to squeeze it in the lift, hoping that no one had noticed. It’s a gift for television comedy drama.

Season One of HBO’s comedy drama The White Lotus mined this rich seam brilliantly and with style and comic aplomb. It won five Emmys for its portrayal of life at a resort in Hawaii and returned last Sunday with a new cast, including Michael Imperioli (best known as Christopher Moltisanti in The Sopranos), although Jennifer Coolidge has stayed on as a grieving, needy member of the super-rich.