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Hi Ladies, first time posting here.
Wondering if anyone here has watched season 2 of HBO’s The White Lotus. I just finished it last night binge-style and I’m super curious about what any FDS-ers thought about this season’s characters. I think there was good mix of established tropes and unexpected twists that really got me thinking.
The portrayal of Albie in particular stuck out to me. I think he was coded as the quintessential “nice guy” who has good intentions and gets played by a woman “wh*re” character.
*SPOILER ALERT below*
Put shortly, Albie ends falling for a sex worker named Lucia who scams him out of thousands euros. I feel like the show implies that Albie’s naïveté is what got him scammed and that, of course, he is ultimately a too-innocent nice guy trying to do better than his scrote serial cheater sex-addicted father when it comes to how he treats women. Albie definitely has a savior complex- which he admits to in one episode when he says that he often finds himself attracted to “pretty wounded birds.” And this got me chewing on the idea that Albie perhaps has good intentions but the fact that he feels so compelled to “save” women causes him to engage in a subtle form of misogyny that sees him constantly infantilizing women and struggling to recognize that not all women are good but rather exist on a spectrum of goodness/badness just like any fully formed person. I think this mentality primes Albie- and men like him- to turn to extreme misogyny when they inevitably become embittered after getting scammed or “played” by a wounded bird. His characters does seem to have basic listening skills and empathy for women. At the same time, however, he was lowkey petty during the scene at the hotel bar when he saw Portia with Jack- and he definitely balked and backed down when Alessio got aggressive with Lucia in front of him.
How did you guys interpret Albie’s character and what unfolded between him and Lucia? Did you even give it a second thought?
Do you guys have any thoughts on other characters this season- or on season one? I'm still wondering what exactly happened to Kai after the arrest, and Greg setting Tanya up... omg.
I've been WAITING to rant about this one!
Albie gave me red flags ever since his "I go for wounded birds" b.s.
He drops the whole "nice guy" and sells out *his own mother* to get what he wants. He knows his dad hasn't changed, he knows his dad will absolutely cheat on his mom again, but he wants so badly to be the white knight that he's more than willing to do it.
But what I hate even more is the throw away line he has at the end of "oh yeah, I got played." I don't care how privileged you are, no one's going to shrug off someone running off with 50k.
I also hate that there was no revelation that Albie was sleeping with the same prostitute that his own father hired *for the week* AND the dad KNEW who this girl was. What a waste of a bombshell.
I also hated that it's heavily hinted that Ethan cheated on Harper with Cam's wife and THAT'S how he got his "mojo" back so to speak and now all is even.
All this happened because Ethan didn't want to listen to Harper in the first place that Cam and his wife both suck! I hate he's essentially being rewarded for making bad decision after bad decision after bad decision.
Ah man, and how it's hinted that Cam's wife had her trainer's kid as "revenge." So you wrecked your body and have to spend 18+ years raising a revenge baby-- wow, you really showed him.
And I get she does all this stuff to make herself not "feel like a victim," but the show frames all this stuff as if she's actually pulling off some clever revenge scheme whereas in reality she has no friends and her husband *still* cheats on her at every opportunity.
The whole season reads as a giant male fantasy.
Quick reminder that White Lotus is a satire and the creator/showrunner, Mike White, is a bisexual man. He summarized this season as "men are shit" and the themes explored are power and gender. If season 2 got you riled up, that's a good sign
i hate prostitution because it's harmful to women and it serves men. and i think the show portrayed the "profession" in a very glamourized way. you watch it and think "wow, two thousand euros to fuck a rich guy who may or may not be attractive. and the wrost thing to deal with is clients who don't pay? that sounds better than my current job" - especially cosidering the money Lucia got from the scam. so i wasn't very pleased with this aspect of the show.
that being said, i kinda liked Albie. i think he is the typical nice guy who tries to be good, but deep inside he resents women like portia, who prefer "cave men". he tellls her in a dinner scene that women complain about men, but they are never really interested in nice guys like him. that was a major give away that he's not all that naive. and portia said she wanted someone more agressive, which should have showed him that he is not her type. and he still made moves on her. good ol' male entitlement right there. and he tried really hard to show what a feminist he was. just argh!
i did like the fact that he asked for a kiss. this is like my dream hahaha men never ask for enything. so imagine my disappointment when portia told him to be more agressive. i was like "noooooo!!!!! can't you just appreciate his decency?????"
and by the end, he didn't sound that angry when he talked about Lucia playing him... So maybe he is genuinely nice? Nah, i doubt that hahaha