Mike White is known for his “oddball character studies,” and his most recent franchise, “The White Lotus,” has them in spades. The show is “both a social satire and a murder mystery” and White promises the latest outing—set in Thailand—will be an even darker affair. Kelefa Sanneh explores White’s career, and his “rather perverse sensibility” in this detailed profile. It will leave you longing for the next White Lotus stay.
White now owns two houses on Kauai. Compared with the tourists, he is a local, but compared with the natives he is a wealthy interloper, not entirely different from the “White Lotus” characters he satirized. “Unless I feel somehow personally indicted, it doesn’t feel like I’m doing anything that bold,” he told me. “I have to take these people seriously enough that it isn’t just a satire.” One of Kauai’s most famous part-time residents, Mark Zuckerberg, reportedly owns more than a thousand acres of beachfront property, including an underground bunker. But the difference between his compound and White’s modest pair of houses is merely one of scale. “I can make fun of Mark Zuckerberg—but I am also that person,” White says.
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