49/15
The exploits of several guests and staff at a luxury resort over the course of a week. HBO renewed the series for a second season, even though the series was intended to be a one-season limited miniseries. The series is intended to be an anthology-style series with new characters for each season. HBO has already done this (with great success) with the series Thám Tử Chân Chính (2014). Featured in Jeremy Vine: Episode #4,175 (2021). The first season of the series gets a nine from me. It’s tense, consistent, with dark humor, and its social commentary is nuanced and central to the series. The second season is more like a six. For me, it’s good enough to watch a third season, but overall, the second season is less interesting because it feels more like a slow-moving-train tabloid story. The writing is too obvious and lacks the nuance needed to make the excesses interesting or meaningful. That doesn’t make it a bad show, but for me it falls into the “maybe” category of recommended shows, with the exception of Aubrey Plaza’s performance. It’s excellent and definitely worth watching. Overall, the show is engaging and has a lot to say. If they can overcome the lull of their second season of all too obvious excesses, I’d love to see more seasons.
