Summer TV: Schmigadoon! & The White Lotus

Last week, both Schmigadoon! and The White Lotus wrapped up their six-episode seasons. I watched both shows week-to-week, but if you missed out, you can now binge them to your heart's content. Though, they are very different, so if you aren't as schizophrenic as I am in your viewing habits, you might just pick one to be your latest obsession. Either way, you're in for a treat!

Schmigadoon! is a musical satire/homage, if the title didn't give it away already. Cecily Strong and Keegan Michael-Key play Melissa and Josh, a New York couple that are going through a rough patch. When they embark on a couple's retreat and are hiking through the woods, they accidentally stumble into an old-timey town where the locals keep breaking into song and everything is as old-fashioned as can be, from the outfits to the gender roles. At first they think this is some sort of quaint Colonial Willamsburg-esque tourist trap, but then they discover that it's an actual trap, and the only way they will be able to leave is if they "find true love." Let the chaos begin.

Each episode is a half hour of abject silliness that lovingly mocks musical tropes. Created by Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio (Paul wrote all the original songs as well), this show is fun if you only have a passing familiarity with Golden Age musicals from the 1940s and 50s, but is an absolute must-see if you're a musical theater nerd, because it goes in deep. I definitely did not get all the references, but my particular fondness for the show stems from the fact that it is directed by Barry Sonnenfeld. If you watched Pushing Daisies, you might have some idea of what a gorgeous confection of a scene the man can create at any given moment, and this show is no exception. Part of the gag is how everything in this town looks extra bright and fake, just like a stage musical, but it's still all very engaging for your eyeballs.

The actors are all having a grand ol' time, and it's especially fun to see how Melissa (who loves musicals) and Josh (who hates them) deal with the tribulations of being in this very weird town surrounded by a supporting cast consisting of folk like Fred Armisen, Kristin Chenoweth, and Alan Cumming amongst many others. Everyone is hamming it up and having a blast, and the whole show is an easy, breezy, candy-coated treat that goes down easy. Try out Schmigadoon! if you are in the mood for laughs and light romance. Which, let's be honest, is the mood you should be in all day, any day. 

The White Lotus, on the other hand, is a show to watch when you want to see a bunch of truly awful people obliviously continue to be awful people while the world around them fulfills their every desire. I know that doesn't sound too enticing, but holy hell, this show was addictive and I eagerly looked forward to every episode. 

The show is set in a resort in Hawaii, where we follow the stories of some of the guests who are staying there for a week and the resort staff who have to cater to their whims. There is a rich family on vacation, a pair of honeymooners, and Tanya, a grieving woman who has arrived to scatter her dead mother's ashes. Tanya is played by Jennifer Coolidge, who delivers this insane performance where she sort of resembles the weird spacey character she plays in a lot of comedies, but with all these extra layers because she has a lot of psychological drama to deal with and is also filthy rich, which leads to some interesting power dynamics. I never had any idea what Coolidge would be doing in any given scene; it is a trippy and magnificent performance that is bound to snag her an Emmy. My second favorite character is, of course, the other slightly unhinged and unpredictable one, Armond, the hotel manager, played by Murray Bartlett. That man's story arc is epic in scope and comes to a shitty end...I'll leave it at that. 

Without spoiling all the storylines, this is a show about wealth and privilege, and how ultimately the world is set up to let these people get away with ridiculous things and everyone else must orbit around their gravitational pull. Terrible things happen on this show, but ultimately, the people who are disappointed are the "poor" ones. The rich characters do have a very dramatic trip with lots of emotional upheaval, but at the end of the day, the show's theme is that these people lack any self-awareness and will carry on as they were, unaware of all the ripples they've caused as they've splashed around this resort. But I want to be clear, this show is also a black comedy, and you will laugh a lot while you're also uncomfortably squirming. It's also beautifully shot if you need to feel like you've escaped to Hawaii for six sun-soaked hours. 

Written and directed by Mike White, the show is compellingly written, has a brilliant cast, and grasps with a lot of themes around wealth and white privilege that have always been a problem but especially came to the forefront in 2020. But my absolute favorite thing about this show? The theme tune. My God. The moment I heard it playing over the opening credits, I immediately had a sense of what I was getting into - it is this odd, unsettling, but somehow still boppy number that promises you that you will be entertained, but deeply disturbed in the process. The entire score by Cristobal Tapia de Veer is a thing of weird beauty and should be winning any awards they give out for soundtracks these days.

This is a show I could talk about for hours, and I will be reading absolutely anything anyone has to say about it, because there are so many compelling characters who either get screwed or screw over someone else. My favorite line was when one Black character went, "I'm all out" and stormed out of a room. It was a small victory in the grand scheme of all the shit that went down in this show, but at this point, we've all learned to celebrate whatever we can get. Watch The White Lotus - the surface is pretty but the underbelly is a festering indictment of American society. Enjoy!