“The White Lotus,” the hit HBO anthology series that, during a season of pandemic travel restrictions, skewered the entitled behavior of wealthy vacationers, scooped up five Primetime Emmys on Monday, including the award for best TV movie, limited or anthology series.
Created by Mike White, the series struck a chord with its timely and incisive satire of privilege and liberal hypocrisy at a Hawaiian resort, and it was highly favored to take home the best limited series award, after receiving 20 nominations overall. In winning, “The White Lotus” beat a field of similarly buzzy, topical series in a category that has become one of TV’s most hotly contested, including Hulu’s “Dopesick,” about the opioid crisis, and Netflix’s “Inventing Anna,” about the socialite scam artist Anna Sorokin.
The series also scored wins in major acting categories. Jennifer Coolidge, who plays a grieving hotel guest desperate for love, won best supporting actress, beating four of her co-stars in the category, including Connie Britton, Alexandra Daddario, Natasha Rothwell and Sydney Sweeney. Murray Bartlett, who plays a meticulous resort manager, won best supporting actor, beating out his co-stars Jake Lacy and Steve Zahn.
Mike White, who wrote and directed all six episodes of Season 1, picked up back-to-back Emmys for writing and directing. He compared his writing win to increasing his threat level on the competition show “Survivor,” on which he was once a contestant.
“I just want to stay in the game,” White said. “Awards are great, I love writing, I love doing what I do. Don’t come for me. Don’t vote me off the island, please.”
“White Lotus” also earned five Creative Arts Emmys, which were presented on Labor Day weekend, in categories including music composition, casting and camera editing.
Season 2 of “White Lotus” is set to debut in October with a new self-contained plot, set in Sicily, and an almost entirely new cast that includes Tom Hollander, Theo James and Aubrey Plaza. Coolidge will be the only returning cast member, reprising her role as Tanya.
Coolidge’s return raised questions about whether “White Lotus” should be competing in the TV movie, anthology or limited series category. The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, which awards the Emmys, decided in March that having a single returning character did not disqualify a series from eligibility.
Source: Television - nytimes.com
