What is appealing to us about The White Lotus? Or, more specifically, what kinds of psychological enjoyment do we derive from it? Online commentators often speak to the show's "shock value" and its capacity to raise the bar in terms of “acceptable” television, particularly in regard to sex, pleasure, and what some may call “perverse” or unorthodox desires.

Below are some thoughts on the kinds of “deviant” and ambivalent pleasures The White Lotus provides viewers.

The show depicts rich, mostly white, Americans acting badly in foreign countries. Part of our enjoyment is watching their affluence and privilege be undermined by either ignorance of local culture or their own domestic dysfunction.

For example, Tim, the patriarch of Season 3, struts about in his Duke T-shirt and seems to embody the American ideal. His problems initially seem to be limited to which elite school his son should go to (Duke or UNC), or whether or not his daughter should take a gap year in Thailand (i.e., first world problems).

As the show unfolds, however, we see that Tim has gotten himself in over his head financially and may face jail time as well as the shame and humiliation of public failure. The perverse enjoyment of watching Tim’s downfall is that while there is a sadistic pleasure in watching him fail, there is also a feeling of empathy in what appears to be intense suffering on his part. Tim genuinely seems drawn to Buddhism and the spiritual questions that are asked by the local teacher. He........

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