The human zoo that is “The White Lotus” is back for a second season. Streaming columnist NICK OVERALL takes a look…
BINGE’S biting satire “The White Lotus” has returned for a sublimely cringeworthy second season this week.
One might label this voyeuristic drama-comedy as something of a human zoo.
Strange exhibits from all walks of life make their way to “The White Lotus”, a pricey resort that’s supposed to provide the perfect, paradisiacal getaway.
The audience gets to observe the holidays of these bizarre, yet eerily familiar characters crash and burn.
No generation, age, sex, gender or any other trait is spared.
The swimming shorts, polo shirts and sunscreen are firmly packed in their bags alongside their anxieties, insecurities and dysfunctional secrets.
Whereas season one took the audience on a trip to a Hawaiian getaway, season two visits another White Lotus resort in Sicily, opening up a new Pandora’s box of debauchery and drama.
It once again has proven itself among the sharpest social commentaries out there and one well worth booking a ticket for.
THIS month it’s Amazon Prime Video’s turn to throw a high-brow sci-fi series into the streaming wars.
That’s exactly what “The Peripheral” is – an ambitious eight part show that wants to bend minds and pull heartstrings.
It comes from the same creators as “Westworld”, the trippy series about a simulation of the wild west where people live out their deepest fantasies.
“The Peripheral” takes that virtual reality gimmick and goes even more off the deep end with it.
Chloe Grace Moretz plays Flynn Fisher, a young woman living in rural America in 2032.
Along with her brother, a retired US Marine, Fisher makes cash from testing out virtual reality hardware for big companies, including extremely realistic and violent video games.
We’re dropped into the story when one of these simulations turns out to be a dystopian London in the year 2099, one that’s so realistic it seems almost like a vision of the future.
Fisher’s thrown an ethical curveball when she witnesses a murder in this strange alternate reality. Premonition? Or just another violent VR experience?
Premise alone I’m sure will be enough for many readers to decide whether this is all up their alley or not.
It’s early days for the show, which is releasing one episode a week, but for sci-fi aficionados the set up has potential for some rewarding pay-offs.
For everyone else, “The Peripheral” may best be left where its title hints at.
VIEWERS who found last year’s “Dr Death” a nail-biting experience may well be in a cold sweat watching Netflix’s new film “The Good Nurse”.
Jessica Chastain plays real-life hero Amy Loughren in this unnerving thriller about a nurse who discovers her seemingly endearing colleague is covertly murdering his patients.
It’s a true crime story that’s as terrifying as it sounds. New Jersey nurse Charles Cullen is believed to have killed hundreds of patients over the course of 16 years by administering lethal injections.
That was until Loughren uncovered his secret and bravely risked her own life to bring him down. “The Good Nurse” tells the tense tale of how she did it.
In real life Cullen was known to be incredibly charming. Loughren even became friends with the serial killer before discovering his sinister secrets.
Like “Dr Death”, this is a medical nightmare that’s fascinating and disconcerting, to say the least. Suddenly, that daily apple seems a lot more appealing.
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