16/50
The exploits of various guests and employees of a luxury resort over the course of a week. HBO has renewed the series for a second season, although the series is conceived as a limited series for one season. The series is said to be an anthology series with new characters each season. HBO has done this before (to great success) with the series True Detective (2014). Appeared in Jeremy Vine: Episode #1. 4,175 (2021). While some of the first season was awkward. This second season is as masterful as one could hope for. It starts off a little slow, the first episode, but it quickly finds its feet and impresses again and again, hooking me as if I were not experienced enough. It feels like a review of every thought I have ever had about a resort, many of which I had long forgotten. For that reason alone it’s a delight, but don’t worry, it goes way beyond that, flirting with the heights of opera, drama and beauty, which is entirely appropriate given its Sicilian setting. Given the excellence of the acting and the apparent simplicity of the story, I’d say that Mike White, the creator of this series, is something of an unsung genius. The guy seems oblivious to limitations, combined with one of the greatest eyes for detail I’ve ever seen.