The White Lotus & other TV dramas

The White Lotus reached its final episode last Monday and there were two fatalities. I shall not give any spoilers –  matters were resolved, but not so finally as to make another series impossible.

One does wonder how actors written out of the series by their premature deaths feel.

I think of that hilarious spoof of the Archers (The Bowmen) in which Tony Hancock returns to obliterate the entire village.

This does not happen in the “5 star luxury” well-being resort in Koh Samui Thailand.

However, the three sassy ladies who were university friends mend their differences; the Ratliffs find some sort of equanimity with the daughter Piper deciding the ascetism of a Buddhist life is not for her.

Elder womanising brother Savin – intrigued by the lifestyle manual Chelsea gives him – and Chelsea herself, pleased that her boyfriend Rick has returned from Bangkok without killing the husband of the hotel owner who he holds responsible for his own father’s death. One of the few decent people – Gaitam the security  guard – believed himself too gentle but discovers his aggressive side shooting a guest.

Beverley accepts blood money for her silence as she recognises the killer in the first episode in Hawaii.  It is rather drawn out but reaches a conclusion, if not closure. The success of the series lies in a fast-moving plot involving these guests and a luxurious location.

There is a twist in Bergerac too, but the drama fell a long way short  of the original. The original Jim Bergerac was a better defined character with his Burgundy roadster, his touching relationship with his loveable rogue of a father-in-law Charlie Hungerford and his recovery from alcoholism.

In the remake Damien Molony is much darker and less convincing and, by stretching the series over 6 episodes rather than one self-contained, there are too many red herrings.