25/28
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 despite the show being conceived as a one-season limited miniseries. The show is said to be an anthology-style series with new characters for each season. HBO has done this before (to great success) with the series True Detective (2014). Appeared in Jeremy Vine: Episode No. 4,175 (2021). Although some of the first season was awkward. This second season is as masterful as anyone could hope for. It starts off a little slow, the first episode, but soon finds its feet and impresses again and again, hooking me as if I were not experienced enough. It feels like a rehash of every thought I have ever had at a vacation resort, many of which I had long forgotten. For that reason alone it is a delight, but don’t worry, it goes above and beyond, flirting with heights of drama and operatic beauty, which is quite appropriate given its setting in Sicily. Given the excellence of the acting and the apparent simplicity of the story, I’d say Mike White, the creator of this series, is something of an unsung genius. The guy seems oblivious to boundaries, coupled with one of the sharpest eyes for detail I’ve ever seen.