The White Lotus, season 2
NZ release: 22 October 2023
Drug use, offensive language, sex scenes, violence, content that may disturb Rated on: 22 October 2023
What’s it about?
Taking place over one tumultuous week, this black comedy follows the exploits of various guests and employees at an exclusive resort in Sicily, Italy.
The facts
- Director/Writer/Creator Mike White (The White Lotus season 1)
- English and Italian language
- Seven episodes, 60 minutes each
Why did it get this rating?
This film was self-rated by Neon. You can find out more about self-rating by streaming providers here.
Drugs
Characters indulge in drug taking as part of an indulgent vacation experience. A character offers another edibles to ‘have a good time’. She cautiously takes them, and we then see her anxious and confused later in the evening.
Prostitutes supply ‘mollys’ and Viagra pills to their customers. A character mixes up the drugs and gives the wrong pill to an older man. We subsequently see him have a heart attack which may have been the result of drugs.
A lot of characters drink throughout the show and at times this excessive drinking results in bad decisions, hallucinations, and then mild hangovers the following day.
Sex scenes
Two young women decide to make money by prostituting themselves at the exclusive resort. We don’t see negative consequences despite putting themselves into vulnerable situations. There are several sex scenes featuring one or both of the escorts, and we see female nudity including bare breasts and buttocks.
A character gets undressed in another character’s hotel room. We see full frontal male nudity. In another scene we see buttock nudity while a character is being pleasured by one of the female escorts.
We see two men having rear entry sex, with full nudity. We see two women having sex where one is stimulating the other using her hands, with limited nudity.
A character watches porn on his laptop and is interrupted by his partner.
Violence
Two men fight in the ocean – They punch each other repeatedly and take turns attempting to hold one another under the water.
A character fires gun in self-defence. We then briefly see victims with gunshot wounds, including one with blood coming from their mouth as they take their final breaths.
Offensive language
There is a lot of strong language used throughout the series, such as “what the f*ck?!” "f*ck," "sh*t,", "b*tch” and “d*ck”.
Content that may disturb
The series starts with the discovery of a dead body floating in the water. This imagery is focused on in the final episode of the series.
A character falls from a boat and hits their head. The scene is dimly lit and we don’t see any of the injuries.
