How was your most recent stay at The White Lotus?

Created, written, and directed by Mike White, the HBO satirical comedy-drama's first season revolves on the super privileged guests at the eponymous upscale Hawaiian resort and the smiling staff members paid to attend to their every need. While originally intended as a limited series, the show's massive popularity led to its renewal as an anthology series. The second season traveled to Italy to explore the culture divide between the Americans on vacation and the locals who work in and around the hotel.

Both seasons explore how a seemingly picture-perfect week in paradise ends in disaster — for some more than others. After revealing that somebody (or somebodies, as in the second season) will die by the vacation's end, the show then peels back the layers of the offbeat characters and the secrets they contain, weaving in social commentary about class and white privilege. The show spotlights a large ensemble cast, including Murray Bartlett, Connie Britton, Jennifer Coolidge, Alexandra Daddario, Jake Lacy, Natasha Rothwell, and Sydney Sweeney in the first season alone. The second season stars include F. Murray Abraham, Michael Imperioli, Aubrey Plaza, Theo James, Will Sharpe, Meghann Fahy, Sabrina Impacciatore, and Coolidge again.

The White Lotus currently has a Metascore of 82 and has received widespread praise, particularly for its writing, directing, and performances. The first season received 20 Emmy Award nominations, including a whopping eight acting nominations for its ensemble cast. The show went on to win half of those awards at the recent 74th Emmy Awards, making it the year's most honored program. White won for both writing and directing, while Bartlett and Coolidge each took home their respective prizes. The show also won in the Outstanding Limited Series category. 

If you're looking to check into another show in the meantime, Metacritic has assembled a list of shows similar to The White Lotus to suit your needs. The below list will especially appeal to anyone looking for more darkly comedic murder mysteries, shows examining class and privilege, and shows about dysfunctional people on vacation. 

Here, Metacritic highlights 10 shows like The White Lotus to watch next. 

Succession

Metascore: 83
Best for: Fans of satirical dark comedies about privilege and explorations of complicated characters
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Succession is HBO's other currently running, highly popular drama about the wealthy. Created by Jesse Armstrong, the show follows the power struggles and in-fighting that define the billionaire Roy family, who own a global media conglomerate. After their prickly patriarch Logan (Brian Cox) has a health scare, his four adult children begin wondering more seriously which of them will eventually supersede him as CEO. But though he teases them with the top gig, Logan has no real interest in stepping aside. Succession has earned 13 Emmy Awards out of a total 44 nominations to date, including two consecutive wins for Outstanding Drama Series.

"Scabrously funny. ... You can only hope to see a terrible person do something terrible to a more terrible person. This makes Succession both an addictive spectator sport and one of TV's great horror stories." — James Poniewozik, The New York Times

Veep

Metascore: 82
Best for: Fans of biting political satires
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If you're searching for another show with a caustic sense of humor and terrible people being, well, terrible people, Veep could be for you. Created by Armando Iannucci as an adaptation of his highly acclaimed British sitcom The Thick of It (Metascore: 92), the show follows the day-to-day political games faced by new vice president Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). As she strives to gain more political influence, Selina struggles with her incompetent staff and her strained relationship with the president. Louis-Dreyfus earned a record-breaking six consecutive Emmy Awards for her performance, with the show winning 17 total awards out of 68 nominations. 

"Depending on the situation, Louis-Dreyfus brings various combinations of excessive zeal, profane rage, piteous desperation, and unwarranted arrogance, all of it never less than beguiling." — Ken Tucker, Yahoo TV

Enlightened

Metascore: 79
Best for: Fans of White's cringe comedy and approach to flawed characters
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Before The White Lotus, White collaborated with Laura Dern on Enlightened, in which they both also star. Following a nervous breakdown at work, Amy Jellicoe (Dern) quits her job and attends a one-month wellness retreat in Hawaii, where she experiences a philosophical transformation — mostly. However, upon her return, people who knew the "old Amy" question her commitment to positive change. While Amy's histrionics about social issues often lead to awkwardly hilarious results, the show still finds compassion for its imperfect protagonist. The second season received much greater acclaim than the first, with a Metascore of 95, and received two Emmy Award nominations for Dern's and Molly Shannon's performances. 

"If Amy really was enlightened, there'd be no show, but the fact that she's wearing her enlightenment like an ill-fitting coat gives the show both its comedic and plot trajectories." — David Wiegand, San Francisco Chronicle

Big Little Lies

Metascore: 78
Best for: Fans of murder mysteries and darkly comedic dramas that examine privilege
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Much like The White Lotus, Big Little Lies begins with a mysterious murder in a beautiful location and provides a darkly comedic look at the wealthy. The drama also features a star-studded cast, including Dern, Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley, and Alexander Skarsgård. Based on Liane Moriarty's bestselling novel of the same name, the show revolves on the beautiful coastal town of Monterey, Calif., where affluent suburban families thrive off gossip and competition. But despite the seemingly perfect setting, an elementary school fundraising event ends in a murder investigation. The critically praised show also started as a limited series before getting a second season renewal later on. It won eight Emmy Awards out of 21 total nominations, including acting awards for Dern, Kidman, and Skarsgård. 

"The catty comments of the Monterey hoi polloi do give the series a gossipy gloss but as directed by Wild and Dallas Buyer's Club's Jean-Marc Vallee, Big Little Lies is an empathic drama, a remarkably astute and deep series of character and relationship studies." — Willa Paskin, Slate

Search Party (2016)

Metascore: 78
Best for: Fans of genre-bending shows and dark comedies that examine privilege
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Search Party satirizes millennial malaise, as embodied by four self-absorbed, privileged hipster New Yorkers. Alia Shawkat stars as Dory Sief, a 20-something with a festering existential crisis who's dissatisfied with her assistant job and listless relationship with her passive boyfriend Drew (John Reynolds). She finds new purpose after learning about a missing college acquaintance and begins obsessively investigating her disappearance, enlisting the reluctant help of Drew and their best friends, narcissistic Elliott (John Early) and flaky Portia (Meredith Hagner). The dark comedy became known for its increasingly surreal shifts in tone and genre between seasons that reflect the identity crises of its characters.

"Search Party hadn't jumped the shark so much as it had blossomed into the incredibly strange existential comedy it was always meant to be." — Judy Berman, Time

On Becoming a God in Central Florida

Metascore: 76
Best for: Fans of dark comedies about class and the 1990s
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Set in a small Orlando-adjacent town in 1992, this satirical dark comedy also builds a distinct sense of place as it explores themes of class and wealth. However, On Becoming a God in Central Florida focuses more closely on the perspective of the have-nots, namely through the eyes of water park employee Krystal Stubbs (Kirsten Dunst). Thanks to his involvement in a multibillion-dollar pyramid scheme, Krystal faces financial ruin after her husband's accidental death. She resolves to ascend within the cult-like organization's ranks herself and learns that she might possess the cutthroat skills to make it further than he ever could. 

"A delectably weird and compellingly realized misadventure tale that makes a spot-on point about the inescapable degree of fraud that infests American-style capitalism and promises shortcuts to making millions." — Hank Stuever, Washington Post

The Resort

Metascore: 70
Best for: Fans of mysteries set in tropical locales and genre-bending shows
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The Resort also follows vacationers searching for a reprieve in paradise and the local staff members they encounter — plus, there's a mystery to boot. Created by Andy Siara, the off-beat comedy stars Cristin Milioti and William Jackson Harper as Emma and Noah, a married couple vacationing in the Mayan Riviera. Though he's content in their relationship, she's on the brink of an existential crisis. When Emma discovers the dusty phone of a college kid who mysteriously disappeared 15 years ago, she pulls Noah into investigating the case with her. They embark on an increasingly surreal adventure that concerns the nature of time. 

"The Resort proves itself refreshingly eager to push itself to ask more questions and leave each episode on a note that makes it near impossible to stop watching." — Caroline Framke, Variety

Rutherford Falls

Metascore: 69
Best for: Fans of sitcoms and shows that center Native perspectives 
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While much more light-hearted in tone, Rutherford Falls treads similar thematic material as The White Lotus, examining white privilege and the modern-day ramifications of colonialism on Native people. Plus, there's a plot-line involving a burgeoning tourism project. Created by Ed Helms, Michael Schur, and Sierra Teller Ornelas, the show takes place in the titular New England small town, which borders the fictional Minishonka Nation. Lifelong friends Nathan Rutherford (Helms) and Reagan Wells (Jana Schmieding) share a love of museums and history. They find themselves divided when a debate ignites over an inconveniently placed statue of the town's founder, who happens to be Nathan's ancestor. 

"As has been the case on other Schur-produced shows, Rutherford Falls skillfully braids discussions of serious sociocultural issues with character-based comedy in ways that seem neither forced nor overly didactic." — Jen Chaney, Vulture

Why Women Kill

Metascore: 62
Best for: Fans of murder mysteries and shows with unique aesthetics 
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Told with a colorful campy aesthetic, the stories of this dark comedy-drama anthology series share a common theme: They all end in a death being caused by a woman. However, the Marc Cherry-created show subverts early expectations on who the victims and killers are, and what motivates the deaths. The first season cuts between three different timelines, following three women who have all experienced infidelity in their marriages: housewife Beth Ann (Ginnifer Goodwin) in 1963, socialite Simone Grove (Lucy Liu) in 1984, and bisexual attorney Taylor Harding (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) in 2019. Taylor is also in an open marriage, with Daddario appearing as her new lover. 

"Why Women Kill is able to find balance by imbuing its darkest moments with absurdity. What results is a tasty little slice of entertainment." — Amanda Bell, TV Guide

Nine Perfect Strangers

Metascore: 54
Best for: Fans of shows about dysfunctional people on vacation
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Similar to The White Lotus, Nine Perfect Strangers follows the interactions of privileged, dysfunctional people on vacation. Only, these strangers are attending a 10-day wellness retreat that promises healing and have high hopes of coming home with new insight. Leading the retreat is the mysterious Masha (Kidman), a woman who was once declared clinically dead and now dedicates herself to aiding others, hand-picking every retreat attendee. However, the Tranquillum House is also not everything it seems, and their 10 days have plenty of strange twists and turns. Another Moriarty adaptation, the limited series also stars Melissa McCarthy, Michael Shannon, Regina Hall, and Samara Weaving. 

"This handsome-looking show suffers from distractingly busy storytelling and lacks the satirical bite of its peers, but is carried by the sheer magnetism of its starry ensemble." — Beth Webb, Empire