The White Lotus and other virtual realities on the box
Television screens have become windows to the world in this lockdown era.
Television screens have become windows to the world in this lockdown era and it seems a minor miracle how producers have managed to gather casts and crews to film in exotic settings. Drilling down into a few recent releases, I have been teleporting to resorts, spas and destinations that I either know or would like to visit.
Leading the charge is The White Lotus, one of the quirkiest and most horrifically funny series ever, with the simultaneously unctuous and contemptuous general manager (Basil Fawlty meets David Brent) brilliantly played by Australian actor Murray Bartlett. The title is the name of a make-believe resort on the island of Maui in Hawaii but it was filmed on site, during Covid restrictions, at the otherwise empty Four Seasons Resort Wailea, which is indeed on Maui. I know the property and found myself losing concentration on the antics of the characters while playing spot the palm tree or plunge pool or cocktail bar. Cue a massive rise in bookings.
The new Nicole Kidman miniseries, Nine Perfect Strangers, was shot at Soma, an exclusive health retreat near Byron Bay in northern NSW. The show is based on the novel of the same name by the seemingly unstoppable Liane Moriarty, whose fictional spa is named Tranquillum. Presumably Soma will now be firmly on the radar of wellness and mindfulness devotees, although if I wanted to experience a “sweat lodge”, I’d opt for a tiny national park cabin in high summer. This power of fabulously filmed places and lodgings to pull in tourists is nothing new. Look at the waves of visitors who’ve headed to Port Isaac, the fishing village in North Cornwall that stands in for Doc Martin’s imaginary Portwenn, or to Mendocino, California, aka Cabot Cove, Maine, home to sleuth Jessica Fletcher in Murder she Wrote.
Highclere Castle, the “stand in” for Downton Abbey, has recorded such vast volumes of tourists since the series debuted in 2010 that its running repairs have turned to rivers of gold. Academic papers have been written on “the Downton Abbey effect” including “empirical examination of TV drama-induced tourism motivation”. But back to on-screen hotels that still trade on their celluloid success. Lost in Translation (2003) was filmed at Park Hyatt Tokyo and, oh yes, Suntory whisky stars at its sky-high New York Bar. Timberline Lodge, near Portland, Oregon, has been feeding off the fame of The Shining since 1980.
In Bruges, starring Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, features the hotel Relais Bourgondisch Cruyce, booked to the rafters since 2008. Forget visiting The Grand Budapest Hotel, however. Interiors were constructed and shot on location in Gorlitz, Germany, in an abandoned department store. Smoke, mirrors and dream-weaving from Destination Tinseltown.
