By Calum Jaspan
Casey Bloys refuses to say where the next season of The White Lotus will be filmed. He knows keen holidaymakers will want to beat the inevitable rush to whatever lavish destination the show is filmed at.
The tourism impact is so severe, it has been dubbed “The White Lotus effect”, such is the global popularity of the show.
HBO’s Casey Bloys with some of its programming’s biggest stars.Credit: Aresna Villanueva / HBO
“Not yet. I know the general storyline, but I think Mike [White] is still really enjoying the reception to season three and taking a break,” says Bloys, the chief executive and chair of US television network and studio HBO.
Even though it’s likely you haven’t heard of Bloys, you’ve probably watched one of the shows he’s green-lit or overseen during his 21 years in executive roles at award-winning television studio HBO.
Succession, Game of Thrones, Veep, House of the Dragon, Girls, Euphoria, True Detective, Flight of the Conchords, Chernobyl, Big Little Lies ... to name a few.
HBO has dominated the new golden era of television, and its shows have a new home in Australia on streaming service Max, which has launched to coincide with the new (second) season of the video game-inspired The Last of Us.
Thai tourism has been a big winner from season three of The White Lotus.Credit: Demi Pappas/HBO
The launch also coincides with this Sunday’s season-three finale of The White Lotus which has become a tried and tested format for the network. Take some rich, largely out-of-touch people to a fancy hotel in a gorgeous destination, and let the audience gawk at the madness that ensues.
How many more times can you revisit the same concept, and keep it interesting?
That decision is rarely his, despite being one of the most powerful executives in Hollywood (and therefore in the world of television). Instead, it’s up to the creative forces behind those shows, “especially when you’re talking about successful shows like The White Lotus [Mike White], or Succession [Jesse Armstrong].
“Succession was very much Jesse’s decision. He felt like that was the story he could tell. He wanted to keep it at a high level and he didn’t think he could keep telling stories at the level he wanted to ... But he knew that if he came to us and said, ‘I want to do a fifth season’, we’d say ‘OK’.”
‘In the history of Hollywood, there’s always been a little bit of a push and pull between art and commerce. I don’t think it has to be mutually exclusive.’
There is more competition than ever to keep producing in the streaming era. In Australia, Max enters a market with Netflix, Disney+, Stan, Amazon Prime Video, Binge (HBO shows are moving from Binge to Max), Apple TV+ and Paramount+ all competing for subscriptions, which is why studios tend to keep sucking a series dry when they have a hit. (Stan and this masthead are owned by Nine Entertainment.)
Kendall Roy (Jeremy Strong), Roman Roy (Kieran Culkin) and Shiv Roy (Sarah Snook) in Succession.Credit: Foxtel/HBO
White, the creative brains behind The White Lotus, has already drawn up ideas for a fourth season, and has ideas for more beyond that, Bloys says.
Commissioning content is a delicate balance in an era of mass culture, particularly with greater demands for financial returns and more focus on “IP” (intellectual property) content. The result is Disney pumping out Star Wars Disney+, or Amazon recently buying up creative control of the James Bond brand, so they can no doubt produce a Miss Moneypenny spin-off, for example.
Mike White (left), the creator, director and writer of The White Lotus, has several more seasons in the works, says Casey Bloys.Credit: AP
Even further down that road are big-budget movies on Tetris, Mario or Barbie. HBO has several Game of Thrones spin-offs in the works, and one of its most successful current shows is a remake of the video game, The Last of Us.
“You’ve got to have the right combination of originals, IP, movies, television shows, library. You’re always trying to balance and find the right combination of programming that’s going to bring people in, not only get them to sign up, but to stay,” says Bloys.
“It’s not practical to expect that you’re going to have wall-to-wall House of the Dragon or Last of Us, from a budget point of view, or a production point of view, because these shows are so big, [...] you’re not always in the mood for a giant, huge show like that. Sometimes you want something lighter, or you want something that’s less of a commitment.
“In the history of Hollywood, there’s always been a little bit of a push and pull between art and commerce. I don’t think it has to be mutually exclusive.
“And just because it’s IP content, doesn’t mean it can’t be good, or vice versa,” he says.
The Last of Us star Bella Ramsey at the Australian premiere in Sydney on Wednesday.Credit: Wolter Peeters
“The Last of Us could be considered an IP show, while White Lotus is completely original. Both of them have been extraordinarily well reviewed, and hopefully will be recognised by the Emmys this year, as they were the last time they aired.”
Show business is a business of failures, too, Bloys says, when asked about how he deals with commercial and critical flops such as The Idol, created by pop star The Weeknd.
“I don’t think it does any good to kind of sit around and stew in it.”
Max’s entry presents a serious new challenger in Australia. It also houses titles such as the Harry Potter and DC universes, as well as the HBO back catalogue, including acclaimed shows such as The Sopranos and The Wire.
It is not worth stewing over the rare HBO flops like The Idol, says Bloys.Credit: HBO
Bloys says the studio has seen plenty of competitors over the years, but that doesn’t change the way they make shows.
“I’ve been here, and that’s 21 years, and going back further, there has always been somebody. It was Showtime, it was FX, it was Netflix, it was Amazon, it was Apple, and all of those services have done good shows, great shows and bad shows,” he says.
Though he could see Netflix’s British exports Baby Reindeer, and more recently, Adolescence, on HBO, he admits, the key to success is to always try to evolve its content – so far a successful strategy.
“If you think back to when we did Game of Thrones, there were a lot of questions. Do you remember the term ‘swords and sandals’? Is that an HBO show?”
Questions were asked, too, about Lena Dunham’s Girls, and later Euphoria, both fronted by young female leads. Girls features on almost every list tallying the best shows of this century.
“As long as we are continuing to fulfil the promise of the HBO brand ... as long as we continue to do that, you can’t worry too much about what others are doing.”
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