The Best Shows to Watch Like The White Lotus

Murder? Yep. Rich people sequestered away at an expensive resort? Absolutely. Conflicting personalities all butting heads while leading up to an epic finale? You bet. Honestly, Nine Perfect Strangers and The White Lotus are shockingly similar, yet incredibly different. Whereas White Lotus is a deep character dive, Nine Perfect Strangers takes a more Agatha Christie mystery approach, making it a thrilling watch until the very end.

While Palm Royale might center around a country club instead of a resort, it brilliantly pulls off many of the same tropes as White Lotus, skewering the rich for how conniving and insufferable they are. The big difference is that Palm Royale injects a poor country girl into the mix (Kristen Wiig), who really sets all the drama into motion and hilariously exposes the rich for what they truly are.

If your favorite part of The White Lotus is all the relationship drama and cheating and sex, then you’ll probably love Love Island. The reality show throws a bunch of young hot people in a house, gets them drunk, and has them all make out with each other and then get mad at each other for making out with each other. It’s the kind of drama, drama, drama that fans of White Lotus season 2 will love. 

What if White Lotus was told from the employees’ perspective instead of the rich guests? That’s kind of what Apple TV+’s Acapulco is like. The show follows a young man who becomes a pool boy at the ritzy Los Colinas Resort in Acapulco, and over the decades he works his way up to becoming a business mogul. But the true spirit of the show is during his pool boy days and the wild adventures he has at the resort.

Long before Mike White became an Emmy winner for The White Lotus, he created, produced, and starred in an HBO series called Enlightened. The show is about a group of lowly clerical workers at an oppressive corporation, and the mentally unstable woman (Laura Dern) who decides to fight back against their corporate overlords. If you love the deep character development that White Lotus is famous for, you’ll find a similarly well-told story with Enlightened.

If you love The White Lotus but feel it moves a little too slow and want something that’s got more of that pulpy, aired-on-the-CW vibe, then check out The Perfect Couple. The series follows a complicated wealthy family during a wedding weekend…leading to mystery and murder. It’s got a great cast including Nicole Kidman, and definitely has some over-the-top vibes making it way less of a slow-burn and more of a guilty pleasure.