- 19 hours ago
Being ultra wealthy might have once been aspirational, but nowadays it often inspires rage. Why is the glitter of riches so alluring, and why have people (on screen and in real life) begun...
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00:00Money isn't everything, but on screen it can seem like it.
00:04Money doesn't just buy you a better life, better food, better cars,
00:08but it also makes you a better person.
00:10Movies have been indulging in wealth fantasies since the silent era.
00:14In 1914, Cecil B. DeMille and Oscar Apfel directed Brewster's Millions,
00:19the story of a regular schmuck who inherits a sudden windfall.
00:22It would go on to be remade dozens of times.
00:25But maybe the reason this story has endured isn't because it's
00:28a rags-to-riches Cinderella tale.
00:30Gentlemen, do you think I'm a lowlife?
00:32Oh no, Mr. Brewster. Not with these clothes.
00:36It's because it makes wealth out to be both a dream and a nightmare,
00:40indulging our unattainable desire for wealth while reassuring us
00:44that the true cost probably isn't worth it.
00:47I'm going to teach you to hate spending money.
00:50I'm going to make you so sick of spending money that the mere sight of it
00:53will make you want to throw up.
00:55Many of our more recent depictions of wealth aren't just
00:58skeptical, they're downright damning.
01:00How about just a little bit of decency?
01:02What is it with you people?
01:03Several major films of 2019 seem to convey one urgent message,
01:08eat the rich.
01:10You see what they did to this country?
01:12They stole from everybody.
01:14Hard-working people lost everything.
01:17And not one of these douchebags went to jail.
01:19From the late capitalist horrors of Us,
01:21to the post-recession crime thriller Hustlers,
01:24to the best-picture-winning Parasite,
01:26class warfare is suddenly everywhere at the movies,
01:29feeding off a growing dissatisfaction with a world that revolves around the rich.
01:34There's a storm coming, Mr. Wayne.
01:36You're all going to wonder how you ever thought you could live so large
01:40and leave so little for the rest of us.
01:44Here's our take on the long and often fraught relationship
01:47we've had with wealth on screen,
01:49and why lately it seems like the revolution has begun.
01:53Didn't you hear?
01:54Congress just passed a bill legalizing murder if you're rich.
01:58No they didn't.
01:59Oh my god, they did.
02:00Doesn't money make you, Dwayne?
02:12From ancient tales of kings and emperors to today's Instagram influencers,
02:17we've always been fascinated by stories of wealth and wealthy people.
02:21Some of this is pure wish fulfillment,
02:23the daydream of how our own lives could be changed if we only had more money.
02:28A few hours ago, you were giving chai for the Fournwallas,
02:32and now you're richer than they will ever be.
02:34We've even coined a term for it, wealth porn,
02:37the TV shows, films, and glossy magazine spreads that luxuriate in extravagance.
02:42I can't believe I'm on a private plane.
02:44It's like I'm in a band.
02:46Very white, very wealthy band.
02:48It's like I'm in U2.
02:50But we've also been conditioned to believe the wealthy are inherently fascinating,
02:54that in fact they're the only ones worth telling stories about.
02:58The playwright George Bernard Shaw once wrote,
03:01Industrial slavery is not compatible with that freedom of adventure,
03:05that personal refinement and intellectual culture,
03:08that scope of action which the higher and subtler drama demands.
03:12As Shaw declared,
03:14Hamlet's experiences simply could not have happened to a plumber.
03:17You are a fishmonger.
03:19Not I, my lord.
03:20Then how would you worth so honest a man?
03:22Our stories have long backed this up,
03:24from the scruffy orphans of Charles Dickens,
03:27who were inevitably revealed to be of noble blood,
03:30You deserve more than this.
03:32More more!
03:33to our quintessentially American tales of self-made millionaires like Jay Gatsby.
03:38The only respectable thing about you, old sport, is your money.
03:41Your money, that's it.
03:43I have just as much as you, that means we're equal.
03:45We've even made wealth into a superpower,
03:48the superhero alter egos of Batman's Bruce Wayne
03:50and Iron Man's Tony Stark depend largely on their finances.
03:54Where does it get those wonderful toys?
03:57But their money doesn't just pay for a lot of fancy gear.
04:00It's also molded them into men with the self-assurance
04:03to shape cities, change lives, and snub their nose at the rules.
04:08Take that off, what are you?
04:10Genius billionaire playboy philanthropist.
04:12I'm going to have to ask you to leave.
04:14It is not a question of money.
04:16You see, I'm buying this hotel,
04:19and setting some new rules about the pool area.
04:23These stories reinforce the innate American dream
04:26of being the captains of our own destinies.
04:29They suggest wealth is the American dream,
04:32the natural endpoint of a culture infatuated with individualism.
04:36Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence
04:40of the evolutionary spirit.
04:43Even those for whom wealth ultimately proves corrupting
04:45are portrayed as relentless in their quest for greatness.
04:49No one quits while they're ahead.
04:51This isn't France, it's America.
04:53Yet we're equally fascinated by the idle rich,
04:56whose opulent surroundings elevate their petty squabbles
05:00into the kind of high drama Shaw wrote about.
05:02Get the f*** out of here and go.
05:04No one wants you in the f***ing chute.
05:06I'm planning it.
05:07We aspire to be them not because of their hard work,
05:10but because their wealth makes their every shopping trip
05:13or dinner party a story worth telling.
05:16All of these have imparted the same message.
05:18Wealth makes you important.
05:20To have money is to be someone.
05:22Enough of this s*** will make you invincible.
05:25I'm talking about this.
05:26We want to be fair, and yet we want to win.
05:35We want to be righteous, and we want to get ahead.
05:39Such is our struggle.
05:40Being rich might make you important,
05:42but it doesn't make you a good person.
05:44The man has no idea how to behave like a billionaire.
05:48Where's the dignity?
05:49Where's the contempt for the common man?
05:51For every Bruce Wayne, there is a Lex Luthor,
05:54who wield their wealth towards selfish, even wicked ends.
05:58You know the oldest lie in America, Senator?
06:00Is that power can be innocent.
06:02And while we've celebrated the wealthy
06:04as aspirational examples,
06:05we've also viewed them as cautionary ones,
06:08through characters who end up consumed by money.
06:11I will not part with a single coin.
06:14These stories speak to the belief that money,
06:17like power, rots the very soul.
06:19Is that how a warped brain like yours gets its kicks?
06:21By planning the death of innocent people?
06:23No, by causing the death of innocent people.
06:27European filmmakers have long viewed the excesses of wealth
06:30as a kind of sickness,
06:32and expressed this through the recurring motif of eating.
06:35The satires of Luis Buñuel portray the wealthy
06:38as morally bankrupt gluttons fixated on dining above all else.
06:43The director thwarts the well-to-do friends of the discreet charm of the bourgeoisie
06:47by spending the whole movie interrupting their attempts to eat.
06:56In The Exterminating Angel, he does the opposite
06:58and traps them at their dinner party,
07:00where they've been casually picking over the plights of others
07:04while enjoying their meal.
07:05In Marco Ferreri's Le Grand Bouff,
07:16the bourgeoisie literally gorged themselves to death.
07:21And in American stories, too,
07:22we can see this connection between the rich and consumption.
07:26The mud soup and charcoal arugula are outrageous here.
07:30Or hedonism in general.
07:31On a daily basis, I consume enough drugs to sedate Manhattan,
07:36Long Island, and Queens for a month.
07:40While films like 1989's Society expose the overtly twisted
07:45and grotesque aspects of wealth,
07:47others explore it emotionally as the dark side of that American dream,
07:51a cold-blooded, competitive drive that curdles into the outright
07:55misanthropy of There Will Be Blood's Daniel Plainview.
07:58I look at people and I see nothing worth liking.
08:01I want to earn enough money I can get away from everyone.
08:05This is why we sometimes feel sympathy, even pity, for the rich.
08:09Citizen Kane's Charles Foster Kane is one of those archetypal captains of industry,
08:14but his rags-to-riches story is presented as a tragedy,
08:18showing us how Kane's wealth never brings him any real joy,
08:21can't replace the innocent childhood he lost,
08:24and only serves to push away everyone he cares about.
08:27If I hadn't been very rich, I might have been a really great man.
08:33Succession's media mogul Logan Roy, a modern Charles Foster Kane,
08:37does have a family.
08:38But his wealth has made his children cold, selfish, lazy, and suspecting.
08:44You plotted a takeover.
08:45What the f*** is wrong with you?
08:47To fundamentally alter the nature of the family on my wedding day?
08:50In our more optimistic stories, we believe these misers can still be cured,
08:54if only they can let go of their wealth and find true love,
08:57or recover their basic humanity.
09:00There are people that don't have enough to eat,
09:01there are people that are cold.
09:03You can go out and say hello to these people,
09:06you can take an old blanket out of the closet and say, here!
09:09But we've also come to understand that it's the very system
09:12that's made them this way.
09:13Greed is right. Greed works.
09:17Wall Street's Gordon Gekko, arguably our most iconic symbol of greed,
09:21was modeled on various real-life financiers like Michael Milken and Ivan Boski,
09:26who played the stock market like a game, because that's exactly how it was built.
09:30It's not a question of enough, pal.
09:33It's a zero-sum game.
09:34Somebody wins, somebody loses.
09:37When the game finally collapsed in 2008,
09:40films like The Big Short and The Laundromat picked through the rubble,
09:43and they didn't just place the blame on all those latter-day Gordon Gekkos.
09:47I can't hate him.
09:48He is so transparent in his self-interest that I kind of respect him.
09:51They indicted an entire economic structure where insider trading,
09:55money laundering, and shell corporations are built right in,
09:58and the ordinary people who live the right way are the ones who suffer.
10:02All I did wrong was try and save money.
10:04I tried to buy what I needed for less.
10:07Stories were heralding a change.
10:09We were done feeling sympathy for the rich,
10:12or hoping they would stop devouring everything in sight.
10:15It was time to do some feasting of our own.
10:18The truth is that my father is a malignant presence,
10:23a bully and a liar.
10:30What a harsh world you live in.
10:32We all live in a harsh world, but at least I know I do.
10:35Perhaps no film arrived in 2019 with its finger further from the pulse
10:40than the movie version of Downton Abbey.
10:42Like the TV series it's based on, Downton Abbey serves up a warm,
10:45nostalgic vision of kindly lords and ladies being waited on
10:49by their humble, lovely servants, all working in aristocratic harmony.
10:53How comforting to see you here, Carson.
10:56What prompted you to take up the flaming sword again?
10:59I felt I should go where I could do the most good, my lady.
11:02As Stanford University professor Priya Satya said while discussing the film
11:06with Politico,
11:07if we're going to have inequality, can it at least be nice?
11:10But many of the year's other films about wealth and privilege
11:13were through playing nice.
11:14F***ing rich people!
11:17Bong Joon-ho's Parasite presented its own take
11:20on Downton Abbey's upstairs-downstairs dynamic.
11:23The wealthy live in an untroubled ease,
11:25facilitated by these people who are toiling beneath them,
11:29out of sight and out of mind.
11:36Jordan Peele's Us imagines a similarly literal
11:39upstairs-downstairs divide, where upper-middle-class families
11:42vacation in the sun while their doppelgangers,
11:45alike in every way except for their money and opportunities,
11:48suffer in darkness and misery.
11:51It's our time now.
11:53As in Downton Abbey, those well-off families are seen as nice people,
11:57but it's only because their money makes them that way.
12:08In Knives Out, college student Meg even goes out of her way
12:12to be nice to Nurse Marta, while angrily calling out
12:15her wealthy family's racist, classist attitudes.
12:18Alt-right troll.
12:19The worst snowflake.
12:20But her facade drops the moment
12:22Marta takes control of the family fortune,
12:24and their power dynamic is reversed.
12:26No, no, Meg.
12:27Whatever money you need, I'll give it to you, okay?
12:31Thanks.
12:32And once I-
12:34Faced with this kind of entrenched privilege,
12:36narratives have increasingly responded with anger and violence.
12:39Oh, baby, this game is rigged,
12:41and it does not reward people who play by the rules.
12:45All those nice wealthy people have become dehumanized collateral damage,
12:49the same way the system has long treated everyone else.
12:52Oh, why is everybody so upset about these guys?
12:57If it was me dying on the sidewalk, you'd walk right over me.
13:00Films like Joker and Hustlers took matters into their own hands,
13:04stealing from the rich.
13:05I know I'm supposed to think that what you did was terrible,
13:08and that these guys didn't deserve it.
13:11But to tell you the truth,
13:13I don't feel sorry for them.
13:14And even killing them.
13:18The rancor these stories express has long been common to British cinema,
13:22whose traditional focus on class tensions has made eating the rich
13:25an occasionally-literal pastime.
13:28Two more managers with chips.
13:29We're running out of manager hall.
13:31Blimey, we'll have to start on the customer's end.
13:33These social critiques are also a signature feature
13:36of filmmakers like Bong Joon-ho,
13:38whose near-future dystopia Snowpiercer suggested
13:41that while the wealthy enjoy their fancy dinners,
13:44the rest of the world is always this close to feeding on each other.
13:48I know what people taste like.
13:50I know that babies taste best.
13:52But the popularity of these kinds of films in America
13:55marks a significant shift for a country which has traditionally
13:59viewed class as fluid,
14:00and subscribe to the idea that the wealthy are aspirational models
14:04we might one day count ourselves among.
14:06As the distance between the 1% and everyone else
14:09only grows wider in the US,
14:11it seems that we're finally starting to bite back.
14:13Eat the rich.
14:14When Meg and the Thrombey family find their starting
14:17upstairs-downstairs dynamic inverted,
14:19this feels like a reckoning,
14:21a prophecy warning the entitled upper classes
14:23that at last a change is going to come.
14:26You think I'm not going to fight to protect my home?
14:29Our birthright?
14:31Our ancestral family home?
14:33That is hooey.
14:35Holland, he bought this place in the 80s
14:37from a Pakistani real estate billionaire.
14:38Shut up, Blanc, shut up!
14:40Eating the rich is its own fantasy,
14:43giving us the fleeting ephemeral wish fulfillment
14:45of seeing the corrupt and entitled getting their comeuppance,
14:48working-class heroes getting the upper hand,
14:51and the downtrodden snatching a bit of the good life
14:53back from the elites.
14:55But it's still just a daydream.
14:57The structures that create these inequalities
14:59have been in place for ages,
15:01and it will take more than a movie to tear them down.
15:03Saving the world, as it turns out, is very hard.
15:07The very fact that we're having these fantasies out loud, though,
15:10marks a significant transformation in our thinking.
15:13We no longer believe that, as George Bernard Shaw once claimed,
15:17only the wealthy are worth telling stories about.
15:20Instead, we can now see what a veritable feast we have before us
15:24of protagonists and plotlines, where money not only isn't everything,
15:28it's the thing that's most holding us back.
15:30And it's time that everyone gets a seat at the table.
15:34Poor rich people.
15:35A striking number of films and shows today are answering the age-old question,
15:39can money really buy happiness, with a resounding, no.
15:42Everywhere we turn, we're seeing unhappy rich characters,
15:45whether in Succession, The White Lotus, The Menu,
15:47or Glass Onion, A Knives Out Mystery.
15:50I know it's probably hard to have sympathy for the poor, tortured billionaire.
15:53So even though today we're pushed constantly to lust after having money in our culture
15:58and having enough money is obviously important,
16:01when is it too much?
16:02And why does lots of money still turn you into a bad or miserable person?
16:06This rich people shit is weird.
16:08Spoilers ahead for The Menu, Glass Onion, and Triangle of Sadness.
16:12More Money, More Problems.
16:14As a culture, we are obsessed with money and watching people who have it on screen.
16:18We love reality shows that peek into how the other half lives,
16:21from older examples like Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,
16:24to Cribs, to newer shows like Real Housewives and The Kardashians.
16:27But one of the reasons we enjoy these properties is due to the semi-absurdity
16:31of many of the stars' crises, which couldn't exist in less wealthy environments.
16:36The souffle is probably falling in the kitchen.
16:39It's certainly true that money can solve a lot of problems,
16:42but it can also create new problems,
16:45particularly if you're part of the super-rich class.
16:48In an article for The Guardian, a therapist for hyper-wealthy clientele notes
16:51that having a lot of money can often lead to fears
16:54that people in your inner circle are just using you.
16:57Andy used to tell me the truth.
16:59Nobody does that now.
17:02It's all just fake smiles and agendas.
17:04And the rich characters we see on screen are overwhelmingly isolated.
17:08In the opening credits of The White Lotus Season 2,
17:10the picture shown over the name of Jennifer Coolidge,
17:13who plays wealthy, emotionally lost Tanya, is of a woman stuck in a tower,
17:17accompanied only by a monkey on a chain.
17:19The image mirrors Tanya's intense loneliness,
17:22the way she feels trapped by her wealth,
17:24and the way she has only chained pets,
17:26like her assistant Portia, around her.
17:28But I feel like that if you really love me, you wouldn't leave.
17:32At the same time, many of these rich characters,
17:34who fear no one loves them for them,
17:36directly create a situation where they only allow people
17:39to interact with them as a rich person,
17:42reinforcing the very same kind of transactional relationships
17:46that they're afraid of.
17:46I want you to stay close, because I might need you,
17:49but just lay low.
17:51In The White Lotus Season 1, Tanya dangles a business opportunity
17:54in front of working-class hotel staff Belinda,
17:57so that she'll care for her.
17:58But when she gets preoccupied by a new relationship with Greg,
18:02she suddenly leaves Belinda and the business plan behind.
18:04I latch onto somebody,
18:07and then I use my money to control them.
18:10You know, it's just, it's not healthy for me.
18:14The humor in her words that this behavior isn't healthy for her
18:18is revealing, because it's so clear she's not thinking at all
18:21about what's healthy for Belinda or anyone else.
18:24And too much wealth can also result in moral deficiency,
18:27because it encourages a lack of regard for others.
18:30The rich person's disconnect from the world everyone else lives in
18:33extends beyond buying a $43 billion app just for the hell of it,
18:37or racing other billionaires to see who can get to space first.
18:40It can also include the simple act of facing consequences for your actions.
18:44Though as we've seen on film and in television,
18:46the rich are able to get away with a lot,
18:48because they can pay off anyone who could enforce punishment.
18:52I'll pay you $1 billion to tell me which one of them tried to kill me.
18:55The desire to do the right thing becomes weaker,
18:58as they realize that they can essentially do whatever they want,
19:01and can lead to them callously putting other people's lives
19:04and livelihoods on the line.
19:06You get to do what you want.
19:07The authorities can't really touch you.
19:08Infinity Pool creates a sci-fi world where the wealthy vacationers
19:12of a fictional island pay the local government to clone them
19:16so that they can commit wild, hedonistic crime sprees
19:19before safely heading back home,
19:21while their doubles pay the price of arrest and execution.
19:23We paid the detective to make another double,
19:26just to have a little fun with you.
19:27In the menu, Rich Tyler hires Margo, an escort,
19:31to come with him to a mysterious fancy dinner,
19:34but because he's paying her, he thinks he can treat her however he wants.
19:38Tyler, you need to apologize to me right now.
19:40You cannot speak to me that way.
19:41Actually, I can, because ding dong, I'm the one who's paying,
19:43so maybe shut up and eat.
19:44And he even knew beforehand that she likely wouldn't make it out
19:48of the hellish night alive.
19:49So you hired her knowing she died?
19:52Yes.
19:53In succession, Kendall Roy is tortured by his culpability
19:57for driving intoxicated with a waiter in the car
20:00and leaving the young boy to drown after the car crashes into water.
20:04But tellingly, his father doesn't care in the slightest,
20:07except that Kendall's guilt is a gift he can use
20:10to bring his wayward son back under his thumb.
20:13A rich kid kills a boy, a sad little detail, at a lovely wedding,
20:21where father and son are reconciled.
20:25Just as Cameron gradually grooms his newly rich college friend
20:29into becoming a more dishonest, philanderous person,
20:32there's a sense that being a true member of the wealthy elite
20:35means getting rid of those pesky moral compunctions
20:38that middle-class people get hung up on.
20:40It's time for you to shed that disgusting, larval mind of yours
20:44and find out what kind of a creature you really are.
20:47Rich characters might soothe their consciences
20:49for their typically bad behavior by donating to charity,
20:53as if paying off their sins,
20:54even though their donations do little to address
20:57any real problems of structural inequality.
21:00You're rich, so you're a philanthropist,
21:02so you can cure your conscience for not paying enough in tax,
21:07not contributing enough to society.
21:10But overwhelmingly, the rich characters we watch
21:12are not particularly nice or kind.
21:15The butter's all f**ked!
21:16Now you f**kwatch and you f**k it,
21:18there's dinner rolls ripping out there as we speak!
21:20And they don't seem to feel it's even worth
21:23developing interpersonal skills.
21:25They act as if the usual rules of behaving decently or nicely
21:28is only something anyone does if they have to.
21:31Again, feeding into a mindset where you implicitly think
21:34there is no intrinsic value in human bonds,
21:37that all interaction is just in service of financial transaction,
21:41and so you discount others who are worth less than you.
21:44Actually, this ends up hurting the rich character, too.
21:47Tanya lashes out at a psychic who's trying to genuinely warn her of danger
21:51because she only wants to hear false reassurances that everything's fine.
21:55And eventually, she's easily taken in by con men,
21:57because she just wants to be flattered instead of doing any of the more challenging work
22:02of looking honestly at her life or paying actual attention to other people.
22:07Loving money more than people
22:09Many of these rich people stories underline that humans perpetually
22:12look for money to solve problems that it can't.
22:15From Jay Gatsby desiring the love of Daisy Buchanan,
22:18to Charles Foster Kane wanting to go back to the lost joy of his childhood.
22:22Classic literature and film are full of warnings that trying to get rich
22:26in order to find love and happiness doesn't work.
22:29In Citizen Kane's case, the path toward getting rich directly took him away
22:32from the simple happiness he felt as a kid connected to his family,
22:36which is why on his deathbed he's thinking about Rosebud, his sled.
22:39Rosebud.
22:41There's a reason for the trope of the lonely rich person who has everything
22:44except the one thing they truly want, which money can't buy.
22:47It's not just that money doesn't buy happiness, but that if you expect it to,
22:51you end up investing all of your life into amassing wealth,
22:55instead of building and maintaining the relationships that will truly fulfill you.
22:59I've gotten all these things for her and now she just wants to run away.
23:03Abigail Disney, the granddaughter of Roy Disney,
23:06has been outspoken about class disparities and about how disconnected billionaires actually are
23:10because of their extreme wealth.
23:12As she noted in an article for The Atlantic,
23:14as wealthy people become accustomed to more and more comforts,
23:17like flying first class or even in private jets,
23:20those comforts become so commonplace that they feel like necessities.
23:24It can result, like in the character of Tanya,
23:26in a sense of weakness and incompetence,
23:28in the person feeling that they're unable to function normally without all these aids.
23:32You enable her, Phil.
23:34You buttress.
23:36You coddle.
23:37All of the adult children of billionaire Logan Roy in Succession
23:40are profoundly lacking in self-confidence.
23:43While they've been falsely empowered by their extreme wealth
23:46to feel superior to everyone else,
23:48their lack of true personal achievement and expectation of a hyper-rich lifestyle
23:53makes them privately insecure with a childlike immaturity.
23:57Do you want to call your dad?
23:59Do I want to call my dad?
24:01No, I don't want to call my dad.
24:04Do you want to call your dad?
24:06So interestingly, the fundamental problem of having a lot of money,
24:09or devoting a lot of your time to getting it,
24:11is that you overvalue the role of money in human existence.
24:15You end up worshipping money,
24:16thinking you couldn't live without being rich,
24:18caring more about the money than the people in your life,
24:21and missing the significant joys of human existence
24:24that don't involve money at all.
24:26So what do you do for money then?
24:28Do you teach or...?
24:29You married rich.
24:30I'm in danger of becoming a charitable organization at this point.
24:34Never having enough.
24:35We often falsely imagine that wealthy people have so much money to spare,
24:39they wouldn't particularly care about giving up some of it.
24:41But in The Atlantic, Sophie Gilbert notes that,
24:44for many wealthy characters on television,
24:46the curse of the privileged is that they would rather be miserable
24:49than lose even a tiny fraction of the things they've been given.
24:52We can see this play out in succession,
24:54as each of the Roy children fight each other and people around them
24:57for a shot at the CEO job in their dad's company.
25:00Even though they have everything they could ever need
25:02to build a happy, comfortable life,
25:04they're unwilling to step away and live their own lives
25:07separately from the family empire.
25:09Dad, why?
25:10Oh, go on, go on, f**k off.
25:13You know she's f**king pedestrians.
25:15This feeling that the rich person couldn't live
25:17without every bit of their money and lifestyle
25:19can even lead to a disconnect from the actual value
25:22of things so extreme it's arguably a form of insanity.
25:26In the menu, rich foodie Tyler wanted to go to this fancy dinner
25:30so badly that he didn't even care it meant literally throwing away his life.
25:34Driving away family and friends
25:37Wealth becomes even more emotionally complicated when it's inherited,
25:40as then even family dynamics center around money.
25:43Listen to what God wants.
25:44I listen to your daddy.
25:48In many families, love is unconditional,
25:50but in those with extreme wealth,
25:51family members are often pitted against each other
25:53and taught to care more about winning than supporting each other.
25:56The Roy siblings haven't learned how to talk to each other openly,
26:00only how to compete with and mock each other.
26:02Is there a thing where we, like, talk to each other about stuff normally?
26:09You want to talk to each other normally?
26:11Okay.
26:11When people's most personal and intimate relationships ring false,
26:15it can be destabilizing.
26:16Glass Onion showcases these kinds of false relationships
26:19as all the characters are essentially on Miles Braun's payroll
26:23and, therefore, hesitant to criticize him or go against him.
26:26Everybody knows who Lionel works for, that's no secret.
26:29And we know who bankrolled Claire's campaign.
26:33Yet Miles' own inability to listen to criticisms ultimately leads to his downfall,
26:37as his entire compound is blown up and destroyed,
26:40because he wouldn't accept the dangers of experimenting
26:43with a prototype chemical he thinks will make him even more money.
26:47After his ship sinks, his friends all turn against him,
26:50since they were only friends with him for his money.
26:53I saw the napkin he burned.
26:55God, now that you mention it,
26:58I clearly saw him grab Duke's gun.
27:01When money won't save you,
27:03a lot of people think wealth makes you invincible.
27:05Look, here's the thing about being rich, okay?
27:09It's f***ing great, okay?
27:12It's like being a superhero, only better.
27:14While there's absolutely truth in this,
27:16there are certain human experiences that no amount of money can shield you from.
27:20In the menu and Triangle of Sadness,
27:23rich people are put into situations where their vast sums of money are useless.
27:27The menu's guests are invited to a fine dining experience that turns dark,
27:31as the head chef announces that everyone on the island will die,
27:35including the staff and himself.
27:37The only person who is able to escape the dinner is Margot, real name Aaron.
27:40We thought I couldn't tell,
27:41oh, I know a fellow service industry worker when I see one.
27:45She eschews the chef's expensive exclusive dishes,
27:48and instead asks him for a cheeseburger and fries,
27:51appealing to his happy memories working in a greasy spoon diner.
27:54Margot understanding the value of human, non-transactional,
27:57middle-class experiences allows her to escape,
28:00and it's the one thing that none of the wealthy patrons can do.
28:03In Triangle of Sadness, a storm makes the luxury cruise boat
28:06so rocky during the fine dining experience that the guests all get seasick.
28:11The tilting camera conveys that the order of things is threatened,
28:14and the absurdity of all these guests getting sick
28:17suddenly makes their expensive food appear worthless, even revolting.
28:21Soon after this period of literal instability,
28:24an attack on the boat ends up stranding only a few survivors on an island,
28:28and one of the cleaners from the ship, Abigail,
28:30is the only person able to fish for food and start fires,
28:33so all the wealthy people become totally dependent on her.
28:36Do any of you know how to make a fire?
28:41The power dynamics from before are totally flipped,
28:48yet the system of oppression continues.
28:54Triangle of Sadness is titled after the region in the face between the eyebrows.
28:58Can you relax your triangle of sadness?
29:03Just like between your eyebrows here?
29:05But the title doubles as a description of capitalist hierarchy.
29:08The triangle has a few people on top while those at the bottom serve them,
29:12making most people sad.
29:13And even if the triangle rotates in a different direction,
29:16it just shifts the winners and losers and isn't truly different,
29:20as long as people are living by the mantra
29:22that some people should get greater rewards than others.
29:24Do you know the amount of work I put on this island?
29:27I'm responsible for everybody here.
29:29Shouldn't that give me some kind of advantage?
29:32We often think that rich people accrue their money by being smarter
29:35or more capable than the average person.
29:38Freakin' Miles, man.
29:40Genius.
29:40But these stories make it clear how extreme wealth is highly subject to environment,
29:45and having some resource or ability that is deemed valuable in the wider society,
29:50often obtained through luck, genetics, circumstance, or immoral behavior.
29:54Miles Braun is an idiot.
29:56Ultimately, the myths we tell about money,
29:58that it'll make you happy, that some people are just more deserving of wealth,
30:01that anyone can pull themselves up by their bootstraps and achieve riches,
30:05all cover up a much darker truth.
30:07Systems that allow for extreme wealth are detrimental for people without riches,
30:11but also unhealthy for people who are corrupted and isolated by their affluence.
30:15It may be the thing we're taught to value above all else,
30:18but ultimately, as today's media proves, your money will not save you.
30:22There are many different ways characters can accumulate wealth on screen,
30:26but the most entertaining types often seem to be the most risky.
30:29What I call them? Fun coupons!
30:32From investments to gambling, which really aren't that different after all, it seems,
30:36characters on screen often make a mega bucks by taking big bets and winning.
30:40You know, they call us traders, gamblers.
30:42The world economy is just one big casino,
30:45fueled by a giant debt bubble and computer-driven derivatives.
30:48And while these were ones mainly reserved for the wealthy,
30:51tech has allowed them to become more accessible to regular people.
30:54Decades of flashy stories have hidden away some of the darker truths about these avenues to wealth,
30:59or just dressed up even losses as wins, leading to unrealistic expectations in real life.
31:05So how close to real life are the portrayals actually?
31:08There are three ways to make a living in this business.
31:11Be first, be smarter, or cheat.
31:15Film and television have long used the idea of investing of any kind as a bit of a magic trick
31:20to make money appear. Even just an offhand mention of a character working at a hedge fund
31:24or as an investment banker is enough to justify pretty much any extravagant lifestyle.
31:29It's the industry most closely tied to the idea of wealth, and everyone around them knows it.
31:35CEOs, CFOs, investment bankers, corporate raiders, hedge funders, axe murderers.
31:42Films and shows dealing directly with the finance world often bring us in via an audience surrogate,
31:48who is also new to things, and so are still learning the ropes,
31:51allowing us to learn the important buzzwords along with them.
31:54An IPO is an initial public offering. It's the first time a stock is offered for sale to the general population.
32:01These characters are usually new but incredibly eager to succeed at all costs.
32:06And as luck would have it, they get their big break.
32:08This is the moment they're able to show that they do have what it takes to succeed,
32:12while also raking in a whole bunch of money in the process.
32:15This is of course a lot of fun to watch.
32:17The rollercoaster of finance, with such huge quantities of money being slung around like it's nothing,
32:22can be a little nauseating.
32:24But seeing the main character capture that huge win makes it all feel worth it.
32:29But this can also set people up with some rather unrealistic expectations of what it's really
32:42like to enter the world of finance.
32:44Sure, at major banks and funds you'll likely be pulling in six figures even in an entry level
32:49position, and even that can vary wildly depending on what kind of investing you do.
32:53But it's by all accounts probably not going to be a terribly exciting time.
32:58More recent finance media, post 2008, has started to be more honest about this,
33:03showing the dark reality of the kill or be killed environment.
33:07Where being special doesn't actually mean anything,
33:09because there's always a bigger fish willing to take you out to save themselves.
33:14I'm sure it hasn't taken you long to understand the implications of this sale,
33:18on your relationships with your counterparties and as a result, on your careers.
33:22But whether they're glamorized or more true to life,
33:25these stories about an underdog getting their big moment are so enticing because for so many of us,
33:30it feels like that's the only way we'd ever be able to really have a chance at attaining real wealth.
33:35Where would you put our percentage chance
33:39of ever making that top quintile?
33:42It's about three percent.
33:43These stories are comforting because they sell the idea that there is possibly some way we could
33:48make our way into this world, and not only stand a chance, but succeed.
33:53But, of course, the real world odds aren't so favorable, which we'll unpack more in a moment.
33:58If the focus isn't on a promising young upstart, finance movies and shows usually go in the total
34:03opposite direction and focus on a titan of industry, who is at the top of their game,
34:08and ready to cut down anyone who might try to mess with their money.
34:11I'm going to be in contact with the government and that this would be a good moment for him to step down.
34:16Okay, he heard.
34:17Then I'm gonna grind these fucking bones to make my bread.
34:21These characters are often used to show how money, and the immense pressure that comes with
34:25always trying to figure out ways to get even more, corrupts one to the very core of their being.
34:31What have I done wrong? Really. Except make money. Succeed.
34:38But, as removed from the normal world as they might seem to be,
34:41these stories often work to make them relatable through their backstories.
34:45Almost always stories of coming up from nothing,
34:48which is what lit the fire within them to never be without again.
34:52My father, you work like an elephant pushing electrical supplies,
34:55and he dropped dead at 49 with a heart attack and tax bills.
34:58Wake up, will ya, pal? If you're not inside, you are outside, okay?
35:02In addition to the wealth itself, another thing that often makes these stories so appealing
35:06is that no one ever really seems to lose.
35:09Every character needs to have something to lose to raise the stakes in their story,
35:13and in films and shows about finance, this something is often a nearly unimaginable amount of money.
35:19You're on a roll, kid. Enjoy it while it lasts, because it never does.
35:24Money and success often become an addiction.
35:27They don't just want more, they need it.
35:29Their entire sense of self is tied up in not who they are as a person or what they do,
35:33but solely in how much money they're bringing in.
35:36They're willing to do anything to raise their gains by even a fraction of a percent.
35:40I can promise you that I am spiritually and emotionally and ethically and morally behind whoever wins.
35:47And they're also willing to hurt anyone else to save their own wallets.
35:50And you're selling something that you know has no value.
35:53We are selling to willing buyers at the current fair market price.
35:58Often, whatever consequences these characters face, if there are any, pale in comparison to
36:03the destruction that's left in their wake. But as far as they're concerned, capital is king,
36:08and anything that's likely to bring them more money, and thus power, is fair game.
36:12For those of you who've never been through this before, this is what the beginning of a fire sale looks like.
36:17I want you to hit every bite you can find. Dealers, brokers, clients, your mother if she's buying.
36:23These parts of these stories are usually much less fun to watch,
36:26because they touch on a much more uncomfortable truth.
36:29That this is, in fact, how the hierarchy of the world is set up.
36:32The incredibly wealthy people at the top do usually get to skate free at the expense of everyone else.
36:37Banks took the money the American people gave them,
36:39and they used it to pay themselves huge bonuses and lobby the congress to kill big reform.
36:44And when all was said and done, only one single banker went to jail.
36:47And the idea that we could ever really climb our way to the top in that world is vanishingly small.
36:53We gotta start thinking like these Wall Street guys.
36:56You see what they did to this country?
36:58They stole from everybody.
37:00Hard-working people lost everything.
37:02And not one of these douchebags went to jail.
37:04But that doesn't stop people from trying.
37:07After being inundated with these kinds of stories about how…
37:10Greed, for lack of a better word,
37:13is good.
37:14Even if the moral of the story is supposed to be that it's bad,
37:17it's not surprising that people latch onto the idea that sure,
37:20it's a long shot, but someone has to make it, so why not me?
37:24Are you behind on your credit card bills?
37:26Go on, pick up the phone and start dialing!
37:28I want you to deal with your problems by becoming rich!
37:32The explosion of trading apps and online resources means that people don't need to get degrees or work
37:37at a firm to learn about or start investing in a major way.
37:40This has led to some feeling like the playing field has been leveled ever so slightly.
37:44The big firms have such a big advantage in terms of technology and information and just sheer wealth.
37:49There's no hope for the little guy anymore.
37:51Or there was no hope.
37:53Maybe now there is.
37:552023's Dumb Money chronicles the true story of Keith Gill and scores of other people who came together on
38:00the subreddit WallStreetBets to buy GameStop stock in the hopes that it was their way to beat WallStreet at its own game.
38:07These guys, they have all the money and the fancy degrees and the political juice in the world and they get it wrong all the time.
38:11Are you out of your fucking mind?
38:12They got the advantage and they still get it wrong.
38:15We see how people were so deeply pulled in by the idea that this was finally their big break.
38:20Their turn to cash in on the stock market just like they had heard about traders doing for years.
38:24And most centrally, people were drawn in because it was a group of regular everyday people working together.
38:29Specifically not WallStreet bigwigs but instead a bunch of little guys finally about to get their share.
38:35I wouldn't take investment advice from a guy in a cat shirt.
38:38Oh okay, who do you take investment advice from?
38:41I don't have investments.
38:43And if I did, I'd listen to like a banker.
38:47Just the way they like it.
38:48For some, the investment was lucrative.
38:50But for many, it ended up being just an empty hoe.
38:54One of the most difficult parts for normal people looking to get into investments and trading is that
38:58the stock market isn't as easy to read as many experts like to pretend.
39:02Number one rule of WallStreet.
39:04Nobody knows if the stock is gonna go up, down, sideways, or in circles.
39:09At least of all stockbrokers.
39:10As much as everyone would like to pretend they can divine where it will go next,
39:14no one really knows or has any real control over it.
39:17Or at least they aren't supposed to.
39:19The real question is this.
39:21Was all this legal?
39:22Absolutely f***ing not.
39:25It's not a sure thing, but a calculated risk.
39:28Which is why it's so often related to… gambling.
39:31I made a crazy risk.
39:33You gamble and it's about to pay off.
39:35On screen, gambling is often relegated to the fun times and bright lights of Las Vegas,
39:40where characters roll the dice and win big.
39:42But in stories that focus on the gambling, we begin to see the darker underbelly.
39:46The last year I made 125 million dollars.
39:48I don't even know what to do with my money anymore.
39:50I have nobody to spend it with, nobody to enjoy my life with anymore.
39:53It's horrible.
39:54Gambling and investing are, at their core, rather similar.
39:57Betting large amounts of money on something that you've convinced yourself is a sure win to more
40:01money without any real concrete proof.
40:03But gambling is often framed as more lowly and a bad use of money, while investing is framed as
40:08intelligent and smart.
40:10The main difference being that investors are generally betting other people's money.
40:13The exception is often with high-stakes card games, where the element of skill
40:17and large amounts of cash come into play.
40:20He played tight.
40:21Didn't give a lot of action.
40:23And always got his money in good.
40:25Which means he was running the odds.
40:26In other words?
40:27He was playing poker.
40:29And the others were gambling.
40:30And he won.
40:31Where in the finance world, characters often make it big through luck or brute force.
40:35In gambling stories, it's often a matter of outsmarting the house.
40:39I was in prison, I learned to count cards.
40:41What separates blackjack from other games?
40:43Is that it's based on dependent events.
40:46Meaning past affects the probability in the future.
40:48But we also see how that doesn't work forever.
40:51Like with the high rollers of the finance world, these stories often show how gambling becomes
40:55an addiction that begins to consume one's entire life.
40:59Leading to bad choices and often unhappy outcomes.
41:02So look.
41:06Let's f***ing bet on this.
41:07Gambling is the perfect distillation of our very human hopes of having our lives changed.
41:12Through luck or skill.
41:13In one fell swoop.
41:14And in real life, it started taking over seemingly everything.
41:18Sports betting in particular has seen a huge boom in recent years.
41:22As people are desperate for a way to change their circumstances.
41:24And maybe even make money doing something they already enjoy.
41:28This is me.
41:29Alright?
41:30I'm not a f***ing athlete.
41:31This is my f***ing way.
41:32This is how I win.
41:34But the reality is that people are losing a staggering amount of money chasing the dream.
41:39Successful characters love to wax poetic about how they got so super rich because of their
41:43innate skill and understanding of the world.
41:46But the reality is that the biggest secret to making money is already having money.
41:51Oh baby, this game is rigged.
41:53And it does not reward people who play by the rules.
41:56The ultra wealthy can play fast and loose with their money and take huge risks.
42:00And thus possibly reap huge rewards.
42:03Because they have all of that money to put in to begin with.
42:06If you're successful enough, people think you can do anything.
42:10And then you start to believe it too.
42:12It's hard not to engage in a little magical thinking.
42:16When everyone else is looking at you like you're some combination of
42:19Warren Buffet and God above.
42:20And they have the comfort of knowing that even if they lose one bet,
42:24they're not going to lose everything.
42:26They have money stashed away in offshore accounts and tied up in assets all around the world.
42:30They might take a big hit, but it won't leave them destitute.
42:33Because at least as a rich man, when I have to face my problems, I show up in the back of a limo
42:38wearing a $2,000 suit and a $40,000 gold watch.
42:42This creates a safety net that not only allows the already rich to take bigger risks,
42:47but also fail upward.
42:49So, uh, I just wanted to get the gang together early in my tenure to say, uh,
42:55yup.
42:56Regular people who aren't supremely wealthy don't have this kind of safety net,
43:00and so can often get stuck with a much larger proportion of their assets tied up in a single
43:05deal that can totally wreck their lives if it goes south.
43:09For characters in this situation, their choice often feels like it's about something larger.
43:13It's not about the money.
43:14The stock market is not about the money.
43:16But regardless of what's driving them, the result is often the same.
43:21It's no surprise that we're drawn to these kinds of stories on screen.
43:24They're flashy and, if not necessarily fun, still thrilling.
43:27Walk away.
43:30I should.
43:32But then again, what's the point of having fuck you money,
43:35if you never say fuck you?
43:37And they tap into that part of us that wants to imagine that there is one big break we could get,
43:41one big bet we could take that could totally change our lives,
43:44and elevate us to the point where we don't have to worry about anything but making more money.
43:49You can't look at a number like that on paper with your name next to it and still doubt yourself.
43:54That's not logical.
43:55And, of course, we hear so often about how these titans of finance are essentially
43:59controlling our lives and the entire world, so it makes sense that we're interested in
44:03trying to get a peek at what's really going on behind all of those closed doors.
44:08Big bank, small bank, I like to make money.
44:10All right?
44:11Let me put it this way.
44:12I'm standing in front of a burning house, and I'm offering you fire insurance on it.
44:17Plus, investing is often a part of our regular, everyday lives, just in generally
44:22less exciting ways, like with 401ks and IRAs. But in the same way we've seen a shift in how
44:27investing is portrayed on screen, it seems that there's been a bit of a real-life shift in interest
44:31away from the career due to its high pressure and low quality of life. Not even the mega payouts are
44:36enough for many people now, who are looking for new avenues to secure wealth without having to give
44:41their entire lives over to their jobs.
44:43Yeah, it's time to call bullshit.
44:44Bullshit on what?
44:45Every thing.
44:47While it's obviously understandable to get pulled into wanting to jump into these so-called easy
44:51paths to wealth and success, given how terrible things are for everyone who isn't ultra-rich,
44:56the real way we'll be able to level the playing field is by changing the system so that it doesn't
45:01only reward the most devious schemers while leaving the rest of us holding the bag.
45:06Stop going for the easy buck and produce something with your life.
45:10Create instead of living off the buying and selling of others.
45:13The White Lotus was always more than a murder mystery.
45:15It's a show about wealth, status, desire, and consequences.
45:19Please, these gays, they're trying to murder me.
45:23In the season two finale, we find out Tanya is the body that Daphne found in the first episode
45:28of season two, and that the other bodies are those of the gay men that Tanya killed.
45:32Albie gets played by Lucia, Portia gets deserted by Jack,
45:36and Harper and Ethan become more similar to Daphne and Cameron than they ever thought they would.
45:40So you're like playing games with them?
45:42We both do it.
45:44It's like hide and seek.
45:45Here's our take on which characters came out of their stay at the White Lotus as winners,
45:50and how the show gave us all the clues to its ultimate ending along the way.
45:54Hey, what is about these head things?
45:55Pessa di morro.
45:56It's a warning to husbands, babe.
45:58Screw around and you'll end up buried in the garden.
46:00At home.
46:04We see a number of different power dynamics at play in the White Lotus,
46:07those who have money, and those who don't.
46:09How do you guys like being rich?
46:11Those who are able to use sex for their own advancement,
46:14and those whose sexual desires are a weakness.
46:17I have a problem with sexual addiction.
46:19And even those who are allowed inside the hotel, and those who are denied entry.
46:23This hotel is reserved to only clients, so please, Antonio,
46:26accompany the ladies to the exit.
46:29One of the most interesting power dynamics in the show is those who think they hold the power,
46:34versus those who actually do.
46:36Cameron and Daphne were presented as this perfect couple.
46:39We never fight.
46:40The polar opposite of the cold, bickering Harper and Ethan.
46:43But we soon find out that appearances and excessive PDA don't always tell the full story.
46:48And when Cameron ultimately cheats on his wife, we assume that the sometimes ditzy Daphne is blind to
46:54his infidelity.
46:55Yet when Harper brings up her suspicions,
46:57I think something happened when we were in Noto.
47:02Daphne reveals her more cunning side, pivoting to talking about how much
47:06she enjoys sessions with her trainer.
47:08He's so handsome.
47:09He has blonde hair and, like, big blue eyes.
47:12Before showing Harper a picture of her blonde-haired, blue-eyed children,
47:16subtly suggesting that she herself has her own extramarital affairs.
47:20And again, in the season finale, when Ethan tells her that he thinks
47:24something happened between Cameron and Harper,
47:26we expect Daphne to be upset at this news, but she remains unfazed.
47:30Instead, she leads Ethan to an isolated area, insinuating that she can just as easily
47:35use Ethan to her advantage and not be a victim of her situation.
47:39When it comes to the haves versus the have-nots, we turn to Mia and Lucia.
47:43Mia, who talks early on about wanting to be a singer,
47:46sees an opportunity to use the hotel's piano player to get what she wants.
47:57After accidentally drugging him, she uses his absence to seduce Valentina
48:02and claim his job as the lounge singer. At the beginning of the season,
48:06the piano player was dangling the promise of connections in front of Mia,
48:09but in the end, she made her own connection and thus her own opportunity.
48:18As for Lucia, at the beginning of the season, she is denied entry into the hotel
48:22and looks longingly in shop windows, staring at expensive dresses.
48:26But by manipulating Dominic, she and Mia are able to gain access and get to work with other clients.
48:36She works on Albie and even has one of her friends pose as a threatening pimp
48:40to make him think that she's in danger.
48:42It's just there is a man who will ask me for the money and he's crazy, you know.
48:47He sends her 50,000 euros in an attempt to free her from the danger,
48:51but when she leaves him with the money, it's clear that she played him.
48:54The final shot of the season emphasizes the triumph of the working-class characters
48:59over the uber-wealthy ones, a much different ending than that of the last season,
49:03where working-class characters were the ones snubbed or even killed.
49:07And so the power dynamics set up at the beginning of the season
49:10are all completely flipped by the finale.
49:12The oppressed have outsmarted their oppressors.
49:18This season's star victim, Tanya, played by the ever-memeable Jennifer Coolidge,
49:22was sadly doomed from the start.
49:24While there were plenty of overt comparisons of Tanya to a tragic heroine,
49:28You're like the heroine of your own Italian opera.
49:33Does that mean I'm doomed?
49:35There were some other classic influences at work in her demise.
49:38At the end of season one, Tanya alludes to her own death outright.
49:42I've had every kind of treatment over the years.
49:48Death is the last immersive experience I haven't tried.
49:54We can see this is almost a prophecy,
49:56a classic storytelling device of Greek tragedies.
49:59These predetermined outcomes tell the audience what's going to happen in the ending,
50:02even if they don't know how it'll all play out.
50:05You're going to die.
50:05We're going to have to drag you out of here.
50:07Often, trying to get away from these destinies only pushes the character
50:11further toward that very ending, and we can see echoes of this in Tanya's story.
50:15When Tanya tries to get ahead of her destiny by murdering the men on the boat,
50:19she still ends up dying, albeit not in the way she imagined.
50:22You've got this.
50:27Quentin's explicit noting of Tanya as a Puccini heroine
50:31also epitomizes Tanya's character and her ultimate fate.
50:34In Madame Butterfly, the opera that she and Quentin go see,
50:37Butterfly is left by her husband.
50:39I have to fly to Denver tomorrow.
50:43It's just for like two, three days.
50:46Anne dies in the end.
50:47In Tosca, another Puccini opera, the heroine Floria
50:51leaps from a parapet after her lover is killed.
50:53When Puccini's heroines die, it is a tragic death,
50:56but it is often tied to a larger romantic idea.
51:00They die for love, and they die, on a more meta level,
51:03for the art of the opera itself.
51:05When Quentin calls Tanya a Puccini heroine, Orr says,
51:08I'd also die for beauty, wouldn't you?
51:10he's seeing her as a woman whose destiny is to die
51:13for something greater than herself.
51:15Like perhaps keeping his wealth intact
51:17and keeping his estate beautiful.
51:19Here's to beauty.
51:23While White Lotus may have felt like a mystery,
51:26the show actually gave the audience plenty of hints along the way.
51:29The symbolism of Tanya as a tragic opera heroine
51:32was just one of a slew of symbols you may have missed,
51:36including the show's opening title sequence.
51:38As Sophie Gilbert notes in The Atlantic,
51:40Tom Hollander's name appeared next to Bacchus,
51:43befitting his character's hedonist tendencies.
51:45Simona Tabasco's by a cat with a bird,
51:48recalling the alluring Lucia.
51:50Theo James with a close-up of David's sculpted penis,
51:53suiting the pre-appic Cameron.
51:54Because you left me.
51:55Oh.
51:56You abandoned me.
51:57Yeah.
51:59I know you must pay.
52:00Hayley Lou Richardson's name card shows a young woman and a lamb,
52:04emphasizing her tendency to follow others,
52:06from her boss Tanya, to the De Grasso men,
52:08to the charismatic Jack.
52:10Michael Imperioli's name card is a man bowing in front of a woman,
52:13throwing a necklace away, showcasing his desire for penance,
52:17and his wife's refusal to be swayed by his lavish gifts.
52:20One of the creators of the title sequence, Mark Bashor,
52:23also noted the mythological influences in the title sequence,
52:26telling TV Insider,
52:27We had the original famous Laida and the Swan
52:30painting in our rough cut for months.
52:32It just felt right because it's about passion,
52:34and there's a lot of nature in this show.
52:36In the story of Laida and the Swan,
52:38the god Zeus disguises himself as an animal,
52:40proving that powerful entities may sometimes appear non-threatening.
52:44We can see this parallel in how Daphne is portrayed
52:47as an airheaded housewife.
52:48Did you vote, babe? Be honest.
52:50I think I did.
52:51I did.
52:52Or how Lucia is portrayed as a simple local girl,
52:55and how these portrayals disguise the fact that they are both
52:58much more powerful than people originally perceived.
53:04White himself noted how the prevalence of the busts
53:06all around Sicily inspired his ideas for the second season,
53:10telling the New York Times,
53:11it felt like a place where some classic male-female stories
53:14could be told with contemporary characters.
53:16The busts, as Rocco notes, they are tied to an old myth.
53:20Amour came here a long time ago and seduced a local girl,
53:22but then she found out that he had a wife and children back home.
53:27So because he lied to her, she cut his head off.
53:30The placement of the busts in each room keeps the specter of infidelity
53:34constantly hanging over the two couples,
53:36where Daphne and Cameron may know about each other's dalliances.
53:39Harper and Ethan worry constantly about the other being unfaithful.
53:43I'm not lying.
53:43You already have lied to me.
53:45I know you did something.
53:47I didn't.
53:48You're lying.
53:49However, there's an element of the mythical bust story
53:52that the show didn't mention.
53:53According to Collider, the young woman ends up using the man's severed head
53:57as a vase for growing flowers,
53:59and those flowers prospered to become the talk of the island.
54:02So the infidelity actually brought a fruitful outcome,
54:05which is echoed in how Harper and Ethan's infidelity
54:08actually created a stronger sexual chemistry between them.
54:11What's going to happen to us?
54:13And it's no coincidence that the show often references Greek mythology.
54:17Quentin jokes about Portia being a victim of Hades.
54:20How was Portia?
54:21Has Hades carried her off into the underworld?
54:24Burt references Achilles.
54:25Our Achilles heel is an Achilles c**t.
54:29And even the trek to the family's original village
54:31could be seen as a parallel to Odysseus' return at the end of the Odyssey.
54:36You always think there's going to be a homecoming.
54:38A significant part of Greek mythology is the idea that the gods control nature,
54:42so these constant shots of the water reflect the idea
54:45that there are things that are completely out of the control of humans.
54:49Between Tonya being stranded on the yacht and then drowning
54:52as she tries to get off, and Ethan and Cameron's fight in the sea,
54:55water is constantly presented as a symbol of hostility rather than relaxation.
55:00We also see a volcano in the background,
55:02emphasizing the volatile nature of the central relationships in the show,
55:06and the way things emotionally bubble under the surface before they ultimately explode.
55:11The White Lotus never shies away from taking on the hot-button topics facing society—
55:16money, sex, and power.
55:18Ultimately, the characters that came out on top, like Mia, Lucia, Daphne, and even Valentina,
55:22know that emotions, like desire and sympathy, can be transactional.
55:27Lucia and Mia use the male characters' uncontrollable sexual urges to their advantage,
55:32and Daphne uses Cameron's infidelity to feel empowered to do what she wants.
55:37And if anything ever did happen, you just do what you have to do
55:43to make yourself feel better about it.
55:44The show knows that humans are flawed and do terrible things,
55:48and that it's very difficult to change those immediate urges.
55:51Oh, I'm still a man. And I get older and older,
55:55but the women I desire remain young. Natural, right?
56:00You can relate to that.
56:01Even after facing the consequences, old habits die hard.
56:05But using those ideas to your advantage,
56:07seeing human nature for what it is and making it work for you,
56:11that's how you get the outcome you want.
56:13And what about the guy?
56:14He's deranged. And what about the girl?
56:17Yeah, she played me.
56:19That's the take.
56:20Click here to watch a video we think you'll love,
56:22or here to check out a whole playlist of awesome content.
56:25Don't forget to subscribe and turn on notifications.
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