If you come at the king, as they say, you’d better not miss. In much the same way, in the current TV landscape, if you come with a multi-part drama about a mysterious death at a luxury resort that is more an interrogation of racial inequality, privilege and class than it is a murder-mystery, you’d better be as good as The White Lotus.
Saint X tries. The new series, adapted from Alexis Schaitkin’s 2020 novel of the same name by Leila Gerstein, has two timelines (plus flashbacks). One is in 2005 on an Aruba-like island in the Caribbean, which in the space of a generation has become a tourist destination. The latest batch of (affluent, almost all white) visitors to Indigo Bay resort include the Thomas family. It comprises 18-year-old soon-to-be-Princeton-student Alison (West Duchovny – yes, daughter of) who, when not railing at her parents for not appreciating the injustice in the world, is busy enjoying the freshly squeezed fruit cocktails of their labour by the pool. Blessed be the young folk in which hyper- and hypocriticism so seamlessly blend. But she adores her younger sister Claire, a shy, anxious child, and is idolised by her in turn. Her parents – Michael Park as dad, Betsy Brandt as mum – are saints for dealing with her but in all other respects are complacent monied white folks who made their compromises with life long ago and are quite happy with them.
