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Ahead of the Curve with Coco Mocoe
The White Lotus Finale: The 7 Deadly Sins Theory + Staying at the Hotel with the Season 3 Cast
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Kokomoco
Hi, coconuts. It is Kokomoco here. Thank you guys for being so patient with the episode this week. As you guys know, we do Coco Mocha Mondays. The ahead of the curve episodes always come out on a Monday. But this week and the next week are very unique in that Mondays are my travel days. And I want to report back to you guys everything going on. So this last Monday, yesterday, I was dry or. No, I was. I spent the whole day there. I was at the White Lotus Hotel with the cast. It was at. Now that it's done, I think I can disclose the location. We were at the Four Seasons in Westlake, which is kind of by Calabasas in la. It was the coolest, most insane trip brand, Trip brand anything I've ever done. So I'm definitely going to be telling you guys all about that when I get to it. Hang on. I think my new camera just arrived. Oh, my God. Hold this thought. All right, My camera arrived in time for Coachella tomorrow. We'll get more to that later. So the first half of this episode, I am going to talk to you guys about my White Lotus theory and also just the brilliant branding of White Lotus, why I think it went so viral. And then I am also going to talk about in the second half of this episode, that is only for the paying coconuts on my sub stack@cocomoca.com cocomoco.substack.com $9 a month. We are going to talk more about actually being at the White Lotus event. Okay, so it was a bunch of, like, pretty big influencers were there. I'm like, how. How did I get on this invite list? Super big influencers. The cast was there hanging out with us for a few days. And then. And so I'll go into, like, the details of that with, like, some video clips, what it was like all of the above. And. But we're gonna dive into the first half. And also another disclaimer is tomorrow or this week, when the episode goes out next Monday, it is going to be pushed to Wednesday again. So we're gonna have two Wednesday episodes back to back, because I am going straight from here to Coachella. So I did White Lotus Hotel from Sunday until Tuesday. It's Wednesday now. I'm filming this episode. I'm getting it up. And then tomorrow morning at the crack of dawn, I leave to my friends and we're going to Coachella. I'm going with Pop Crave and Airbnb. We're going to be at Coachella until Monday. We drive home and. And Then I will get an episode up about Coachella on Wednesday. Thank you guys so much for being patient with me. It's been a whirlwind when it comes to what I've been able to do this year, the trips that I've been invited on. I'm going to Tribeca Film Festival later this year. I'm going to Mexico. I'm going to Washington, D.C. maybe I'm going to Cannes lion in France. I'm going to outside lands. So it's just going to be a crazy couple months, and the episodes might have to be pushed out, but I'm going to let you guys know ahead of time so you know what the schedule is, so then I can still get you guys quality episodes while also kind of bringing you along with me to these really cool opportunities. Like, as a creator, you never know how many opportunities like this you're gonna get. So, yeah, I'm just really grateful. But back to talking about the brilliant branding of White Lotus. Now, the first theory that I have about White Lotus that I was telling this week to literally anyone that would listen, anyone that had an ear for it, even Tan, the guy from Queer Eye. I was telling him about it at one point. So my theory is that the White Lotus and Mike White. I think there's going to be seven seasons, right? Stick with me. There's going to be seven seasons, and every single season is based on a seven deadly sin. So the first season of White Lotus would have been greed because it was all about money. It was in the person who ended up dying. It was all around the Pineapple Room, wanting a bigger room. I paid for a certain room. Someone else got this room. But, like, was my money not equivalent to their money? It was all about money. A lot of the themes of the families and who they were covering, like, it was people talking about that girl who married the Pineapple Room guy. And, like, was she buying into him for money? All of these things, like the whole Tanya's inheritance and kind of buying companionship through Belinda. It was all about money. And then season two was the deadly sin of lust. And that is why it was in the city of love in Italy. It was all about the. It was all about people cheating on each other. It was all about relationships. It was about the Tanya who died in season two. Kind of put herself in a bad situation because she just wanted romance. She wanted less. She was willing to be with someone who wasn't a good partner for her instead of being alone because she was driven by that need for companionship to Be wanted to want. So it was all about lust. You also had a lot of themes in season two about the, like, paying for sex, hookers, things like that in the city of love. And actually, you know what's so funny is I didn't mean for this to happen, but just the way my haircut is right now and the way I look. So many people at the White Lotus Hotel were telling me that I looked like. I think her name was Lucia, but I looked like one of the. It was me and Lucy. I forget which one. But that I looked like one of the, like, Italian hooker girls from season two. And I was like, honestly, like, that's a big compliment. Like, thank you. I'm very grateful. So now season three. I thought that season three in Thailand was all about pride and ego at first because it was about people keeping things hidden from their families, doing things, and then, like, doing things out of hasty decisions and then trying to cover it up. Defending their honor, defending their families. And then after the last episode, though, spoiler alert. So if you haven't seen the episode, I'd watch it and then come back, but Rick kills a bunch of people. And it was wrath. It was The. The. The seven deadly sins. It was the sin of wrath, 100%. And I was like, oh, maybe this season was of teaching us the qualms of wrath. So that is what I was thinking of with all of these seasons, the seven deadly sins. So what are the other seven deadly sins? Let me look it up. I think there's going to be a seed season about jealousy. There's going to be a season about sloth, like, not wanting to do anything. Okay, so here we go. Lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, pride. So we have lust already down. We have greed, and I think wrath. So then the next one will be either gluttony, sloth, envy, or pride. Let me look up with what gluttony means. Gluttony, meaning gluttony means habitual greed or excess in eating. Interesting. So let me know in the comments on Substack if you guys think that this could potentially be all about the seven deadly sins and if we'll get seven seasons. If not, that's just like me theorizing and fantasizing, creating a world that maybe doesn't exist. But I think that's what's really cool about these shows is that, you know, you've created a really cool show and there's so many interesting theories that can exist outside of what they even intended because people like art is essentially taking one thing and transforming it into your own version of that. And. And a really good piece of art encourages the viewer to do that in a multitude of ways. There's one account on Tik Tok. I've met her in person. I love her. I think the way you say her username is Avital, but I'm going to tag her in the description of this video. You guys should watch her White Lotus like, theories. Like, she breaks things down in a way that is so cool and fascinating. So I will leave that for you guys. And you can let me know in the comments too, if there's any other creators that had really cool White Lotus theories around the season. The next thing that I want to talk about is the brilliant branding of White Lotus. So there's a couple things that I think a really good HBO Max show does that White Lotus did, and it kind of. This branding started, I think, with Euphoria, maybe even on accident, I'm not sure. But one of the things that went really viral when Euphoria was being promoted, I think after the first season, is the woman who did the makeup for Euphoria. Her name is Donnie, and she has now a makeup brand called Half Magic. And I actually met her through my friend Dylan Mulvaney. But Donnie, she did this interview series, and I think it would have been on one of the magazine YouTube channels. It's been years, but I'll link it out. And she broke down the makeup on Euphoria and the certain decisions she made and how she did it. And this video went super, super viral. And it honestly made me appreciate the creation of the show. And then because of the virality of that video and the virality of Euphoria, which we saw in the early 2000 and twenties, was kind of this bright, glittery makeup that Gen Z started then exploring. Whereas I feel like Millennials version of extremism makeup was like a black smokey eye. Gen Z had this very like Euphoria type makeup that they really leaned into when they were coming of age. So her, she then launches Half Magic, and now she's coming back to do the next season of Euphoria. And it peeled back a curtain on the creation of these shows. Now, HBO is really good at this. They let the people who are the wardrobe stylists, the makeup artists, the set designers, whatever, they're not like, signed. I mean, I'm sure they sign NDAs, but they are not kept behind the scenes. They actually have those people in the front of the scenes during the promotion. Sometimes just as much as the actors. And it's a way to show kind of an appreciation. If an audience feels like they are a part of the seeding and planting of an idea, they're going to be way more likely to support it. Another creator that does this really well, like an influencer on, like a. Not a show skill, but in a creator skill, is Brand Brand Flakes. He's really good at being like, hey, guys, like six months prior. He'll be like, hey, guys, I really want to work with, like, this brand. Or Justine's camera roll is another good example. They'll say, hey, guys, I really want to work with this brand. This is a brand deal I really want to do. And then when something like that comes to fruition for them months later, the audience is so much more likely to support them and engage with their post because they feel like they were there from the beginning. So that's kind of what HBO does with these creation of which even though it's airing after the episodes come out, it makes you appreciate the show even more. HBO also does this thing really well where they will do these, like, podcast episodes, like the making of an episode, and they'll talk about it after every time an episode airs. They'll then do a segment after the credits where they talk about the making of the episode. And then they also have creators that they've hired that work for HBO that have these podcast shows where they're recapping and rehashing the episodes prior. Except it's even more interesting than, like, what I do, for example, because they actually have access to the information behind the scenes. So really peeling back the layers. It's like an orange, like they. Or an onion. They peel back all of these layers of these onions. And it makes you appreciate it so much more as an audience. Even then there's people going viral on TikTok right now. I'm gonna try and find hers and link her out too. This is going to be link heavy in the description, but there is a creator that does something so cool, and she will watch every single episode of White Lotus as it comes out. And then she uses her TikTok and she like breaks down like this outfits that she saw. Like, she'll be like, this outfit is from Madewell. This shirt is like $3,000. It's sold out. It's on Prada. I don't even know. Maybe she's doing Google reverse images and like finding these outfits. But that makes you appreciate the show more. And then they ended up having, like, the wardrobe stylist for White Lotus, do these breakdown videos where she was saying, like, this is why we dress Chelsea in more vintage, because she's, like, traveling with Rick. And then, like, this is why I think her name was Chloe would have access to, like, a custom Jacques mousse. When she was in. My favorite outfit of the whole season was she was in, like, a pink bathing suit on the yacht, and then she had the pink drape around her waist, and they were like, she's a former supermodel. Like, she might have had access to something like that that you can't just buy online. So they're really breaking down all of their outfits. And I feel like that's something that we're really missing on, like, Netflix or even, like, a CBS and abc. So it's something that HBO does really well, which is the making of the episodes. The next thing that hbo, I think, did really, really well was controlled controversy. Now, this is something that I've talked about in the past. You're like, what. What is controlled controversy? So controlled controversy is when you. And this is not my original, like, saying. Like, this is like a marketing saying that I've been taught before, before. So it's where you can either it happens accidentally, and you. You put something out, you realize there's a little bit of controversy there, and then you just lean in, or you kind of let it run wild, or sometimes people will do it on purpose. They'll create a controversy almost as, like, a red herring to either distract from the actual controversy, or they just want to get people talking about their show, whatever it is. One controlled controversy that I think happened that really, really helped elevate their career was Sabrina Carpenter. And I think it was accidental at first, but then she leaned into it heavy. Sabrina Carpenter did her music video for Feathers, which is, like, the song that really kind of put her on the map during this song For Feathers. In the music video, they filmed in, like, a church in New York City. And for whatever reason, this music video ended up leading to one of the guys that works at the church being, like, getting in trouble for embezzlement or there was some sort of money thing going on. And then, like, randomly, like, the mayor was, like, also tied to it. So anyways, it kind of blew the lid off this whole church. And people at first were interpreting it and being like, oh, Sabrina Carpenter is, like, the reason that this guy got fired, or Sabrina Carpenter is being sued by the church for her music video. They really leaned into this, like, oh, it's like Sabrina Carpenter versus the church. Like, they're mad at her. So then this starts getting picked up by news outlets, and, like, I would not be surprised. I could be wrong, but I would not be surprised if it was Sabrina Carpenter's team fueling the. The story lines that, like, this church thing. They were mad at her because they thought the music video is raunchy. Whatever. It was blasphemous. But then, like, I didn't watch the Feathers music video until I saw that there was, like, now beef between Sabrina Carpenter and the Catholic Church. And I was like, oh, my God, what she do? And I looked it up, and I'm like, oh, like, it's not even that bad. Like, what are we talking about? But it got them talking, and then Sabrina Carpenter ended up selling a shirt that was like, Jesus was a carpenter. So that is an example of controlled controversy, pushing your project even more where it happens accidentally. But then you just lean into it, like, even more, and you push it. You push it, you push it. Now, an example of this controversy happening, but then them leaning into it is Duke. The university in America was so, like, mad. Like, their, like, PR person, like, put out a statement, their VP of communications, and was like, this doesn't, like, represent, like, Duke's about. Let me literally pull it up. So Duke was upset because one of the families in the White Lotus, they were, like, very rich and, like, they were honestly one of the most talked about storylines of the whole show, partly because they. Partly because they were incestuous. And so. Hang on, I'm gonna close my window. There's a lawnmower. So Duke was upset because one, there was incestuous scenes in White Lotus, which, like, yeah, that was crazy. But also, I feel like there wasn't as much backlash when, like, the Game of Thrones characters were, like, doing back shots in a window, and they were brother and sister. So I think the reason the incestuous scene really, like, was so creepy as an audience this time around is because the characters feel like they exist in this real world. Like, they seem real to us because it's like, modern times. They're, like, people that we could know. Whereas Game of Thrones, it was this fantasy world that, like, would have taken place hundreds of years ago. And so it didn't feel as gross because it was, like, clearly not real. I mean, either way, it's like, it's incest, you know, I mean, it's kind of. It's gonna be gross. But I think that's what Mike want. Like, he wanted that shock factor. But so Duke was upset, though. Mainly it sounds like because Jason Isaac, the character, he was the dad contemplating suicide while wearing a Duke shirt. And they were basically like, this does not reflect our values, blah, blah. So White Lotus, instead of, like, straying from that and being like, oh, my God, like, we're so sorry, like, you guys, literally, Jason Isaac, at the event I was at, which I'll talk about more in the extended episode, he wore a Duke University shirt on stage just to kind of be like, hey, so anyways, that's control controversy. That's controlled contrary. Now, if you look up White Lotus News, so much of it is about Jason Isaac wearing a Duke shirt. And there's also, like, there's also some controversy around the composer leaving Mike White and, like, not wanting to work with Mike White, which the Molly McPherson I mentioned, like, every episode because I love her. She's like the PR God. She did a really interesting sub stack and video about how, you know, it's the perfect way to handle this controversy. The way Mike White just went on the Howard Stern show and was super open about what went down. So those are examples of control controversy. I think the composer one is something that they didn't really want to. To, like, lean into anymore. But the Duke University shirt, like, leaning into wearing the Duke University shirt and kind of being funny about it, is something that anytime you're like, oh, say you didn't watch White Lotus, and then you saw that Duke University put out a statement and was like, we are mad at this show. It is going to make people curious. They're going to want to see it now because they want to see what the drama is. Did you guys know that fun fact? Woody Harrelson, okay? From, like, Hunger Games and True Detective. He was supposed to play a character in the White Lotus that ended up being, like, one of the stars of the show. And the reason he could. I'll tell you which character it is. But the reason he couldn't do it is because he had a family vacation planned, and then they had to move production of the show. And so he had to make the hard decision to drop out. Is, like, what he said. It was a hard decision. I would not be surprised if. Because I feel like Mike White, like, fixates on certain actors, I would not be surprised if that means that we see Woody Harrelson in season four of White Lotus. And if they're playing it based on my theory that every season is based on the four deadly sins, let me know what sin you think would be interesting for the next season. It could be gluttony. It could be sloth. But the character that Woody Harlson was supposed to play was the one, I think it was then played by Sam Rockwell, where he's sitting at. It's like the Friend of Rick, where they're sitting at a table, and then he does this, like, one of the best monologues of the season. Besides, I think Carrie Coon's character Lori, who was. Oh, my God. When Lori goes, I'm just happy I have a seat at the table. I was like, oh. I'm like, my. Like, what I bring is, like, time. Like, oh, my God. Anyways, so Woody Harlson was supposed to play the character that does that, like, weird monologue about, like, his, like, sex escapades. And so they ended up doing Sam Rockwell instead. I wonder also if part of that switcheroo at the last minute was because he's married to Leslie Bibb. And, like, maybe they knew they could pull it off and, like, get him in. But I would not be surprised if we see Woody Harrelson next season. So I just wanted to add that I also saw. I couldn't confirm what characters it was. I saw another news article that said that, like, some people dropped out after they read the script about the incest. So I don't know if it would have been like, Lachlan's character was going to be played by someone else or Patrick Schwarzenegger, but it was all just so interesting. And again, I'll tell you guys about it. Like, what it was like seeing the cast in person in the extended episode on Substack, because I was at the White Lotus Hotel. But, yeah, so controlled controversy is something that I think happens accidentally, but then people lean into it and it makes people, like, everyone wants to see what they're not supposed to see. So if they think something is going to get banned or taken down. I think another example of an artist who tried to do controlled controversy to get people to watch a music video was, again, this is my opinion. I don't know. Katy Perry also, like, there was, like, these. This news story that she was getting, like, in trouble or investigated by the Spanish government for filming on some sand dunes for her lifetime's music video. And then, like, I feel like that was almost a planted story to be like, oh, my God, go watch the music video. She was like, got so much trouble for filming this. But, yeah. So let me know if you guys can think of any other examples of control controversy that were either accidental or purpose that you think that they leaned into even more to get more hype around it. And that was the first segment, the brilliant branding of White Lotus. Now, in the second segment, I'm going to be talking about what it was like seeing the cast in person, like, who was most like their character. It was kind of shocking seeing them, like, on the panel and, like, talking. And then I'm gonna just talk about, like, just visiting the White Lotus Hotel. Everything that went down from my perspective, it was insane. I'm so grateful that this is my life. I don't know how long I'm gonna get to do this job and get to go on these extravagant vacations and hang out with cool people and brands, but. But I just am very lucky that I get to do it. I feel like, for me, this was, like, 10 years in the making. Like, I always. I was talking to my friends at a bachelorette trip this week because they were there when I was filming, like, Dorm tours to 200 views. And this was, like, 10 years ago. And I was like, you know, some creators will say, like, I just got so lucky. It just happened on accident. And I always feel almost envious of that because for me, it wasn't accidental. I've wanted this for so long. I've wanted. Wanted to be a creator since I was in middle school. Like, running home to make my MySpace page look cool. Like, I wanted to be a creator so bad. And it feels like in some ways it comes in waves, that it's, like, coming to fruition. And I'm. I'm so grateful I. It. None of this was accidental. I've. It's been 10 years in the making, and I hope I get to do it for another 10, 20 years. I actually had a. An astrologer once tell me. They were like, you're. This sounds so weird, but they were like, you're going to be famous, and it's going to last for exactly 18 years, and it's going to start in your 30s. I'm 29 now, so, anyways, I thought that was interesting. I'm like, what happens on the 18th year? But, yeah, so we're going to get into the actual event, the vacation, in the next segment. So if you're interested in hearing about that, you can become a paying member@cocomoco substack.com for $9 a month, you'll get the extended episode of every single podcast I've done since last June, and you also get the Friday Trend Report. So thank you guys so much, and I will see you.