The White Lotus may feel sympathy for some of its characters, but that doesn’t mean it excuses their faults. And while a show’s wardrobe can provide meaningful insight into a character’s personality and inner psyche, so can reading choices. The books that characters are seen reading act as an extension of their characters, speaking to relationship dynamics. An obvious example is college friends Olivia (Sydney Sweeney) and Paula (Brittany O’Grady), who carry books around like badges of honor and have a habit of reading Camille Paglia and Frantz Fanon by the pool. In the third episode, Shane (Jake Lacy) attempts to flirt with Olivia and Paula by teasing them about the books they’re reading. Olivia wryly replies, “No, they’re just props.”

ITsArt , a new streaming platform dubbed the ‘Netflix of Italian Culture,’ is set to roll out across Europe in October and in the U.S. next year. Commissioned by Italy’s culture ministry, the ad-supported and transactional-VoD service providing access to Italian culture was conceived during the pandemic when Italy’s cultural institutions suffered from a drop in physical visitors and tried to react with various disparate forms of digital distribution.