In “The White Lotus,” beautiful actors play rich people trapped in a lair of lies, lust and sexual politics at a luxury resort. One of the show’s most glamorous stars? The fictional hotel itself. 

The faux White Lotus resort chain goes for realism at every turn in this social satire from HBO, which begins its second season on Sunday. Everything from the bar menu to the bed linens is emblazoned with the White Lotus logo, creating a bespoke bubble of wealth and privilege whose authenticity makes skewering the guests that much more believable. Even details the camera may never capture are executed to precision, down to the keycards for the guests’ rooms and the tiny marzipan fruit candies waiting for them there. 

“Charming, comfortable, but something a little bit upsetting,” production designer Cristina Onori said of the hotel décor, which includes the crisp blues and greens of the seaside locale with hot reds to evoke the volcanic emotions at the resort in the shadow of Mount Etna. Outside, the show’s crew built a fountain on the hotel grounds just so they could float lotus flowers in it. 

Series creator Mike White uses his White Lotus resorts as the fictional connective tissue between the first two seasons of the critically acclaimed series. Last year’s season was set in Maui, Hawaii, and followed a modern story arc about wokeness, identity and class. This year, it’s a story of relationship battles as old as time, set on the Sicilian coast.

This second season of the vacation drama takes place at a resort in Sicily.

Photo: Fabio Lovino/HBO

Both times, the White Lotus resort was staged on top of an existing Four Seasons hotel. This year, it’s the five-star chain’s San Domenico Palace, a converted 14th-century convent perched atop a ridge of rock in the town of Taormina. 

The show had a complete buyout of the property, where it filmed from February to April, according to a Four Seasons spokeswoman. The resort closes for the winter, but under normal circumstances it would have fully reopened in mid-March. Guests slowly began to return toward the end of production.

Mr. White had originally considered making season 2 about mogul billionaires descending on a resort for a Davos-style conference, an idea he toyed with during location scouting as he toured luxury hotels and villas in France and Italy. But his plans changed once he found Taormina.

“The hotel itself had the luxury but also this kind of moodiness that was so unique,” Mr. White said. “It felt like a place where I could get inspired to come up with something juicy.”

Tasked with writing the new season in about eight weeks, Mr. White relocated to Taormina. While there, he noticed painted ceramic heads peeking from balconies and local shops. The figures, based on an ancient story of love, jealousy and murder, were too dramatic to ignore.

“If we’re going to be in Sicily, we have to embrace some of the mythology of the place,” he said. “And so it became all about sex and adultery and monogamy.” 

The cast is almost entirely new, an ensemble that includes Aubrey Plaza, Will Sharpe and F. Murray Abraham. Fan favorite Jennifer Coolidge returns as the operatically tragicomic Tanya, now married but coming to Italy with a great yearning for her own dolce vita.

The hotel that awaits her is impeccable. 

Jennifer Coolidge returns to the series as the tragicomic Tanya—this time, with her assistant played by Haley Lu Richardson, left.

Photo: Fabio Lovino/HBO

“You guys just really pull out all the stops, you really do,” Tanya says as she arrives at the resort. “Whenever I stay at a White Lotus, I always have a memorable time. Always.”

When greeting guests arriving by boat to the resort on the cliffs of the Ionian Sea, white-gloved bellhops wave in unison with their right hands. Valentina, the hotel manager played by Sabrina Impacciatore, fumes at an employee who brings a tray that’s too small for Champagne flutes. “You think that’s normal?” she says before flashing a fake smile for her American guests. “We’ll talk later.”

The expensive surroundings awash in Aperol spritzes become suffocating for characters like Ms. Plaza’s Harper, an employment lawyer who has stumbled into newfound riches following her husband’s business success. The pair are vacationing with a couple who are well accustomed to life in an upper-class playground. 

“Are these the kind of people we’re going to be hanging out with now?” Harper asks. “People who can only talk about what five-star hotels they’ve stayed at?” 

The fake hotel’s décor tried to capture the crisp blues and greens of the seaside locale.

Photo: Fabio Lovino/HBO

The show’s distinctive opening credits and music return with a classical Italian twist. That eerie OOooOOooOOooOOoo melody—actually the digitally manipulated voice of a Colombian singer patting her hand over her mouth while holding a note for a couple of seconds—emerges partway into the sequence. Harps and acoustic guitars help set the old-world mood.

As the opening credits roll, increasingly risqué images reflect each character’s story arc. The credit for Theo James, who plays the egotistic Cameron, appears over an image of a dog peeing on a statue. (Viewers are meant to wonder if Cameron is the dog, the statue, or both, according to credits directors Katrina Crawford and Mark Bashore.)

Production designer Ms. Onori matched the ceramic heads in the hotel rooms to reflect the various personalities. Her team covered the hotel walls with re-created classical paintings from the area, some of which appear in close up to comment on the action. The sets include unnerving elements, like an odd flower arrangement or a creepy-eyed child in a painting. 

Slightly unnerving décor items were incorporated into the show’s set.

Photo: Fabio Lovino/HBO

The White Lotus hotel is an amalgam of pools and beach resorts from the area, though it’s largely the San Domenico Palace. The show, which also re-created hotel rooms on sound stages, nods at “The Godfather,” which featured similar Sicilian locales. 

The costumes contribute to the ambience. 

“Nothing is too much for the White Lotus,” Alex Bovaird, the show’s costume designer, told actors while dressing them in sumptuous costumes from Italian labels such as Gucci, Prada, Valentino, Dolce & Gabbana and Versace. 

Valentina encapsulates the narrative use of the fashions, Ms. Bovaird said. In the first episode, the hotel manager’s Casablanca silk blouse features ping-pong paddles, a nod to the relationship games about to begin. Later, she wears a Moschino blazer with ropes, bound by her own sexual repression. 

Flower prints abound as passions bloom and wilt. Guests go from pool to massage in bathrobes custom designed by Cynthia Rowley featuring white lotus flowers dotted with little eyeballs. “It’s Fellini-esque,” Ms. Bovaird said. “The hotel is always watching you.”

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Write to Ellen Gamerman at ellen.gamerman@wsj.com