review #01: the white lotus s3

** now as in future, spoilers ahead! **

last night, the third season of hbo’s hit tv show the white lotus came to a disappointing close. this season, which was set in thailand and featured a slew of rich avatars new and familiar to the show, began rather strongly. the push-and-pull dynamic between chelsea (played by aimee lou wood) and rick (played by walton goggins) was captivating, and i found the ratliff family’s awkwardly oblivious privilege intriguing. overall, the acting, cinematography, wardrobe, and set design were stellar (all of which are mainstays for the show). but this season diverged from the previous two in a tale as old as television itself – the writing fell off.

there were a number of stand-out scenes in this season (something which helped the previous two go viral), such as when rick’s friend monologues about his sexual experimentation in thailand, and when piper ratliffe, after spending a night at a buddhist monastery she’s dreamed of visiting, breaks down in tears because of the lack of air conditioning and tasty food. unfortunately, the tail-end of the season failed to tie them all these threads together into any sort of satisfactory ending. which leads me to ask – what made the other seasons so good anyway?

in short: eat the rich. the first season launched with a star-studded cast in summer 2021, amidst the covid-19 pandemic and with the black lives matter protests of the previous summer still fresh on everyone’s mind. its satirical focus on rich white people enjoying the illusion of paradise at a tropical resort in hawai’i while the locals and staff struggled to keep up appearances as things went more and more awry was equal parts hilarious and topical. this focus was most readily embodied in the character of tanya mcquoid (played brilliantly by jennifer coolidge) and her deluded temper-tantrums. the white lotus’ second season premiered in fall of 2022, just over a year after the first, and followed a similar arc in italy with local sicilian girls taking advantage of naïve american tourists, but with an suspenseful added twist – tanya was now at the center of a murderous conspiracy orchestrated by her now-husband, greg (played by jon gries).

when planning the third season, the show had two avenues to pursue: (1) focus on how a new region’s locals attempt to get back at the rich guests of the show’s eponymous hotel chain, or (2) follow the tanya/greg arc to a third location, where that storyline can find some closure. this is where director mike white misstepped. it was admittedly a shocking moment when belinda runs into greg (now going by the pseudonym garry) at the outset of the season, but the problem is that greg is ultimately not a strong enough character for the show to revolve around. he is awkward, reserved, and brooding – a far cry from the host of “strong personalities” that the writing had centered around previously. and to make matters worse for the plot, the local thai characters and the german hotel manager (who in the previous seasons were some of the most interesting and dynamic characters to watch) were stagnant and largely sidelined this time around. in fact, almost nothing happens to any of them, and they barely do anything of consequence in the show besides giving the audience a break from the main crew of wealthy vacationers and their misadventures. the group of russian expats who rob the hotel are hard to sympathize with, and the “victory tour” plotline of middle-aged women that party with them goes nowhere. also, the reveal that sritala’s husband was actually rick’s father was as inelegant as it was trite.

all this to say: what made the white lotus great was its “eat the rich” satirical lens coupled with a cast of strong actors portraying equally strongly written characters. this season, with its lack of consequences for most of the main characters, lack of sympathetic locals to root for, and lack of payoff for the central tanya/greg story arc, left me feeling, well…lackluster. for a show known to be a slow burn, season 3 of the white lotus burned for so long that it did not go out with the “moral arc of the universe” bang we’ve come to expect and love, but rather, sizzled out with a “business as usual” whimper. (5.5/10)

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banner image: From Two happy years in Ceylon, 1901. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work. This image was originally posted to Flickr by Internet Archive Book Images at https://flickr.com/photos/126377022@N07/14803764463. It was reviewed on 2 October 2015 by FlickreviewR and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the No known copyright restrictions.

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p.s. this made me lol