‘The White Lotus’ Season 3 Review: The Gold Standard In Escapism Returns to Squash Our Sunday Scaries
“I just want to drink wine and watch The White Lotus,” a friend sighed to me last week, and, honestly, why shouldn’t they feel that way? After all, HBO‘s massive hit doubles as a luxurious getaway from the stress of everyday life while also being considered one of the best shows of the 2020s by critics and Emmy voters alike. After over two years of hiatus, The White Lotus finally returns for its third season this Sunday, following a new cast of obnoxiously rich, fabulously beautiful characters as they vacation at an opulent “White Lotus” resort. As always, death permeates the air, snide satire sneaks into every conversation, and incredible performances unfold before our eyes.
However, the latest season of The White Lotus hits a little different than the grounded pandemic-era tone of Season 1 or the sensual seediness of Season 2. In the six (of eight) episodes HBO sent critics, The White Lotus Season 3 flirts with big philosophical notions of identity and spirituality, mirroring questions the show might be asking about itself. Creator/writer/director Mike White has outdone himself on the visuals this time around, applying a painterly, auteur-like approach to the third season’s Thai setting. At the same time, though, this batch of scripts might be his weakest. The beats of the season are rote, the characters verge on cringe-worthy cliche, and The White Lotus seems to be lazily conforming to a formula that’s already inspired countless pale imitations since its 2021 series launch.
The White Lotus Season 3 is definitely a fun time, though, and perfect to pair with a glass of your favorite screw top wine and soft pjs as you make a futile attempt to battle the Sunday Scaries. The question that The White Lotus Season 3 can’t answer, though, is if it’s really the prestige fare it’s been selling itself as at the Emmys, or just another entry in a popular new TV sub-genre: an “eat the rich” murder mystery.
The White Lotus Season 3 opens, per the show’s now well-established rhythm, with the reveal that someone will die in a horrific manner at the show’s fictional resort. We then jump back in time one week, to watch a new collection of guests arrive at the fictional White Lotus outpost in Thailand (which is actually the Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui).
The guests include the misanthropic and moody Rick (Walton Goggins) and his chipper and much younger girlfriend, Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood). A trio of beautiful middle-aged besties — TV actress Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan), Texas housewife Kate (Leslie Bibb), and NYC divorcee Laurie (Carrie Coon) — are on a girls’ trip. Then there’s the Ratliff family: secretly-ruined financier father Timothy (Jason Isaacs), pill-popping and caftan-clad matriarch Victoria (Parker Posey), douchey oldest son Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger), Buddhism-curious daughter Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook), and absolutely lost youngest child Lochlan (Sam Nivola). Last, but not least, Season 1 spa manager Belinda (Natasha Rothwell) is there, not as a guest, but to soak up the “magic” of The White Lotus Thailand’s wellness program.
Belinda is now only the third White Lotus Season 1 character to return to the show, after Jennifer Coolidge’s scene-stealing Tanya McQuoid and Jon Gries’s Greg Hunt made their way from Hawaii to Italy in Season 2. Coolidge was particularly beloved for her campy work, underpinned by a tragic hunger for affection. While Coolidge gave The White Lotus much of its broad comedy, the rest of the ensemble cast could attempt more subtlety. This time around, though, the incandescently charming Belinda lends the show the opposite energy. She’s a familiar face, completely grounded in nuance and reality, while many of the new figures Mike White has drawn into his dark comedy of manners and murder lean into broad stereotype.
Some of The White Lotus‘s greatest strengths have been Mike White’s careful observation of the cunning ways mean bullies humiliate their victims in plain sight, not to mention the way passive aggressive behavior can poison relationships. There’s nothing cunning or passive in The White Lotus Season 3’s scenes, though. Rick and Chelsea are the literal definition opposites attracting, their every conversation a debate about their differing viewpoints. Jackie, Kate, and Laurie’s friendship is so toxic that the women basically tag in and out shit-talking sessions about the conveniently absent third. The elder Ratliffs have cartoonishly strong Southern drawls, with each member of the family neatly slotting into a broad country club caricature. Between this and the show’s own repetitive structure, White’s usually sharp pen feels dulled this time around.
Dulled, though no less delightful.
Even if The White Lotus shows some signs of creative fatigue — a sense no doubt exasperated by a TV landscape that’s been overrun by copycats like Nine Perfect Strangers, Saint X, and The Perfect Couple — it’s also still undoubtedly an intoxicating adventure. For The White Lotus Season 3, Mike White’s creative passions were clearly most-focused on directing. Colors are saturated like never before, and even simple, second unit shots of tree branches can evoke tension. The White Lotus‘s iconic, Emmy-winning score has been remixed to be especially creepy and this season’s costume and set design emphasize the show’s trademark devotion to absolute escapism.
The biggest thing the The White Lotus Season 3 has going for it, though, is its phenomenal cast. The actors that Mike White has assembled give each character a pathos that maybe wasn’t originally there on the page. Parker Posey lends Victoria her trademark daffiness while Jason Isaacs gives Timothy a furious hum of villainous rage. Walton Goggins’s charm somehow makes his otherwise irredeemably self-absorbed asshole Rick worth the angelic effort Aimee Lou Wood’s Chelsea exerts trying to save him. Then there’s the perfect usage of Carrie Coon’s scrappy charisma, Leslie Bibb’s honest fakery, Michelle Monaghan’s irrepressible allure, Natasha Rothwell’s radiant ebullience… From top to bottom, Mike White has created a season of TV that strategically harnesses the strengths of its cast. Even BLACKPINK’s Lisa, credited here as Lalisa Manobal, gets to shine in a role that highlights her immense magnetism. It’s a joy to sit back and just watch.
Ultimately, The White Lotus Season 3 is still the best at what the show sets out to do. The many aforementioned copycats out there struggle to match the HBO hit’s sophisticated level of execution. If you want an addictive, star-studded murder mystery rife with sly jokes and non-stop wealth porn, The White Lotus is the gold standard in escapism. However, the more and more Mike White returns to the same well, repeating the same beats he’s pounded before, the more and more The White Lotus resembles its competition.
Each time a pampered White Lotus Season 3 character wonders aloud if that’s all there is, you get the feeling that Mike White might be positing that same question to himself about the ambitions of his wildly popular series.Perhaps The White Lotus isn’t a profound class satire, but the fanciest fluff on television. Either way, it’s a Sunday night treat that pairs perfectly with a well-chilled white.
The White Lotus Season 3 premieres on HBO and MAX on Sunday, February 16 at 9 PM ET.
