The White Lotus season 3 review: A sluggish journey to a crazy finale!

Repetitive narratives, a slow burning plot but mind boggling twists make this Mike White’s most conflicting season so far!

The White Lotus season 3 review: After a gap of three years, it goes without saying that there was enough and more anticipation for one of HBO’s most popular shows aka The White Lotus. What makes Mike White’s series different from everything else we watch is that it has a new cast, new location and crazier twists waiting for us every season. But season 3 has felt like one big amalgamation of random thoughts put together overnight. 

The White Lotus in Thailand brings us an array of complicated characters. There's the Ratliff family - Victoria (Park Posey) and Timothy Ratliff (Jason Isaacs) and their three children- Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger), Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook) and Lochlan (Sam Nivola). On the surface they seem to be living the ultimate American dream but the closer you get to them you’ll see an incestous relationship between the brothers, a daughter who thinks she is better than her narcissistic family, a father who is panicking over his white collar crime and a mother who is high on lorazepam and their riches. Then there’s Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) and Rick (Walton Goggins); she’s clearly more in love with him than he ever will be with her, and he's come all the way to Thailand to confront the ghost of his past. Every resort chain would probably be incomplete without a girl gang on a vacation and this year we have found a troublesome trio in Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan), Laurie (Carie Coon) and Kate (Leslie Bibb). The three schoolmates made sure their trip makes it out of the group chat even though they’re in completely different stages of life. They might look like besties but they’re standing with a knife behind each other’s back, ready to use it the first chance they get. 

Also Read: Here’s how Aimee Lou Wood nails being an Aries in The White Lotus season 3!

As we know, no White Lotus hotel is complete without its equally bizarre staff. Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong), the security guard, Mook (Lisa Manobal), the hotel staff and his love interest and Fabian, the manager, are the ones who take it upon themselves to handle this crazy bunch. But it’s not just about the new faces, it’s the old faces that make a comeback this season that leave us all scratching our heads with theories. Belinda (Natasha Rothwell) from season 1 joins the luxurious stay in Thailand not as a staff but as a guest this time. And Greg (Jon Gries), who now goes by ‘Gary’ has found an abode in Thailand with his new and young money grubber Chloe (Charlotte Le Bon).  

If I had to describe season 3 in one word, I would call it ironic! All the characters are a walking talking irony this time around. Like how an ultra rich family actually is left with no money at all. Piper came to Thailand to follow Buddhism and leave all materialistic attachments but realised she loves her privileges more than anything in this world. Somehow her mother, Victoria, turned out to be the smartest member of the family and says things as it is. Or how wealth changes even someone as morally correct as Belinda. A self obsessed personality like Saxon seeks validation and wants to be seen by Chelsea.

Most of all this season, Mike White nails the complexity and irony of female friendships. Laurie, Jaclyn and Kate might bitch about and betray each other but as Laurie mentioned in an impactful scene in the season finale, she finds purpose and meaning while she is with her girls. Just existing along with her girls was beyond liberating for her. Healthy or not, these women are going to be intertwined with one another for a long time because they choose to be despite not seeing eye to eye and pretending that they do and that’s how some female friendships are IRL as well!

A new White Lotus season and sexual fantasies that leave you creeped out just go hand in hand. From Saxon and Lochlan’s incest, Greg’s childhood fantasy about his mother to Rick’s friend describing his sexual preferences, there have been enough and more moments that not only made our jaws drop but also almost made us lose our appetite! It makes you stop and think how crazy is too crazy? And maybe that was the point of this season.

Having said all of this, the season as a whole fails to stand its ground. A huge chunk of season 3 just feels like a repetitive build up to the finale. Every episode you think this one’s it, something crazy is about to happen and then it’s just the same characters going around in the same loop! The pace of the show is rather slow as compared to its predecessors and the fear and tension the series is primarily known for simply is non-existent until the last pivotal moments of the finale! Season 3 also breaks its streak of a headstrong manager; Fabian is nowhere close to carrying forward the legacy of Armond’s batshit crazy shenanigans and Valentina’s aura. He is pretty forgetful in a swarm of characters that overpower him in every sense.

Mike White has a knack for casting either new faces or people we haven’t seen on-screen in a long time! Because tell me which other show would put Jason Isaacs and Aimee Lou Wood in the same universe? I might have my doubts about the story but White sure gives it his all while casting the right actors for these complex parts. So far, Tanya aka Jennifer Coolidge was a fan favourite but post season 3, Parker Posey seems to be the internet’s new obsession! Her blatant obliviousness and her Southern accent seems to have found a place in people’s hearts. And even amidst all the disappointment with this season, there has been enough and more character decoding for the entire ensemble, and I don’t think that would’ve been possible without a cast that was determined to surrender themselves to their characters. 

A huge part of White Lotus is the whodunnit at the end. While the first two seasons treated death as a frivolous climax to the show, season 3 treats death as more of a tragic concept that it is. The theories on social media went so out of hand this time around that it actually has me confused whether a part of the finale was actually predictable or we just left no room for surprises with endless conversations about how this season would wrap up?

Only the last half an hour has you on a chokehold for what’s going to happen next, when that is something we were expecting out of every episode this season. While the cinematography still feels like an aesthetic painting coming to life, the story sure had its misses and loose ends and that explains why Blackpink’s Lisa was used to promote the show even though she had so little to do as Mook.

Was this Mike White’s best rodeo so far? Absolutely not! But will I be eagerly waiting for him to introduce the next set of crazies in a whole new part of the world? One hundred percent! 

The White Lotus season 3 is currently streaming on JioHotstar!

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