Expert’s Rating
Our Verdict
Season three of the White Lotus steps away from the soapy farce of season two and strikes a new, murkier tone. It’s as watchable as ever, with a brilliant new cast, but the comedy is even darker and more unsettling.
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At this point in history, there’s nothing more wholesome and comforting than watching wealthy people fail to have a good time. And that’s one of the reasons The White Lotus first caught the zeitgeist, and one of the reasons we all keep tuning in, no doubt with our shrinkflated snacks to hand.
Spoilers for seasons one and two of The White Lotus follow.
Another reason is its clever take on the whodunnit format: not only are we guessing who did it, but also who got done.
In the opening scene of each season, an as-yet-unidentified corpse surfaces, and the narrative rewinds a week, with a fresh party of VIP holidaymakers arriving by boat to a White Lotus resort. Season one took place in Maui, season two in Sicily, and season three is set in Thailand (quite how The White Lotus chain keeps its pristine reputation alongside its rising body count is another type of mystery.)
Fabio Lovino/HBO
Season three doesn’t alter the murder mystery format, with a dead body bobbing into view in the opening minutes, but instead of disrupting the usual, hedonistic beach vacation, a hail of gunfire disturbs a peaceful meditation session – and the corpse may be just one of several victims of a shooting spree.
It’s an unsettling start. And it signals a tonal shift from the shenanigans of the first two seasons to something a little more murky and contemplative: many of the guests have come to The White Lotus Thailand in search of something other than a good time.
Episode one has a doozy of a twist to hook you in, and every episode afterwards delivers at least one genuine jolt to the system.
Perhaps this darker tone is what we should have expected. As season two of the show was wrapping, creator Mike White discussed its themes: “The first season kind of highlighted money, and then the second season is sex. I think the third season would be maybe a satirical and funny look at death and Eastern religion and spirituality” (via Variety).
In the first two seasons, conflict came out of absurdity: in season one, an escalating argument over a guest’s right to have the suite he booked – whether or not it was better than the one he was given – led to an accidental killing, while season two’s deaths hung on a ludicrously over-the-top, yacht-based murder plot.
But in season three, conflict has more serious roots: it’s baked into the group dynamics.
As usual, there are three groups of guests on the VIP boat. There’s a conservative Southern family whose values are about to be challenged in just about every way possible, a group of three childhood friends who now live variously in New York, LA and Texas and embody the political views of those places, and a couple whose ways of seeing the world don’t seem to overlap at all – he’s a bad-tempered pragmatist and she’s a happy-go-lucky believer in astrology.
Fabio Lovino/HBO
It’s just a question of who’s going to unravel in the most spectacular style.
If you were hoping for a return to the high camp and soap opera-style theatrics of season two, and are suffering from Jennifer Coolidge withdrawal, you might find yourself a little disappointed by what feels like a quieter start to the season, with the freshly introduced guests seeming more brittle and less amiable than any group so far.
But hang in there – because episode one has a doozy of a twist to hook you in, and every episode afterwards delivers at least one genuine jolt to the system. I don’t want to spoil the surprises, but this season is crammed full of guns, pills, snakes, breakdowns and full-moon parties.
The brilliant cast is always one of The White Lotus’s biggest draws and this season doesn’t disappoint. But don’t expect anything like the manic energy of resort manager Armond (Murray Bartlett) or the chaotic befuddlement of Tanya McQuoid (Jennifer Coolidge, who stole the show and bagged two Emmys) to buoy the atmosphere.
Most bet on Parker Posey to fulfil this role. And while she is languidly hilarious (there’s no busy bee-style intensity), her storyline is itself an ensemble piece, within the larger ensemble cast. Instead, there’s a focus on slow-burn arcs with characters you might take a while to warm up to.
The standout performances are primarily dramatic, or at least blackly comic, most notably from Walton Goggins (perhaps not the first actor who comes to mind when you consider the archetypal White Lotus cast member, and all the better for it) and Jason Isaacs.
Meanwhile, Natasha Rothwell, who was thoroughly disappointed by a wealthy potential benefactor in season one returns for a much richer part this time around, in a role that’s both the warm heart of the series and its key plot driver.
HBO
The show is still as funny as ever, but this time time around, things are more intense; so much so that the storyline about the increasingly spiteful relationship between three childhood friends, played by Michelle Monaghan, Carrie Coon and Leslie Bibb, begins to feel a little lightweight by comparison. But perhaps that’s just because that arc hasn’t yet paid off: we’ve only been able to preview the first six episodes of an eight-episode season.
Should you watch The White Lotus season 3?
Season three confirms that the The White Lotus is still one of the best things on TV – but it might not be what you expected.
There are always a dozen shows clamouring for your attention at any given time, and often, as series get into their third or fourth season, there’s less of a compelling reason to tune in.
Perhaps that’s why Mike White has shifted away from the tone he established in previous seasons: it was done, and done perfectly, and there was no need to rehash it.
Just as the season one gave us the boost we needed during the pandemic, the darker season 3 is fresh, must-see TV that feels right for its time. Recommended.
Mike White’s series debuts on Sunday 16 February in the US, and the following day in the UK. You can watch The White Lotus on Max and HBO in the US. UK readers can watch The White Lotus via the Now website and on Sky Atlantic.
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