Ronit J

The White Lotus Season 3 Synopsis:

As a new round of guests arrives at The White Lotus Thailand, Belinda settles in, Chelsea deals with a moody Rick, the Ratliffs go separate ways, and Kate, Laurie and Jaclyn kick off a girls’ trip.

The White Lotus Season 3 Review:

The White Lotus Season 1 was a prime example of ‘Eat the Rich’. The dark humour combined with its cast of complex characters made it an entertaining and compelling watch. Season 2 didn’t feel as novel, but still scratched the right itch. Season 3, however ended up being a slog. Unlike the showrunners of Season 3, I’m getting straight to the point and saying: What a disappointing mess of a season this was.

I’ll just quickly brush over the good because the good isn’t something that’s expected of a show of this scale and calibre. The cinematography is top-notch. Ranging from a picturesque travel documentary, to a darkly unsettling drama, if there’s one thing the White Lotus does right it’s capturing the complexity of humans visually and atmospherically. Throw these prim and proper people with rotting personalities in grandiose settings, and watch the drama unfold. Eerie music accompanies our roster of characters throughout, their situations growing tense by the minute until it finally explodes in a high-octane emotional finale.

Sadly, all this still doesn’t excuse the massive slog that his season was. And there are two primary reasons for it.

The Beige Lotus?

I tweeted about my frustrations of this season, and someone commented how this is actually the ‘Beige Lotus’. That moniker got me wondering— has the formula gone stale? When Season 1 aired, the ‘Eat the Rich’ genre wasn’t quite as popular. Maybe that’s what made it so novel. Season 2 still managed to captivate with its characters despite the novelty fading away. But Season 3? I genuinely think it’s failed to capture the twisted beauty of the first two seasons.

Maybe the writers are running out of ideas. Maybe there’s so much of Eat the Rich content out there (The Menu, Triangle of Sadness, Saltburn), that White Lotus doesn’t feel like the top dog of the genre anymore. Or maybe they’ve grown too comfortable after the success of the first two seasons. You can’t just throw artsy-seeming stuff at the viewers and expect them to laud you. You aren’t a brainwashing cult or political party.

Season 3 has more of the same from the previous entries. Rich people being assholes. Privileged, entitled pricks unaware of how good they have it, coupled with people who want to do the right thing but decide to be pragmatic instead. It’s not as surprising or shocking anymore. Even the Thailand setting with Rick’s desire for revenge and Timothy’s coping with fraud charges didn’t make the season as good as it could have been.

Uninteresting Characters with No Real Depth

It was around episode 5-6 of the season that I realised—these characters haven’t really shown us anything new. The Ratliffs are reminiscent of Mossbachers from season 1. Except for Timothy’s involvement in massive financial fraud, there’s nothing that really develops throughout the season. Saxon is a perverted jerk and remains so until the last 2 episodes, where he’s just a perverted jerk with maybe an iota of caution. Lochlan remains the submissive, mild-mannered younger sibling, and Piper’s motivation throughout this season took way too long to reveal itself.

The same is true for the other characters. Jaclyn, Laurie and Kate are pretty immediately shown to be close friends that easily bitch behind each others backs, and that’s it. No newer depths, nothing. Just variations of what we saw in the beginning. Walton Goggin’s Rick was the only character I genuinely cared for because his story seemed to develop in each episode. But, that doesn’t mean it was the best kind of story either.

Belinda’s return along with Greg’s appearance could have served a better narrative purpose, but no. The writers just had them hang out around the hotel doing mostly nothing until the plot demanded it.

You see, the characters themselves are quite interesting. But what they do, and what we learn about them remains so passive and shallow that it’s feels more like a failure of writing. Where Seasons 1 & 2 had a near-constant supply of character moments and development (positive and negative), season 3 sort of just hung out in the lazy river waiting for things to happen.

Wasted Performances

Be it Walton Goggin’s constantly irked Rick, balanced by Aimee Lou Wood’s bubbly Chelsea, or the three friends played by Michelle Monaghan, Leslie Bibb and Carrie Coon, or even Natasha Rothwell’s tensed up Belinda, almost every performance in the show is noteworthy. Parker Posey as the annoyingly anal and sort of loopy Victoria Ratliff demanding her Lorazepam has rightfully become a meme. I genuinely feel like Patrick Schwarzenegger as Saxon Ratliff deserves an award.

But, what was the point? These great performances serve nothing.

Tayme Thapthimthong as Gaitok could have been this season’s Armand or Valentina. Instead, the writers made him such an annoyingly passive and inept character, his performance as the kindhearted security guard with a crush on Mook feels wasted. And you get Lalisa Manobal (from BlackPink), arguably one of the world’s most popular faces in her acting debut, and this is what you do with her? I don’t listen to BlackPink, but seeing Mook in The White Lotus made me believe that she can act. The writers just did them both dirty.

Lastly, I just want to add that Fabian too was an interesting addition, but the writers refused to use him in ways to make the season more complex. All this is just so frustrating!

The White Lotus Season 3 Finale Explained | Ending Explained

In an absolute mess of a climax, multiple people die. Belinda and Zion manage to scam Greg into giving them 5 million dollars, which obviously gets to their head. Belinda does to Pornchai what Tanya did to her, bringing her arc to a full circle. The Ratliff family are on their home without any major change. Of course, they will have to deal with Tim’s fraud, but we won’t learn of their ultimate fate. The three friends—Laurie, Kate and Jaclyn—have made up in what I believe was an emotional moment of reinforced fakeness.

Chloe finds someone to help fulfil Greg’s fantasy. Gaitok and Mook get together finally, because Gaitok kills someone. Who? Gaitok—in an uninspired, plot-convenient scene—shoots and kills Rick. Why? Because Rick, in a rage-fuelled moment of weakness shoots Jim, only for Sritala to reveal that Jim was Rick’s real father. Chelsea dies from a gunshot in the middle of the chaos, and Rick dies because Gaitok shoots him.

If I’m being honest, this entire episode felt completely unearned and messy. Like a very early draft that nobody bothered to reflect upon. After the beautiful finales of the first two seasons, White Lotus Season 3 was a total letdown.

The White Lotus Season 3 Worth Watching?

No. Unless you are in favour of a second-screen friendly watch, the show running in the background while doing other stuff, The White Lotus Season 3 was a painful slog. Watch if you have nothing else to binge on, but in today’s day and age, I doubt you don’t have at least 10 other shows lined up in your watchlist.

In Conclusion:

The White Lotus Season 3 was everything that we expected of a show that tries to be as good as the White Lotus but fails miserably. Amazing performances. Amazing cinematography. But, an unfortunately indulgent and below-average writing. There. I said it.

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What did you think of my White Lotus Season 3 Review? Any other show/movie/book you would like me to review? Let me know in the comments below!

Until next time.