“The White Lotus” just finished releasing episodes for its third season, and it is safe to say that it was the best season the show has produced so far.
“The White Lotus” is an Emmy-winning anthology series created by Mike White which follows the lives of an ensemble of different guests staying at the titular worldwide luxury hotel chain. The premise of each season is simple. It revolves around one of the guests dying in the first few minutes, then the show jumping back weeks earlier to explore how the guests got to that point and which one of them died.
Season three was the best season of the show so far, hands down. The first two seasons struggled to hit the mark, each for distinct reasons. Season one was the trial run for the show. It did a little too much with the short time it had, and some plot points were given weak conclusions. Season two was simply too big. It took place in Sicily, with the White Lotus hotel being located downtown. It lacked the isolation that made the show tense, as anybody could show up and murder someone. The characters also felt disconnected from each other, as they spent a lot of time outside of the hotel. The saving grace of the first two seasons was Jenifer Coolidge’s Tonya McQuaid, who brought the right amount of eccentric, slightly over-the-top humor to the show.
However, Mike White has finally hit his writing stride with season three. This season is set in Thailand, and sticking with a plot point from season one, focuses on a wellness spa. This is what makes season three different. The rich people who come to the Thailand White Lotus aren’t just there for vacation or because they can afford it, they are there to specifically improve themselves in isolation from the outside world.
The ensemble cast of this season consists of the Ratliff family–who are at the White Lotus so their daughter can research the nearby Buddhist temple–a trio of vacationing childhood best friends, the hotel staff, a man out for revenge and his fiancé. Also returning from season one is Belinda, played by Natasha Rothwell, who ran a wellness spa at the Maui White Lotus. She is in Thailand on a business exchange.
The third season returns to the isolation of the first season’s Maui White Lotus, while still managing to include the best parts of the Sicilian White Lotus’ proximity to the city. The characters’ struggles match well with the setting of a wellness spa, as they grapple with the interplay of their complicated lives and the treatments they are trying to receive. The cinematography is gorgeous as always, with excellent shots of both rural Thailand and more populated cities like Bangkok.
What the third season does best, however, is not showing the dead body in the first few minutes of the first episode. Season one shows a body bag being loaded into a plane and tries to convince you that it is a man’s new wife. Season two has a very recognizable body wash up on the beach, which takes away from the surprise and mystery of the show. Season three, however, opens with several gunshots, leaving it unclear who died, how many people died, and how someone got a gun to the resort at all.
“The White Lotus” is currently streaming on Max. It is definitely worth a watch, especially as a nice break from finals stress.
