TV Review: "The White Lotus" (Season 3)

Though slightly overstuffed and drawn out, the third season of the HBO dark comedy still has some meaningful things to say about mid-life female friendship and wounded masculinity.

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Warning: Spoilers for the series follow.

It’s finally happened: our most recent sojourn in the White Lotus hotel has concluded, leaving several characters dead, while the rest have, hopefully, learned something important about themselves. In the end, it was tortured and rather pathetic Rick who ended up being one of the bodies floating in the still waters of the resort, along with his girlfriend Chelsea, who was collateral damage in his insatiable quest for vengeance against the man who killed his father. I must admit that I didn’t see this coming but, overall, I liked this twist, even if it wasn’t quite as devastating as Tanya’s death in the previous season.

I’ll be upfront in this review. I wasn’t this season’s biggest fan. Having adored seasons one and two, I had high hopes going into this third outing, but I found it at times to be a bit of a drag. While the show has always been a slow burn, this was arguably more bearable and less wearisome when, as in the first season, it was only six episodes. The second was quite juicy, though it too felt a bit stretched at times (thanks to being seven episodes). Now, it’s been upped to eight, and I’m frankly just not convinced that there was enough story to feel like those eight are deserved. Series creator’s Mike White’s pithy remarks about “edging” notwithstanding, I think that in a show like this one less is more. There’s nothing quite as tragic as a show entering its baroque period, so involved in its own navel-gazing and excesses that it loses the bite that gave it such an appeal. I think it’s safe to say that The White Lotus is now in that period, and it remains to be seen whether the already-announced fourth season will pull it out.

Be that as it may, the last two episodes managed to redeem this season, though I still feel that some storylines lacked White’s signature punchiness. I found this to be particularly true with the various dramas revolving around the Ratliffs, with patriarch Timothy’s money woes so drawn out that I almost looked forward to his attempt to poison his entire family, if only because that, at least, would give the story some much-needed oomph. (This isn’t a ding on Jason Isaacs, mind you, but a criticism of the writing and the season’s pacing.)

Of course, The White Lotus ends up pulling its punch in this regard, first when Timothy dashes the glasses of poisoned piña coladas out of his family’s hand and then, again, when Lachlan manages to survive ingesting the poison. I will say, though, that I was very glad that our dear Lochy didn’t end up dying, though his survival instincts are clearly quite dull, given the fact that he drinks out of a used blender. He ends this season a somewhat chastened demon twink, but a demon twink all the same (more on that in a moment).

Despite my disappointment with the Ratliff storyline, I will say that Parker Posey is nothing short of a delight. Among other things, watching her adopt that absolutely daffy (though apparently quite accurate!) Southern accent has been one of the highlights of my TV viewing these past two months. The White Lotus has always had a keen eye for the sublimely ridiculous, and there are few actresses working today who can so effortlessly capture the absurdity of a certain kind of upper-middle-class individual quite like Posey. Of all of the characters that we meet this season, she’s the one who comes closest to capturing that unique magic that drew so many of us to the first two seasons. And the look of absolute glee on her face when daughter Piper finally admits that perhaps Buddhism isn’t for her is itself worthy of an Emmy.

Even more delightful, to me, was the reconciliation between friends Kate, Laurie, and Jaclyn. They’ve been very much at odds throughout the season, whispering behind one another’s backs and offering barbed commentary about one another’s life choices, and I’ll admit that their storyline has been by far my favorite to watch. Is this kumbaya moment a little contrived? Sure. Does it also feel a bit unauthentic? Also sure. But the thing is that that is how middle-aged friends, particularly women, engage with one another. When it comes right down to it, though, I’m just happy that these three have finally found a way back to one another. Their friendship might never be quite the same as it was before they embarked on this whole adventure, but at least they know that there are few things that they can’t do. And a lot of credit goes to Bibb, Coon, and Monaghan, all of whom have brought their A-game this season and excavated the troubling depths and contradictions and delusions of upper-middle-class white womanhood.

As much as it featured some memorable female characters, thematically this season of The White Lotus was, even more than its predecessors, very much about aggrieved, wounded, and sometimes downright psychopathic white masculinity. After all, the entire motivation for Rick’s revenge plot against his father is because he feels he’s been denied the life that, as a man, he deserves. It’s fitting, then, that he ends up killing his father, not realizing until it’s too late that this is what he’s doing (though the twist was great, its delivery felt rushed and rang rather hollow). It’s also fitting, if devastating, that poor dear Chelsea–in many ways an innocent–was caught in the crossfire, her life sacrificed on the altar of her lover’s unquenchable desire to destroy the man he (rightly or wrongly) blamed for the many disappointments of his own life.

Indeed, every man in this season struggled to find their sense of self. Timothy was left adrift by the collapse of his embezzlement scheme, while his sons Lochlan and Saxon were locked together in a troubling paradigm of hero worship and incestuous desire (though the former frames this as his desire to please). Gary (according to his girlfriend) has mommy and daddy issues that he struggles to resolve, and poor Gaitok finds his religious scruples questioned and undermined by his love interest Mook, who seems to have no interest in him unless he’s doing something violent and dangerous. Their fortunes vary in the end, but one gets the sense that none of them are ever going to be entirely happy or satisfied with the wages of manhood. In this regard, Sam Rockwell gives the performance that steals the show and that I think is arguably the best in the entire season. His little monologue about sexual desire and its polymorphousness is surely one of the best that this show has ever produced even if, in the end, he ends up returning to a more subdued life.

Unfortunately, the season’s emphasis on masculinity and its many wounds–most of which, it’s worth pointing out, are self-inflicted–means that some characters end up getting short-shrift. Natasha Rothwell’s Belinda is one of these, and her doing to Pornchai what Tanya did to her is a bit jarring and feels dishonest to her character. Furthermore, given that Gary was willing to hire a band of dissolute homosexuals to do away with his wife, it does strain credulity a bit to think that he would leave this loose end hanging out there.

Overall, though, I thought the finale was quite good. I found myself riveted by what was on the screen, far more than I had been up to that point and, as other critics have noted, there is something quite Shakespearean about the way in which it all shakes out. When it comes down to it, even when it’s frustrating, The White Lotus still makes for entertaining TV. Given just how many lackluster shows there are out there, this is quite an accomplishment, and I’ll definitely be checking in for season four.