TV review
“The White Lotus,” HBO’s madcap murder-mystery anthology series from writer-director Mike White, has always been about nibbling at the wealthy rather than fully embracing being a biting “eat the rich” story. Much as his intriguing yet abundantly flawed 2017 film “Beatriz at Dinner” was about poking at various appetizers surrounding class as opposed to offering a full meal, White’s often scintillating show is about the sublimated anxieties, conflicts and, yes, murder of its ensemble of rich characters as they frolic about at destination resorts. This third season is no different as it offers up new faces — the standouts being a delightful Carrie Coon of the spectacular series “The Leftovers” and Walton Goggins of the winning recent “Fallout” — a couple of familiar ones and a new location in beautiful Thailand. In many ways, the formula provides familiar entertainment.
However, in addition to being the best season so far in how White playfully teases out the tension, it’s also the darkest as it sees him taking some bigger, often rather boldly audacious leaps to cut deeper into his characters’ psyches. Even as there were flashes of this darkness in the previous seasons (the grim peak of this being in Season 1 when one of the few “good” people sacrifices her integrity in order to gain a greater proximity to wealth), now the show is more fully taking the gloves off. Though it can feel as if White is still pulling some punches, the moments he connects show what “White Lotus” can be at its best: a dark romp as entertaining as it is slyly incisive.
This all again centers on a handful of chaotic characters. There is the trio of longtime friends Kate (Leslie Bibb), Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan) and Laurie (Coon) — outwardly kind but delivering gleefully barbed rhetorical daggers about each other. Also in the mix is the odd couple of Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) and Rick (Goggins), who are there as the latter brought them to Thailand for painful personal reasons. Then there’s the family of Timothy (Jason Isaacs), Victoria (Parker Posey), Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger), Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook) and Lochlan (Sam Nivola), who are perpetually on the cusp of being consumed by a self-inflicted crisis surrounding the patriarch. The staff this time around includes an excellent Natasha Rothwell returning as Belinda and the terrific newcomer Tayme Thapthimthong as the overwhelmed security guard Gaitok, who get wrapped up in their wealthy guests’ chaos.
All of the show’s players are excellent as — save for a couple of iffy accents and Schwarzenegger (yes, son of Arnold) proving to be out of his depth in a way that only partly works in the context of his character’s arrogant yet fragile persona — we can feel just how lost all of the characters are. The rich try to cover this up with their absurd wealth, but there is no fully hiding from the emptiness in their souls that, of course, they make everyone else’s problem. In every moment when Coon’s character goes from weeping over her wine to laying into her supposed friend or when we witness the growing sadness in Goggins’ eyes as he takes steps toward what could be a drastic act, it’s all about observing how, for all the money they have, the ensemble are united by how miserable they are.
This is hardly a new or radical storytelling idea, with White making this a central component of his previous seasons, but it is in this third one where his exploration of it proves most thoughtfully executed. While he again plays around with ideas about desire and power in frequently hilarious fashion, this one is also potently about the perils of being in the proximity of a bunch of wealthy people trying to find meaning in lives that have otherwise been stripped of it. The only guarantee in “White Lotus” is that, after all those who survive depart back to their empty lives, a new boat will always bring some more.