It was around the second or third episode of the new season of The White Lotus — you know how time gloops mid-holiday — that I began to feel a little, hm, what’s the word? Brainless. Not exactly brain-dead, because show creator Mike White’s ear for dig-laden dialogue is still intact and his eye for relationship dynamics remains clear, but I was just completely… without brain.
The series, which as you probably know is set in a high-end hotel and revolves around a mix of privileged and less privileged, awful and slightly less awful characters, now moves along so smoothly, exists with such little friction that you too feel like a guest of this resort, eavesdropping and judging poolside, mojito in hand, motivation at a sub-zero level and a brain that has, three sips ago, completely shut off.
Fine, even desirable, for a holiday, but what do you want out of a television show?
White has taken us, presumably by business class, to Thailand for this season. It’s a smart, if obvious, setting: good light, scandalous beach parties, plenty of intrigue for woo-woo Westerners.
Assembled here we have television star television star Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan), on a girls trip with her school friends, Texan housewife Kate (Leslie Bibb) and single mum lawyer Laurie (Carrie Coon). This season’s family are the Ratliffs: financier dad Timothy (Jason Isaacs) and snobbish wife Victoria (Parker Posey), and their three children. Charlotte Le Bon plays a beautiful French woman with a brutish partner, while Aimee Lou Wood plays a spiritual Brit with a brooding partner (played by Fallout’s whackadoodle Walton Goggins). Blackpink’s Lisa plays a member of staff Mook; her love interest is one of the hotel’s security guards Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong).
The Ratliffs, with their parental pressures and variously rebellious children, may remind you of the first season’s Mossbacher clan (which featured the terrifying eldest daughter played by Sydney Sweeney). It’s daughter Hunter who is infuriating her conservative (small and big c) parents with her interest in Buddhist monasteries, while daddy Timothy is spinning out in a work crisis. Le Bon and Wood’s gal pals hit similar beats to last year’s hotel escorts: fun and frequently the smartest people there.
Meanwhile the Jaclyn/Kate/Laurie trio swiftly resort back to their school age tensions (one of them gets the boys, the other didn’t), a dynamic which plays out in an occasionally funny if very recognisable way. In the six episodes I have watched (there are eight in total), I rarely felt surprised (except for one eye-popping, excellent storyline, which to give White his credit, I can’t recall seeing on-screen before: spoiler warnings prevent me from going further).
In each season, White has turned his off-beat eye to a different theme: the first, set in Hawaii, looked at financial disparity among the hotel’s guests and staff (though was frequently most intriguing when it explored the inequality among the guests themselves); the second, this time in Italy, was a sweaty close-up on sexual dynamics. It was raunchier, more dangerous, a little vulgar, and all better for it.
Throughout those seasons, it has never been clear to me why The White Lotus is categorised as a satire; White’s talent is bringing us a few interesting people, giving them a convincing dynamic, and then fucking that up over a week. I’m certainly thankful that there’s not too much analysis of ignorant Americans’ view of Eastern religion or culture – the unfamiliarity is mostly played for a few jokes – but it is hard to see exactly what the point of this season is. White has something funny to say about family and friendship and male fragility, but nothing feels particularly urgent, especially in comparison with the stand-out second season.
The pace is fun, particularly in the first few episodes: there’s a woozy, unstructured vibe which was present in earlier season and comes into its own here. The performances are good across the board, especially the more desperate ones: I liked Isaacs and Goggins as men-on-the-verge, and it is hard to complain when Parker Posey is on your television screen. Many of the observations — about phones or plastic surgery or protein powder — feel very true-to-life (something you may find that comforting or confrontational, or both).
White has a background in reality television, which you will know if you have read anything about him or The White Lotus. He has participated as a contestant on desert-island series Survivor as well as globetrotting competition The Amazing Race: he regularly discusses the impact of these shows on this series. You see it in the relationships among the guests and the staff, and how they change over a week: they strengthen, and sour, and reach breaking point. That interplay has served White well so far, though you may begin to wonder, like a contestant on a tired reality show, whether the format is getting a little predictable. Nice beaches, though.
