.png)
4 hours ago
1
Eight to a dozen affluent Americans, half of them hiding a dark secret as they head to a glamorous location for a luxury vacation, the other half complicating the issue by creating some dark secrets of their own. A dead body ruining everyone’s fun but increasing the audience’s exponentially. Shiny unhappy people getting their just deserts by the end of an immaculately plotted eight-hour series. Yes, my friends, we can only be back at the White Lotus.
Written and directed as ever by Mike White, this time he is taking us, his new gang and one or two familiar faces to Thailand. We have the family group, with Parker Posey (possibly Parker Poseying it slightly too much in a part that doesn’t demand as much kookiness as she brings to it) as Victoria Ratliff, a heavily medicated Southern belle and wife of wealthy businessman Timothy (Jason Isaacs). They are the parents of three children: the enjoyably appalling chip-off-the-old-block Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger – and the answer to your first question is yes, he is; the answer to the next one is, no, he’s actually very, very good); idealistic daughter Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook), who is writing her thesis about eastern religion and at whose behest they chose Thailand as their holiday location; and sweet, gentle Lochlan (Sam Nivola), who may be trying to work out how to come out as gay in a family that does not seem to accommodate much difference.
We have the odd couple, Rick (Walton Goggins) and his much younger girlfriend Chelsea (played by Aimee Lou Wood, of Sex Education fame). Goggins is in his happy place as Rick, a tortured soul fibrillating on the edge of violence and who has come to the resort seeking its owner. The reason is as yet unspecified, but if I had to choose between redemption, bloody vengeance and selling him a kitten I know which my money would be on.
And we have a trio of looser narrative cannon: three old friends reuniting for some quality time together after a few years apart. Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan) is a successful actor, Laurie (Carrie Coon) is a high-flying lawyer recovering from a recent divorce and Kate (Leslie Bibb) is a stay-at-home mom who appears to have it all, including a nice line in character assassination, depending on which of her friends is present or absent. Their dynamic – not mean girls, but not quite the ride-or-dies they think they are – is beautifully depicted.
Further out from the centre – so far – we have a tender romance blossoming between hotel security guard Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong) and “health guru” Mook (Lalisa Manoban), and possibly another between returning character Belinda (Natasha Rothwell) and another staff member, as she embarks on a research trip for her own wellness enterprise.
It all makes for a rich stew of possibilities and White adjusts the seasoning and turns up the heat with the skill of a Michelin-starred chef. What is the source of Rick’s suffering? Why is Timothy getting calls from the Wall Street Journal? Which of the friend trio is going to crack first, and how? Is there more or even less to Saxon than meets the eye? And is Piper really as anodyne as she seems? No one else in The White Lotus ever has been.
As ever, White has his eye on the wilful ignorance and hypocrisies of the US economic elite. The power dynamics around sex and class come under scrutiny once more, but this time religion is interrogated too. Specifically the western appropriation of eastern faiths and practices – you know, the good bits; the bits that can be packaged as vague “spirituality” rather than an organising principle around which to build a moral life.
That said, the last series had less satirical bite than the first – which relentlessly went after its marks and never missed a chance to skewer the unthinking arrogance or active malevolence of Americans rich enough to have distanced themselves from the herd. And, on the evidence of the first few episodes, it seems that the third series may have moved even further from the original’s MO. But the precision of the storytelling and the realisation of every character, from the most central to the most peripheral, remains masterly. Exquisitely shot, scripted, paced and performed, it’s a sumptuous feast for all the senses. Come on in, the water’s lovely – until the bodies start floating past.
