by Jeff Alan, Contributing Writer
The White Lotus returns with another season of intense character work, dark comedy, rich cinematography of a tropical destination, and – you guessed it – a death teased playfully and expertly. The cast is stacked with a collection of big-name actors like Jason Isaacs, Parker Posey, Michelle Monaghan, Walton Goggins, Carrie Coon, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Leslie Bibb, Aimee Lou Wood, Natasha Rothwell, Sarah Cathrine Hook, Sam Nivola, Tayme Thapthimthong, and Lalisa Manobal, all of which intertwine and break apart perfectly throughout the season.
The season follows five main stories throughout a week at the famous White Lotus resort in Thailand. The first group is the North Carolinian Ratliff family: Timothy (Isaacs), his wife Victoria (Posey), and their children Saxon (Schwarzenegger), Piper (Hook), and Lochlan (Nivola). Piper is brought to Thailand to interview a Buddhist monk for a college thesis while the rest of the family is there to relax and indulge as part of their wealthy lifestyle, but Timothy is sent spiraling when he gets word that he is implicated in a business crime that could bring down him and his families entire fortune.
The next group to enter the resort is famous TV actress Jaclyn Lemon (Monaghan) and her two childhood best friends Kate (Bibb) and Laurie (Coon). Jaclyn and Kate who have rich lifestyles – one being an actress and one who’s Texas husband is a wealthy businessman – unintentionally start to alienate Laurie, who’s in the midst of a divorce, struggles to connect with her teenage daughter, and is passed over for a promotion at her law firm.
Also arriving with them is couple Rick (Goggins) and Chelsea (Wood), who have the most differing personalities as well as a significant age gap between them. As Chelsea tries to engage in the resort’s wellness programs, Rick seems disinterested in almost everything – including Chelsea – and seems transfixed on finding the resort owners husband, who he learns isn’t even at the resort but is recovering from an illness in Bangkok, which only annoys Rick even more. Arriving with the rest of the guests is Belinda Lindsey (Rothwell, returning from the first season) who is attending a work exchange program from the Maui location to learn more about this location’s wellness programs.
The last storyline that is followed in this season is with Gaitok (Thapthimthong): a well-meaning and polite security guard who is infatuated with fellow resort employee Mook (Manobal). However, Mook only seems to show interest in Gaitok if he expresses interest in furthering his career to something more “glamorous” like the bodyguards of the resort owner, despite Gaitok’s Buddhist outlook of non-violence.
This season has a lot of moving parts in it but doesn’t exactly feel hard to follow, with the different groups intertwining in ways that make the storylines easier to pay attention to. The biggest groups that merge are Chelsea and the two Ratliff sons Saxon and Lochlin who also meet a young Quebec woman that befriends Chelsea easy in the season and is revealed to be dating a familiar face from the previous seasons. Ultimately, those four people go on to have one of the most talked about moments on the internet of the entire season.
The biggest theme that I found that comes up throughout the season is the idea of class and wealth. We see many of the guests and even resort workers struggle with. The Ratliff family embraces their wealthy lifestyle, particularly the matriarch of the family Victoria who is often stating her need for her lavish lifestyle and even going as far as saying at one point that she can’t live without it. At the same time the daughter Piper is looking to embrace a completely different lifestyle altogether, bringing her family to Thailand for an ulterior motive than just writing a thesis. Laurie struggles with her friends in that way as well, with Kate and Jaclyn making comments to each other about the kinds of lives they have and plastic surgery they get done, calling each other beautiful only to leave Laurie standing awkwardly nearby not receiving the same comments, and even going as far as to talk about each other behind the others back about their lives. It’s very catty and “high school” of each of them to do. Even Gaitok struggles with this over the season, as he pines for Mook, but she only seems to like him if he’s on the cusp of getting a higher position or shows that he can be “brave” in his line of work. It reminds me of another high school-esque thing where a girl would only like you if you were impressive enough.
There is not much about this season that I saw as a negative or that hurt the show in any way. The writing is well executed, the camera work is by far my favorite thing to look at, and the shows use of foreshadowing throughout the season has really fun payoffs by the finale. However, if I were to give one negative to the series, it would be one aspect of the finale. Without spoiling anything, it has to do with a reveal that a character finds out right at the end that I think hurt that storyline for me. It seemed a bit unnecessary given an event that happened right before it and just felt tacked on to hold more emotional weight that I don’t think the scene or even the storyline needed. And by the time the sequence of events that follows unfolds, it’s not addressed and doesn’t ultimately matter.
The White Lotus continues to impress me with its themes, camera work, engaging characters, and I look forward to seeing more that comes out of Mike White’s award-winning series and I will be wondering until then what location will be the site of the next big death in this world.
Rating: Low Side of Loved It
The White Lotus is currently streaming on Max.
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