The White Lotus is returning without its MVG – Most Valuable Guest – Jennifer Coolidge’s grotesque heiress Tanya McQuoid. As you may remember, she fell from a yacht in the season two finale after taking out three “high-end gays” who were trying to kill her. But cleverly, the show’s writer-director Mike White has kept her memory alive by bringing back Belinda (Natasha Rothwell), the ambitious spa manager Tanya bonded with in season one.
Belinda is now on secondment at The White Lotus‘ typically lavish resort in Thailand, where fellow therapist Pornchai (Dom Hetrakul) shows her the ropes and, well, a little more than she anticipated. The show’s new locale is just as beautiful as season one’s Hawaii and season two’s Sicily, but the atmosphere feels even more charged. “Some people here have colourful pasts. It’s really not wise to stir things up,” Belinda is warned by her oddball boss Fabian (Christian Friedel).
The season begins with a meditation session – one not involving Belinda – being interrupted by gunfire. It then spools back to a week earlier, when the latest batch of hotel guests arrive by boat. As ever, they’re rich white people with even more baggage than designer luggage. There’s a genteel Southern family with a stressed patriarch (Jason Isaacs), a pill-popping matriarch (Parker Posey), and three kids dealing with various forms of sexual repression. Eldest son Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) initially seems similar to Theo James’ finance bro from season two, but it soon emerges that he’s weirder and even more of a douchebag.
Equally intriguing are three female friends whose interactions seem deliciously disingenuous. The wrench, perhaps, is that TV actress Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan) seems more terrified of her impending middle age than frazzled lawyer Laurie (Carrie Coon) and uptight Texan Kate (Leslie Bibb). Also checking in are enigmatic grump Rick (Walton Goggins) and his younger girlfriend Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood). White doesn’t reveal too much of the couple’s backstory. Is Chelsea drawn to a former supermodel (Charlotte Le Bon) who’s dating a difficult but rich older man because they’re both playing the same game?
Introducing so many characters means the first two episodes are slower than the subsequent firecrackers – the same pacing issue that slightly blemished seasons one and two. And though BLACKPINK star LISA (credited here as her full name Lalisa Manobal) makes her acting debut as a health mentor called Mook, she’s underused in the six episodes made available to press. At least Mook’s blossoming friendship with driven security guard Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong) provides some of the season’s sweetest moments.
A little sweetness definitely helps to balance out the prevailing saltiness. As the season progresses, the sneaky intricacy of White’s plotting begins to yield surreal, shocking and genuinely hilarious moments. No one can write a scene where one character pretends not to remember another quite as exquisitely as White. Tanya may be gone, but this transgressive soap opera remains unique and completely jaw-dropping.
‘The White Lotus’ season three premieres in the UK on Sky Atlantic and NOW on February 17