There’s never been a more timely moment for a satire in which privileged American idiots wreak havoc abroad. But then that’s always been the driving concept behind the White Lotus (Sky Atlantic, Monday, 9pm) – the surprise pandemic hit greenlit in early 2020 because HBO needed a show that could be made cheaply and quickly under lockdown conditions.
In season three, our cast of rich idiots have descended on a Thai wellness retreat run by – but of course – the White Lotus resort chain. As is now the tradition, the vacationers are a uniformly ghastly bunch (the local employees are generally depicted more sympathetically). And while a central mystery once again drives the action, the true objective is to lay bare the spiritual ugliness of the characters.
Three years in, this eat-the-rich franchise has settled into a groove and isn’t above repeating itself. So no, the White Lotus is no longer a breath of fresh air – but it does one thing very well in eviscerating the vanities of the ugly side of some Americans. Viewers who’ve checked in for more of what they like will be thrilled.
There is one carry-over character from series one – White Lotus Hawaii employs Belinda (Natasha Rothwell), who has come to Thailand to pick up wellness tips (and presumably recover from the violence that rocked the Hawaii hotel in season one). Otherwise, it’s new nincompoops from floor to ceiling. They include an entitled family led by Jason Isaacs’ Timothy, a clownish North Carolina entrepreneur whose business interests have attracted the attention of a Wall Street Journal reporter.
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His wife, Victoria, is played by a much-too-quirky Parker Posey, who seems to have wandered from an annoying 1990s indie movie we’ve all agreed to forget. Then there’s the sleazy frat-bro eldest child, Saxon, portrayed by Patrick Schwarzenegger, son of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver (a Kennedy on his mother’s side, he imbues Saxon with vacuous Hyannis Port swagger).
Elsewhere, Michelle Monaghan’s Jaclyn is a TV star who has treated her two besties from back in the day (Leslie Bibb and Carrie Coon) to a free holiday. Walton Goggins plays Rick, a middle-aged grump whose much younger girlfriend, Chelsea (Sex Education’s Aimee Lou Wood), has her plans for top-level chillaxing waylaid by her partner’s supreme grouchiness – and his obsession with making contact with the wealthy husband of the retreat’s owner.
The upstairs-downstairs tradition of the show is upheld too. We meet security guard Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong), desperately attempting to woo butter-wouldn’t-melt “health guru” Mook (Lalisa Manoban – aka Lisa from K-Pop mega group Blackpink).
Writer Mike White’s biggest departure is to start not with the discovery of a body but with a mass shooting. As a guest and his wellness coach meditate, the silence is punctuated by gunfire. Holidaymakers flee, screams fill the air – and then we rewind to the previous week and the arrival of the American guests. The board has been set, the drawingroom mystery has begun.
The season functions in part as a commentary on the wellness industry, though White pulls his punches – presumably for fear of offending Southeast Asian traditions (the currency of this White Lotus outpost is essentially monetised Buddhism).
Its bigger argument is that some Americans abroad are the worst – loud-mouthed, insensitive to local customs and reliably obnoxious. That idea is hardly original, even before the White Lotus debuted in 2020. But cometh the hour cometh the age-of-Trump satire and, in the light of ongoing events, the series has its finger on the pulse to an almost excruciating degree.
