Starring: Leslie Bibb, Carrie Coon and Walton Goggins
Rated: TV-MA
Running Time: 514 minutes
HBO
TV Show Score: 3 out of 5 Stars
DVD Score: 4 out of 5 Stars
If you haven’t heard of “The White Lotus,” you might be missing out on HBO’s most bizarre, sexually charged, and darkly comical series. Each season drops us into the lives of the wildly privileged—wannabe elites, crumbling rich families, emotionally wrecked resort staff, and characters drowning in their own flaws and contradictions.
Season 3 trades Sicily for Thailand and introduces a trio of longtime girlfriends: one more successful than the rest, one trying to balance motherhood, and one a high-powered attorney who’s quietly falling apart. Along for the ride is a mysterious older man and his too-young trophy girlfriend, whose presence unspools much of this season’s mystery. Then there’s the Ratliff family, each member on a personal quest that has nothing to do with togetherness and everything to do with selfishness.
As someone who lives in the lower-to-average-middle-class tax bracket, part of “The White Lotus’” charm is watching these rich folks stew in their own dysfunction. It’s almost cathartic. You root for the underpaid hotel workers. You laugh at the cluelessness of the elite. And you brace for the inevitable disaster.
Season 3 spices things up by introducing Eastern religion and cultural taboos, especially in how Western characters bump up against a society with very different ideas about sex, spirituality, and self-control. It’s a bold thematic shift, and for the most part, it works.
What doesn’t work as well is the landing. While prior seasons stuck the finale, this one stumbles. Thematically, it’s all there—class struggle, spiritual unraveling, absurdist satire—but the final note just doesn’t ring as loudly or as cleverly. And that’s a shame, because the setup is stellar.
Still, there’s plenty to enjoy: the sharp performances (Parker Posey, Walton Goggins, Sam Rockwell, and Natasha Rothwell all shine), the biting dialogue, and Mike White’s knack for satire. But White may want to rethink how he closes out Season 4 because Season 3 fizzles more than it should.
DVD Features
Unpacking the Episodes
Invitation to Set: Welcome to Thailand
Get to Know
Thai Tea
Closet Tour