On paper, this is the best season yet for “The White Lotus.”
The Max drama keeps piling on viewers, with the penultimate episode drawing a series-best 4.2 million viewers. That’s on top of the third season’s massive social media reach.
Fans can’t stop talking about the “incest” episode, that MAGA moment and guest star Sam Rockwell’s episode 5 monologue.
We’ve never seen the Oscar winner quite like that before (…maybe that’s for the best).
There’s still one nagging problem. The new episodes are a far cry from the previous, stellar seasons.
It’s not even close.
Some story spoilers ahead
Season 3, which wraps on April 6, follows another group of rich, entitled souls vacationing in paradise. This time, “paradise” means the gorgeous jungles of Thailand.
Even the show’s harshest critics must admit the series looks magnificent.
Most of the new characters are detestable on the surface. Take Jason Isaacs’ patriarch, a gent who learns he’ll be heading to jail for his corporate misdeeds.
It’s hard to feel sorry for him as he keeps the news from his family and glowers in every scene. He also swipes medication from his clueless wife (the great Parker Posey) to numb his pain.
Their eldest son Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) has had seven episodes to show a flicker of a soul, yet we’re still left waiting for something, anything resembling it. The other grown children are either blandly entitled (Sarah Catherine Hook) or just, well, bland (Sam Nivola).
The less said about the southern family’s meandering accents, the better.
A trio of 40-something friends (Michelle Monaghan, Carrie Coon and Leslie Bibb) proved annoying from the jump. Their selfish actions have only made them less endearing over time.
There’s more to the ensemble, including Rick (Walton Goggins) as a sad sack who inexplicably attracted a sugary sweet galpal (Aimee Lou Wood).
Does it matter?
The new season lacks purpose and perspective. Yes, we’re meant to savor how the elites can’t enjoy their privilege, but the best episodes shared some empathy for the characters in question.
This time? Not so much.
We’re left with the show’s spiky soundtrack, a sonic bed that demands something to punch up. “The White Lotus” looks and sounds as good as any show on TV.
That’s not enough.
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Last week’s Episode 7 started to fill in some blanks, but that stultifying air hasn’t faded away. Even when the plot starts to simmer “The White Lotus” feels weighed down and defeated.
Some scenes are beneath the considerable talents of writer/director Mike White. Take Rick’s encounter with the man who changed the course of his life. We’ve been waiting for this moment, yet the setup is so poorly written it takes the sting out of it.
Rockwell’s character pretends to be a major film director as part of Rick’s scheme to get his nemesis alone, but neither he nor Rick prepared for the obvious questions heading their way.
Rick is many things, but dumb isn’t one of them.
Too many scenes go on longer than necessary, leaving us waiting for something profound, or just darkly comic, to occur. We come up empty time and again.
We’re finally seeing some tension among the friend trio, but even these late developments haven’t been smartly rendered.
Aging. Regret. Jealousy. Competition. Failure. Parenthood.
We can think of a dozen ways to take this part of the series. White and co. are content to make them flirt and fuss without much insight.
Another sagging plot follows a Thai security guard (Tayme Thapthimthong) and his efforts to woo a co-worker. It’s the flabbiest part of Season 3.
Let’s revisit that “incest” moment. The writing hasn’t been sharp enough to explain the scene between Saxon and young Lochlan (Nivola). It added nothing to the show save a “gotcha” social media moment.
“The White Lotus,” up until now, has been better than that.
We’re told there’s a sizable payoff coming, but we’ve lost faith in what “The White Lotus” can muster.
“The White Lotus” incest kiss is “not just for shock” value.
“Mike is brilliant, and I think those big story turns are not just for shock. There’s a specific reason in terms of the narrative storytelling, and the larger thematic idea Mike is trying to get across. As the season… pic.twitter.com/EeU1LOMgkB
— Variety (@Variety) March 17, 2025
White deserves credit for that Trump voter confession. It’s not shocking to see it given past installments. The first two seasons showed he isn’t shackled by woke restrictions. In fact, he often presents progressive groupthink before deconstructing it.
There’s little of that this time around.
Now, all that’s left is to learn who died in the show’s opening moments. “The White Lotus” formula always starts with a dead body and works backward.
It’s a startling premise and one that hooks us from the jump. This season? The revelation may be greeted with a shrug.
“The White Lotus” airs at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and Max, its streaming site.
The post ‘The White Lotus’ Review: A Season Full of Missed Opportunities appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.
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