'The White Lotus' Season 3 Falls Flat Without Jennifer Coolidge
A vacationer sits quietly in meditation, surrounded by exotic scenery. Then there’s a gunshot - chaos- and then a dead body slowly floats in on the tide. Welcome back to 'The White Lotus'.
Mike White’s hit TV series set in the fictional resort chain The White Lotus has returned for a third season, this time abandoning the shores of Hawaii and Sicily for the jungles of Thailand.
Season 3 follows the same formula we’ve seen before, with a body on the beach and a diverse cast of characters with dubious motives. But going into this season of The White Lotus, everyone is asking the same question: Can The White Lotus survive as a show without the dynamic Jennifer Coolidge leading the helm?
The White Lotus’s Strength Remains Its Ensemble Casts
One of the great strengths of the first two seasons of The White Lotus was its ability to draw together experienced actors with strong television resumes and just enough upcoming talent to make things fresh. Pros like Connie Britton and Steve Zahn, Aubrey Plaza and Tom Hollander, have anchored White’s slow-burn dark comedies.
Did anybody else forget that season 1 of The White Lotus gave us Sydney Sweeney as a petulant teenager right before she hit superstardom? Or how could we forget that Leo Woodall, the dreamy star of One Day, shot into the public eye during his role as the mysterious Jack during season 2? White and his production team have an uncanny ability to find upcoming stars and use them to invigorate plots which could otherwise seem overdone and flat.
White’s ability to cast a strong ensemble cast remains in this third season of The White Lotus, and it makes the two episodes released so far well worth the watch. While it’s never surprising to have strong performances from pros like Jason Isaacs and Michelle Monaghan, some of the newer faces are the most impressive in this season so far. Patrick Schwarzenegger seems to be having the time of his life playing a perfectly despicable and sex-obsessed eldest son of the Ratcliff clan, Saxon. Especially impressive is the performance of Lalisa Manobal (more commonly known as Lisa, star of Korean girl group Blackpink) who brings an irresistible charm to the resort worker Mook.