The White Lotus season 3 instantly made me eat my words
The White Lotus season 3 might be the most fun you'll have watching TV in 2025.
Few things in life give me more pleasure than watching Jennifer Coolidge say: ‘These gays are trying to kill me.’
The White Lotus season 2 was some of the most fun I’ve ever had watching television, and I say that as someone who defines chapters in their life by pivotal TV moments like David’s Dead or Alison Hammond pushing a topless model into the River Mersey.
Heiress Tanya McQuoid’s death by gays somehow made Coolidge an even bigger gay icon than she already was. Trying to replicate the same fun for another series of TV’s campest murder mystery seemed futile.
I should have always had more faith in Parker Posey who stars as Victoria Ratliff, season three’s new absurd matriarch filling The White Lotus’ gaping Tanya McQuoid hole.
The Ratliff family is one of four batches of new guests at The White Lotus resort in Thailand.
Victoria’s husband Timothy (Jason Isaacs) is on the brink of a nervous breakdown, the eldest of their three children Saxton (Patrick Schwarzenegger) is offensively loud and horny, a complete contrast to his awkward brother Lochlan and the family’s moral compass, their sister Piper, whose studies bring them to Thailand.
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Previous Page Next PageAt least from the first three episodes, they might be the least compelling family to watch, but they’re saved by Posey being utterly brilliant as a doped-up wealthy housewife with some tortured past bound to unravel.
Three lifelong friends Kate (Leslie Bibb), Laurie (Carrie Coon), and Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan) escape their partners for a long-overdue girls trip, celebrating their unbreakable bond.
Without giving too much away, and this is what The White Lotus does best, their dynamic is so perfectly observed, the true nature of so many long-running friendships subtly laced with so much envy and judgment.
Carrie Coon, Michelle Monaghan and Leslie Bibbstar as lifelong friends in The White Lotus season 3 (Picture: NOW)Posey might fill the Coolidge void, but Sex Education star Aimee Lou Wood is the real star of The White Lotus season 3 as Chelsea, the holistic woo-woo very girlfriend of Rick, a much older man completely disengaged with her, their hotel, and every single part of their romantic getaway.
Unperturbed, Chelsea finds a new friend who says ‘I love your teeth’ and they bond over their miserable ‘old and balding’ boyfriends.
I’ve adored Wood in Sex Education, Living, and her West End debut in Cabaret, but she has never been more special than she is in The White Lotus. No matter the role or whoever she is starring opposite, Wood is always the most compelling performer in everything she’s in even when she’s in the same show as Posey at her peak, and several Golden Globe-worthy performances.
Aimee Lou Wood is so effortlessly brilliant in The White Lotus season 3 (Picture: AP)She brings something completely different to every character she plays but they always feel so true to her – smart, sharp but a bit goofy and with buckets of charm.
And then Natasha Rothwell returns as Belinda Lindsey after skipping season two, the only thread weaving this series to the past. Clearly there’s a reason, a skeleton in a closet to discover…
Belinda Lindsey is back… (Picture: HBO)Once again, The White Lotus starts with blood spilled without revealing who has been bumped off and by whom. Anyone could be a victim and likewise anyone could be a killer.
But The White Lotus has never relied on being a Whodunnit. The impending doom from knowing that at least one hotel guest is about to meet their demise almost becomes irrelevant when the dysfunctional dynamics are so cleverly constructed by Mike White.
There’s more danger, sexual tension and fear not, social media will once again be sprawling with White Lotus memes until spring.
What was initially intended as a limited series, The White Lotus has just grown in strength and scope which I didn’t imagine possible without relying on Coolidge breaking the gay internet.
Well, almost immediately after watching season 3 I was eating my words.
Television is rarely as mischievous or audacious as The White Lotus, and despite going into its third chapter with slight trepidation, it well could be the most fun we’ll have all year.
The White Lotus is available to stream on NOW from February 17.
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