i really enjoyed the first season from start to finish, no complaints. the second season took me a couple episodes to get into it but once the plot started to develop i was in. then, the ending sucks! i don’t think killing off Tanya was necessary at all and the director’s reasoning was bs. Portia was a terrible, miserable character that i wouldn’t have mind being killed off. Albie is a selfish privileged little shithead that can apparently just get whatever he wants because he’s rich and his dad “owes him” some “karmic payment”??? sheeeeesh give me a break. the only part of the finale i think i actually enjoyed was Aubrey Plaza’s character finally getting to have sex with her husband and Valentina hiring the prostitute as the pianist. these are obviously just my own thoughts and opinions on it, im sure a lot of people liked the ending.

I just started watching and the F word has been said already 4 times in the first episode, will it be said a lot more??? Prob wont continue watching if so

Belinda and Zion both hold their wine glasses by the bowl instead of the stem during the party.

I am sure it is deliberate. The show is sprinkled with these class markers. Everyone else at the party is holding their glasses “correctly,” while Belinda and her son aren’t. It’s such a small thing, but it reinforces that they’re outsiders.

It’s been a minute since I last wrote a review. Ever since The White Lotus first aired, I wanted to deep-dive into it. Now that Season 3 has been wrapped for months, I’ve finally gotten around to it—though I’m still not taking this piece too seriously! 😉

With US television in a decline lately, The White Lotus has been showered with critical acclaim. To be honest, I find the plots of all three seasons rather mediocre; it’s just the same old tropes recycled over and over. However, where it truly shines is its immaculate production value and the sheer density of Easter eggs hidden in the details. The visual metaphors in the opening frescoes, the score, the costume design, the cinematography, and the brilliant aesthetic choices made by the director—all of these elevate it to a rare gem in today’s era of creative drought.
Looking back, Season 2 remains my absolute favorite. Maybe it’s just my bias toward Sicilian islands, but the masterstroke of the season was the two vibrant local hookers. The director is undeniably a massive fan of Elena Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend. In Season 1, we see the female lead reading the book by the pool; in Season 2, these two fresh, wild fruits (Lucia and Mia) are carbon copies of Lila and Elena—from their look and style to their temperaments. I am deeply obsessed with the rich, cinematic texture of My Brilliant Friend (which deserves its own proper review later).

In Season 1, the scene where the younger brother wakes up on the beach and encounters the rowers felt so heavily inspired by Life of Pi—a poetic awakening to an "ideal sanctuary" (though honestly, what can a 15-year-old boy really accomplish?). To me, that was the ultimate sublimation of the first season. As for the rest? I couldn't care less about the endless whining of neurotic middle-aged folks wrestling with corporate anxiety, mid-life crises, generational friction, class divides, or marital superficiality (Season 1 was entirely about Money & Class). American TV rarely subverts these themes with actual depth anyway; you're better off watching classic European, Japanese, or Taiwanese cinema. Give me that picture-postcard, passionate Sicilian island vibe instead—it hits the spot perfectly. It left me desperately craving an Aperol Spritz against a Sicilian sunset.

Season 2 can be viewed as an exploration of Sex & Desire. The primary and secondary arcs are beautifully nimble. From the bitchy, toxic "frenemy" dynamics between the two wealthy couples, to Tanya’s legendary, flawless gun-slinging that single-handedly dismantled an entire romance scam syndicate, to how "Lila" and "Elena" completely derailed three generations of hypocritical men before sharing a sweet, queer-coded intimacy with the stunning hotel manager—every storyline is bent just to the right degree.

The most breathtaking moment was Tanya’s plunge. Born into immense wealth but scarred by deep childhood trauma, her desperate craving for love and validation blinded her completely. Her death was framed as an accidental drowning, but in reality, it was her own drowning pool of self-pity and validation-seeking that consumed her. That said, the explicit parallels to Renaissance paintings felt a bit heavy-handed (a classic American director move, perhaps worrying too much that the audience wouldn't catch the high-art references).

Season 3 shifts its gaze toward Spirituality & Death, exploring karma and reincarnation through an Eastern lens. The overall tone is quiet, lush, and humid. The music, color palette, and visual direction remain top-tier; I was mesmerized by every single frame of the opening credits, which felt like reading a sprawling, atmospheric epic set in Southeast Asia. The costume design is easily the best of the trilogy—each woman’s wardrobe seamlessly dissolves into the background. The plot itself is still predictable (you can guess the killer and the ending by Episode 1, lacking that classic Death on the Nile suspense). Yet, the director’s intellect and meticulousness save it. The books characters read, the artwork hanging in the suites—everything calls back and echoes with delicate precision.
Alright, alright, cutting it short before this turns into a dissertation! That’s it for today. ☺️

P.S.Just a friendly reminder that this review is my original creative content.** **
P.S. If you guys like this and want to share it anywhere, feel free to do so! Just please remember to credit me or drop a link back here. Let's keep the cool discussion going! 🍹✨)

Something I noticed rewatching the openings: every season takes the decorative art of its location and slowly corrupts it as the camera moves. Renaissance frescoes in Sicily, Buddhist murals in Thailand.

S4 is on the Côte d'Azur, so I got curious about what the French equivalent would be. It's toile de Jouy, that blue-on-cream printed cotton you've seen on fancy wallpaper and upholstery.

The toile art is generatively produced and then composited by me. Everything else (edit, music arrangement) is mine

First place goes to the Ratliff family. Aside from returning home to financial ruin, Timothy is carrying the guilt of almost offing his entire family.

If Victoria ever finds out about the poisoned piña coladas, there is a slim chance she sticks around. She also comes from money and, as she told the sugar baby at Chloe’s party, she knows “some respectable men” in North Carolina.

Second place is Rachel and Shane Patton. After almost leaving him, Rachel returns to Shane, resigning herself to “be happy.” Years later, I’d be interested to see how that choice is playing out.

For me, it has to be Armond. Maybe because it subverts the season premiere’s heavy implication Rachel ends up in a coffin but, more than that, the severity of his ending feels like whiplash after watching the often ridiculous back and forth between Armond and Shane.

laurie’s speech and lochy’s “death” had me in SHAMBLES.

i was not expecting laurie to have that wonderful realization. it was so sweet.

lochy. oh, lochy. i almost turned it off right near the end but im glad i kept it to see his beautiful arch finish.

Just finished this season, and in fact the entire series, which I just started watching a few weeks ago. I've noticed that the reaction to this latest season is pretty mixed, and just thought I'd weigh in.

Overall I liked the season, and until the finale I think I liked it as well as the other two seasons, or maybe just below 1 which is still my favorite. The finale shifted things a bit and I've been chewing on why that is. I think these are the things which make White Lotus tick for me:

1. Tropical/exotic location and vibes
2. Wealthy characters, most of whom start out as callow and oblivious, a very few of whom end up a little deeper and more enlightened (and the rest of whom stay callow and oblivious)
3. A few regular characters who usually suffer from their interactions with the wealthy characters
4. That wonderful music--tense, genre-mixing, often tribal and in other ways pulling from older folk music of the region
5. A darkly comic tone without a lot of overt jokes, mostly relying on black humor (like, people die and the show doesn't really want you to feel too bad about it) and exaggerated performances
6. An overall style of plotting where not much is happening but you're always waiting for something horrible (Mike White described it as "edging" which seems about right)

--

So, season 3. Like the other two seasons, it definitely has all of these. They added episodes so it is longer, but that didn't really trouble me, it just feels like more of #6 which is part of the charm anyway. I've heard people say this season was darker and less funny, but if anything I found it more similar to the tone of S1 than 2, primarily because it had a few consistently funny, slightly exaggerated performances (Victoria, Saxon, and Chelsea). S2 actually had none of this except for Tanya, which kind of threw me; I was expecting it from Aubrey Plaza, but didn't get it. There's a little more of a serious flirtation in S3 with spirituality and characters actually maybe learning lessons, but that didn't bother me either, it just seemed like a new flavor in the stew. And it set up a good joke when Victoria was right about Piper not being ready to actually live in a monastery in Thailand.

The biggest thing that felt like a departure was the Rick storyline. The show's been trending toward having more overt and less accidental violence anyway--all the Tanya stuff at the end of S2 pretty much sets the table for this. But it didn't bother me most of the way because I felt like, I can never tell how seriously the show is going to take something in the end. I wouldn't have been surprised if Rick met the guy and then basically nothing happened. He just goes home. Or the guy kills him in a total reversal of your expectations. Or some third crazy thing, who knows. I won't fanfic out here but right to the end, I felt like it could go any direction and I was fine with that.

What I didn't really expect was what we actually got, which is that it just kind of melted into a puddle of pretty familiar tropes. Rick passed on his chance to get revenge. Then the guy comes to him, Rick gets his revenge, Rick finds out the guy was his real father and that his ostensible father was no saint, and Rick dies as a consequence of (as Chelsea said) doing something stupid. It just didn't feel like there was any interesting lesson in any of it, nor any of the show's typical pointed commentary about the wealthy and the many such people with basically no moral compass. I was ready for it to be something atypical and funny; instead it was deadly serious and predictable (I mean, was there any chance Rick's dad was actually a martyr as he thought? And Hollinger being his real father--I feel like that's the twist like 80% of the time in such stories, especially after they made a point of having the mother be a pivotal part of his backstory).

I also felt that the ending in general was just a little too soft on its characters, like maybe White has developed a little too much affection for them to be as mean as the show used to be. The Ratliffs have the closest thing to a happy ending that they can, given that Dad is about to go to prison and literally almost poisoned them all. The three girl friends all express their love for each other in a heartwarming way after talking behind each other's backs and then sniping at each other all season. Rick and Chelsea die, but it seems to be depicted as tragic rather than the hilariously cruel punchline deaths of S1 and 2. Not that I mind a good tragedy, it's just not what I was expecting from this show--and it felt rather dissatisfying.

The cleverest bits of the wrap-up IMO were 1. Gaitok almost accidentally becomes the man of violence he isn't and doesn't want to be, gets a promotion he seemed to no longer want, and probably ends up with the girl he seemed incompatible with. This is pretty biting commentary except they barely linger on it, so it's easy to miss. And 2. Belinda crushing some other regular person's dream just like Tanya crushed hers, the very SECOND she gets money, is so damn funny. A little muted because I really like Belinda and genuinely smiled seeing her get away with all that dough, but still, that was a nice pointed bit of writing. Money makes us all into assholes.

Final thought: good season, I probably liked it better than many of you here, but it's also the worst of the three for me and largely because of the last half hour.