Seven Notes on the Surreal Third Season of the White Lotus

 

Credit: Global Watch Times

Notes on The White Lotus:
1. Patrick Schwarzenegger setting himself up for cancellation

If cancel culture and sites like Jezebel and Salon held more sway in today’s culture, Schwarzenegger would have been more hesitant to take the part of single-minded douche, considering the associations of the charges against his father. For those who don’t remember, the elder Schwarzenegger faced charges of sexual harassment when he was running for governor and he’s often been associated with a debatable brand of machoism. However, it warms my heart that Arnold Schwarzenegger has grown and is often seen as a voice of reason and compassionate masculinity in the press.

2. The naming of Saxon Ratcliffe is no coincidence

Patrick Schwarzenegger’s Saxon is a character you love to hate. He reflects the state of rich republicans and it’s certainly a fitting moment that even Duke University was quick to disown the Radcliffes publicly. It seems to have a broader context? Isn’t UNC always the more populist pick in the storied March Madness rivalry whereas Duke is the most hated college in the country for non-alumni? It’s also fitting that Saxon is his name, considering the Saxons are the tribe that conquered Great Britain, so this is the purest version of European whiteness one can get. Sidenote: By far, the richest and snootiest school district in Northern Virginia where I grew up is Langley High School which is home of the Saxons.

White Lotus is advertised with a tabloid/reality-TV veneer of “Come and get an inside look at the lusty lives of the mega-wealthy.” In the case of Saxon, his single-minded sex drive is connected to his power and desire to win at life. In molding his younger brother, that’s pretty much the only value he is instills in him.

Credit: Southern Living

3. Victoria: The show’s flattest character?

As much as I can’t stand Saxon as a character, he at least serves a purpose, which makes him watchable. In fact, I count three: 1) He’s a foil to Lochte, 2) He’s amusingly awful 3) We need someone to root for to get their comeuppance.

His mom, Victoria, (coincidentally a name intrinsically linked to British history), is just too caricatured to be realistic. To not know what country she’s in, or to not realize the benefits of her daughter having an alternate path to success (having “studied as a monk in Thailand” on your resume could look really good), makes her the worst character here. Parker Posey has received tremendous praise as an underground comedy darling, but this performance is miles below that reputation she’s cultivated. There’s no nuance here: She’s just a one-dimensional snoot.

4. Sam Rockwell: Unnecessary Cameo?

Alternatively, couldn’t Sam Rockwell’s character have been cut out entirely? The bizarre exploration of his kinks appeared overly tangential to the main plot, and it must have been quite the budgetary expenditure to get an Oscar winner on board. His only functional use was to keep Jim’s wife occupied while Rick had a moment alone with him. This could certainly have been bypassed in any number of ways considering Rick did 80% of the leg work.

Credit: Screenrant

5. The season seemed to have a rather casual view of suicide.

It’s rare to see suicide treated as a viable plot point in fiction, rather than an abnormal act of desperation. I’ve had suicidal thoughts (and no, I hardly care about the social stigma of admitting it) and I’m largely socialized to see those moments as my brain not working. However, there might also be value in acknowledging that it’s a practical solution, even if we still shouldn’t do it.

It might be interesting to analyze this suicide plot thread through the various religions that are explored in the show. The Ratliffe family becomes entangled in Buddhism through this journey, so it’s worth pointing out that suicide doesn’t fall in line with Buddhist teachings if you believe in karma. If the purpose of suicide is to escape your bad fortune (the exact reason for Timothy), then suicide doesn’t end the cycle of karma.

If we jump over to the origins of the church weighing in on suicide, my cursory research shows it was originally related to the seven deadly sins. The aesthetically focused church of the Middle Ages was about refraining from over-indulgence, and suicide came from despair which was the sin. This is ironic because Victoria instills her daughter Piper in a mild sense of hedonism: It’s a sin to go even a year of your life forgoing life’s modern amenities.

6. Belinda Turns into Tanya

I’ve always felt uncomfortable blaming Tanya for anything for oh so many reasons: 1) Belinda shouldn’t be praying on guests to help them out with her big investment; 2) Tanya gave her a fat envelope of money, that should be something; 3) If you’re trying to sell investors, you have to accept that if no contract is in place, they could back out at anytime; 4) If Tanya was an investor, she woItuld have had a say in the business, so Belinda dodged a bullet anyways.

On top of that, the Belinda-Tanya relationship was unfolding alongside the overriding narrative of Black Lives Matter. This was a movement I personally viewed as warping reason and putting Black people on too high of a pedestal. Under these optics, the criticism of the day was that Tanya HAD to be in the wrong because she was a White person not going out of her way to do right by a Black person.

It was refreshing in this season to have Belinda, the ghost of Tanya, and Pornchai simply be people and not stand-ins for the color of their skin.

7. The Ratcliffes Face the Most Open-Ended Fate in White Lotus History
With such high stakes and intertwining fates, a few people are bound to come on top in each season. I can appreciate the show’s feel good moments, but the Ratcliffe plot ended with a “What am I supposed to feel?” moment.

Timothy, Victoria, and Saxon are about to have their world blown to bits. Then again, it’s been pointed out that white collar criminals usually get off easy in this country, so maybe not. Whether Saxon learned anything from his incest scare is up for debate, though Patrick Schwarzenegger has said he tried to imbue things with a dramatic character arc. Lochte will probably be grateful to be alive. Therefore, Piper appears to be the biggest question mark.

Top 12 Shows of the First Half of 2025

1. Resident Alien (Syfy) – Long one of my favorite series on the airwaves, the increased entanglement of characters in the alien storyline has the potential to improve the sprawling ensemble piece into a tighter catharsis. It's only four episodes, but the infrastructure is really coming together.

2. The White Lotus (HBO) – The first three episodes were too slow of a burn for an eight-episode season. There were minor character tics that didn't quite land: The power lady trio never got hooky enough, the Scott Glenn character's actions made no sense, Sam Rockwell's relationship to his sexual and drug wagon were too tangential, and a White Lotus Parker Posey was more over-the-top than even a Christopher Guest Parker Posey. Still, this is by far, the best thing on TV and has so much ambition and craftsmanship at every step.

3. The Four Seasons (Netflix) – Unfairly compared to the original film by the critical sphere. Steve Carell, restless from his marriage (to Kerri Kinney), experiences a mid-life crisis and subsequent May-December romance that threatens to throw off the long-standing equilibrium of the friendship between three couples. The show's format of rotating over four vacations is clever. The show is largely populated with comedic actors, but it's oh so sweet, and the automatic reaction by the gang to the May-December romance is surprisingly salient.

4. Deli Boys (Hulu) – The show operates at that dark comedy level around Good Girls or the TV version of Fargo, but I'm not sure if I've seen a dark comedy that's so funny despite the WIDE proliferation of this genre. Poorna Jagannathan as the aunt steals every scene, and it's a blast seeing Brian George take on something new (speaking of something new, the Pakistani member of Queer Eye debuts as an Indian mobster). Aasif Ali and Saagar Shaikh handle every turn with this unique comic energy as if they've just boarded a roller coaster that they didn't know was going to be so intense.

5. Poker Face (Peacock)-Leans on the same three tropes every episode -- accidental murderer, detective in the right place at the right time, and deus-ex-machina to get the hero kicked out of her home every -- BUT Riann Johnson imbues every episode with movie-level quality. That's a pretty high level of consistency for a show that switches settings every episode

6. Ghosts (CBS) – My iTunes bill can confirm that I can't get enough of this show even when I think I've quit it. It's a rare sitcom that harkens back to the whimsical comedy of the mid-2000s as laugh tracks were getting left behind. It keeps expanding its world without losing charm: The show is the most evenly balanced and strongest ensemble.

7. Grosse Pointe Garden Society (NBC) – Even with a flat murder twist, the show delivers a compelling take on adulthood adrift and the intersecting plots are doubly rich. Two actors that have been begging for meatier work --Melissa Fumero and Josh Radnor -- turn in career-high work here.

8. America’s #1 Family (Amazon Prime Video) – Ramy Youssef pivots fully into comedy, shedding introspection for a breezier, punchier sitcom approach. It's an animated family sitcom and it fully uses the capacity of animation to make characters visually funny.

9. Black Mirror (Netflix) – Three episodes this season—Hotel Reverie, Bête Noire, and USS Callister: Into Infinity—were fully realized, while one episode (Eulogy) came close but ended up more of a downer than a provocative episode. Still, going four for six at this level of ambition this late into an anthology show's run is highly impressive.

10. Running Point (Netflix) – A sports-family sitcom powered by inspired casting—Kate Hudson, Drew Tarver, Justin Theroux, and Scott MacArthur—as siblings who inherit a basketball team. It moves fast, cleverly segments certain episodes to tangential stand-alone shots, and features a great array of guest stars.

11. Going Dutch (Fox) – Military culture gets a sharp satire here. The humor is a little broad at the dialogue level, but the basic premise-- a military support base that's exclusively designed for bowling, laundry, and cheese-making -- is pretty hilarious. The chemistry is so great between Taylor Misiak and Dennis Leary as a headstrong father and daughter working out their baggage years after childhood has ended, I'm here for it. Catherine Tate is miles better as a foil than she was on The Office.

12. Krapopolis (Fox) – Animated show set in a city adjacent to the glory of Athens. The show gets endless mileage out of reality-bending plots and mythology gags. There's plenty of amusing in-fighting within this clan, but it's more along the lines of a family sitcom, making it a kinder and gentler cousin to the nihilistic-leaning Rick and Morty and Solar Opposites.

Top 12 of TV in 2022

 My annual list:

You can view my 10 Honorable Mentions here and all the editions of this list dating back to 2009 here. And support me on Patreon here

1. White Lotus (HBO) –The second season of White Lotus brings us characters who run the gamut from naive (Albee); to hypocritically judgmental (Harper); to lonely to the point of selfishness (Tanya); to just-plain shallow (Daphne). And then, of course, Cameron has a shade of all seven deadly sins in one package. However, unlike the first season with irredeemable brats Shane and Olivia, writer-director Mike White managed to navigate their fates and give them enough of a tinge of self-awareness so that they’re all ripe for satire in this grand comedy of manners.
   
   The show is set in Sicily and benefits from the lack of identity politics (they’re all White, no need for grand-standing speeches about White privilege). Ironically, the series is still about identity, but about how we see ourselves in our relationships — largely romantic, but also our subordinates (Tonya-Portia, Valentina-Isabella); and superiors (Jack-Quentin, Albee-Dominic) — and what that says about us. The characters with the highest ideals (Harper, Ethan, Albee) get their asses handed to them by fate, while the two resident prostitutes come out the weeks’ big winners for already having the self-awareness at the beginning of the week that relationships are transactional.

This is the kind of multi-layered character study that sparks endless discussion and the kind of pre-emptive murder mystery that provides endless intrigue.

2. Winning Time (HBO) — This docudrama about the beginning of the Magic Johnson era is apparently completely detached from the historical record. At the same time, maybe it’s better in this age of hyper scrutiny to throw documented history out the window and rely more on the “based on a true story” moniker at the start of each episode? The advantage is that it allows producer Adam McKay to tell the most exciting story his imagination can muster, and it’s pretty damn exciting. Watching this show is a reminder of how little of the narrative in the sports world we get through filtered press conferences and surface-level sports writing: The rivalries, the competitive dynamics, and the struggle to trust one another when the stakes are high.

3. Resident Alien (SyFy)- Alan Tudyk hits the right notes of absurdity as an oblivious alien who improbably manages to integrate into a small town in Colorado. The show is endearingly hokey, rich in character, and features a marshmellowshly portrait of small-town life with plenty of scenery porn in the background. The show also features a sizeable Native American cast and delves into those but doesn’t resort to being pedantic. It’s also harder to find a richer group of scene stealers, whether it’s a true alien believer in Deputy Liz Baker (Elizabeth Bowen) or a former Olympian battling the type of true-to-life depression that comes from being past their prime (Alice Wetterlund). Most importantly, the show is never limited by its science fiction roots. It aims to entertain on a deeper level.

4. Yellowjackets (Showtime) — The series — a cheerful group of high schoolers get decidedly less cheerful and more insane over 18 months as they get stranded in the Canadian wilderness — hasn’t yet gone full “Lord of the Flies.” For now, the first season has laid the groundwork with Lost-like levels of multi-layering and the game of foreshadowing was one of the best interactive experiences on TV this season. On top of that, there’s a lot to be said for the diversity of the characters: The avid outcast Misty (Christina Ricci/Samantha Hanratty), the overly driven Taissa (Tawny Cypress/Jasmin Brown), the guilt-ridden Shauna (Melanie Lynskey/Sophie Nelisse), and the rebellious goth Natalie (Juliette Lewis/Sophie Thatcher) all have polar opposites.

5. Acapulco (Apple Plus): A sort of “How I Met Your Mother” with international flavor and ample doses of scenery porn. Eugene Debenez is Maximo: A tech entrepreneur with his own private island and a bank account with several zeros at the end. He narrates to his nephew how he started his rags to riches story working as a pool boy in one of the most high-caliber resorts of Acapulco. Set towards the dawn of a more globalized North American economy, the 80s time capsule is a love letter to a culture where people have big hearts: Towards their crushes, towards their families, towards their friends, and even towards their enemies (how much homoerotic hugging do we have to endure between Hector and his hazes?).

6. Ghosts (CBS): Eight ghosts from different eras (the 60s hippie movement, the Guided Age, Wall Street excess, the Revolutionary War, etc) inhabit an upstate New York mansion with the ability to talk to just one of the home’s two owners. But as anyone can tell you, it’s the delivery that makes the difference. The eight actors (largely unknowns outside of Rebecca Wiscocky) create comically rich characters with rife potential for great comic dynamics (imagine a Victorian Age snoot interacting with a free-wheeling Prohibition Era jazz singer: You get the idea), and the dialogue never fails to exploit these possibilities. The eight ghosts provide the laughs while the couple at the center (Rose McIver and Utkarsh Ambudkar) provide the TGIF-ish heart.

7. The After Party (Apple TV)-Although we like to tell ourselves and our peers that we’re past high school, I suspect the abundance of TV shows about high school with adult audiences is good evidence that we never completely leave those formative years behind. It’s for that part of our identities that “The After Party” hits on the nose so well. Sure, we don’t spend every waking moment thinking about high school by the time we are 15 years out. However, put us in a room with our high school cohorts and I have no doubt that there are always unresolved threads — an unexpressed attraction, a latent inferiority complex, a what-if ticket to stardom, a misbegotten grudge — that is rife for drama fifteen years later. That’s essentially where the show places us. And there’s a murder mystery on top of it, because why not? That the show could function well enough without a murder to solve, bodes well for how solid the show’s comic infrastructure is. It also doesn’t hurt that the cast is a pretty solid blend of random comic talent (Ben Schwartz, Tyia Sinclair, Ilana Glazer, Tiffany Haddish, Ike Barinholtz among others).

8. Central Park (Apple Plus) The third season of this Apple TV show came with the good news that Kristen Bell was returning to a new role as Aunt Abby. Few can deny that Kristen Bell is always a plus and her over-eager aspiring actress didn’t fail to deliver. Not that this show needs any new characters with the hilarious gender-switched due of ultra-rich snoot Bitsy (Stanley Tucci) and her overstressed lackey Helen (Daveed Diggs) providing such great laughs. In the interim, the interracial Tillerman family — Owen (Leslie Odom Jr.), Paige (Kathryn Hahn), Cole (Titus Burgess), and (Molly) Emma Raver Lampman — provides the heart. Just watch the Mother’s Day episode and try not to tear up.

9. Welcome to Flatch (Fox): It’s a key ingredient in small-town comedies that you have to add a healthy dose of quirk but few shows have been able to find the comic sweet spot in those peculiarities as well as this show. The show uses a mockumentary style that might evoke comparisons to Parks and Recreation but the characters are much less universally relatable. The show’s protagonists are a pair of aimless cousins (likely around age 20) who are the product of a lack of parental supervision, a little bit of suppressed cabin fever, and hyper-active imaginations. Joining them is lovelorn small-town newspaper owner Cheryl Petersen (Aya Cash) who came to Flatch from the big city as the significant other to the town pastor (Seann William Scott) but got dumped immediately thereafter. Cheryl, forever upbeat but often frightened at the change to small-town life, is an apt audience surrogate (and on a side note, my hero as a small-town journalism admirer). There’s also an uptight town historian, a perverted blind man, and a love interest for Shrub (one of the cousins) who is emotionally catatonic. Very few character beats are wasted on this show.

10. Killing It (Peacock) — Two broke Floridians, Craig (Craig Robinson) and Jillian (Claudia O’Doherty), team up in a contest to kill an invasive species of snakes. As the season goes on, the plot places its two protagonists within a web of the type of opportunist Floridian characters that originally showed up in Elmore Leonard or Dave Barry novels and have now become meme-worthy. At its best, the series is a modern-day Glengarry Glen Ross for how the gig economy is all too often a never-ending spiral of doom.

11. Ramy (Hulu): The show bungled the ending of last season and its central character badly enough that it’s hard to know where Ramy Yousef could take things next. As Dianne Nguyen suggests to BoJack Horseman whose arc ends in tragedy “or you can just go on living.” Like Robert Altman taught us with his notorious abrupt movie endings, life doesn’t have neatly compartmentalized movie endings; let alone unhappy ones. That’s 2022 Ramy in a nutshell: Still trying to seek enlightenment but fully aware that he’s now a few steps more removed from societal acceptance. While Ramy navigates his new purgatory, the show continues to deliver moments of brilliance with tangents to its side characters. Like some of the middle-of-the-series temporary breakthroughs of BoJack, the season ends with Ramy doing something that’s foolishly stupid and truly honorable.

12. As We See It (Amazon)-The story takes place in the Bay area with three autistic people with wildly different wants of life and situations sharing a house under one roof with the guidance of their ridiculously awesome life coach Mandy. Half the appeal is watching Sosie Bacon be understanding, committed, and loving in ways that I’m not even capable of in the presence of other autistic people, and I’m on the upper end of the spectrum myself. The story progresses well and trisects with the three central autistic characters diverging towards different paths, of which the other two are only marginally aware of at any given time. I do have to give a knock that the romance between the neurotypical person and the disadvantaged guy, which would likely not have been anywhere near as easy in real life.

Ten Honorable Mentions:
Adventure Beast (Netflix) S1, Cobra Kai (Netflix) S4–5, Derry Girls (Netflix) S4, Dicktown (FX) S2, Dropout (Hulu) Miniseries, Marvelous Mrs Maisel (Amazon), Resort (Peacock) S1, Reboot (Hulu) S1, Shantaram (Apple Plus) S1, True Story with Ed and Randall (Peacock) S1

And for reference, everything else I watched this year (write-ups for most of these can be found on my profile):
Abbott Elementary (ABC), Alaska Daily (ABC), Blockbuster (Netflix), The Bear (Hulu) (3 ep), Bumper in Berlin (Peacock), Cat Burglar (Netflix), Disenchanted (Netflix), Dollface (Hulu), God’s Favorite Idiot (Netflix), Hard Cell (BBC →Netflix), House Broken (Hulu), Home Economics (ABC), Human Resources (Netflix) (2 ep), Inside Job (Netflix), Inventing Anna (Netflix) (3 ep), Loot (Apple Plus), Minx (HBO) (1 ep, would have watched more), Mr Mayor (NBC), Mosquito Coast (Apple Plus), My Unorthodox Life (Netflix), Never Have I Ever (Netflix) (2 eps), Orville (Hulu), Our Flag Means Death (HBO), Outlaws (Apple Plus), Pentuverate (Hulu), Quantum Leap (Peacock) (2–3 ep), Righteous Gemstones (HBO), Rutherford Falls (Peacock), Severance (Apple Plus), Shining Faces (Apple Plus) (2 ep), Single Drunk Female (Freeform) (3–4 eps), Solar Opposites (Hulu), Space Force (Netflix), Star Trek: Lower Decks (Paramount), Strung (Freeve), Tommy and Pam (Hulu) (2–3 ep), United States of Al (CBS), Upload (Amazon), We Need to Talk About Cosby (Showtime), What We do in the Shadows (FX), Welcome to Wexhingham (Hulu)