WARNING: Mild spoilers ahead.
It’s a hot, balmy day in Bangkok, Thailand, but all the stops are pulled out for the premiere of Max’s The White Lotus season three. Members of the cast arrive in their own boats — similar to the entrance of the fictional resort’s guests — down the Chao Phraya River, showing all the love and admiration for the Thai people. They did, after all, spend months living and filming in different parts of the tropical country, and they all share the same sentiment: the succinct hospitality and generosity of the Thai people made a substantial impact on the dynamic of the cast and crew.
Season three’s heavy focus on spirituality allows Thailand to bring about a new energy to The White Lotus. And just like New York City in fellow HBO show Sex and the City, Thailand is its own character. The country’s abundance of spiritual landmarks, as well as its integration in the daily life and culture of its locals, makes it the perfect setting for what series creator Mike White has in store.
Episode 1 meticulously sets the stage for the dynamics that will grace our screens over the eight-episode season. In her acting debut, BLACKPINK’s Lalisa Manobal plays the role of Mook, the girl-next-door and the White Lotus “health mentor,” to a T. Tayme Thapthimthong’s Gaitok, a security guard at the resort, has an obvious interest in his colleague (like many of the other staff do) but takes a more protective approach. Reprising her role from season one is fan favorite Natasha Rothwell, whose Belinda Lindsey travels from Hawaii to Thailand on a work exchange program and is guided by Dom Hetrakul’s wellness program staff, Pornchai. They’re all led by the resort’s co-owner and its health program pioneer Sritala Hollinger, portrayed by legendary Thai actress Lek Patravadi, and is married to American Jim Hollinger (Scott Glenn).
Travelling East as the resort’s guests this season is the Ratliff family, led by powerhouse actors Jason Isaacs and Parker Posey, who play patriarch and financier-in-big-trouble Timothy, and wife and mother Victoria. Together they share three children: eldest boy Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger), a gym bro working for his father, middle child and only daughter Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook) who is writing her college thesis on religion, and youngest child Lochlan (Sam Nivola), a shy high school senior who seems to be having a hard time figuring himself out. Even before they get off the boat, Timothy and Saxon already butt heads with Walton Goggins’ mysterious Rick Hatchett, whose only motive for coming to Thailand is somehow related to Jim Hollinger. His only reprieve from his heavy mind is his much younger girlfriend Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood), a Manchester native who offers more of the humor with her charm and untainted perspective of the world around her — a stark contrast to Rick’s sinister introduction in the series. Rounding out the main cast are Leslie Bibb, Carrie Coon and Michelle Monaghan, playing the roles of longtime friends Kate, Laurie and Jaclyn (a famous actress) who reunite for a girls’ trip that could spark the conversation of why they dislike each other.
Off-camera, the cast sees past the opulence of filming in the five-star Four Seasons hotels and resorts and takes the experience for what it truly is: a chance to tell a story. Each character is, in their own way, layered and complex; Schwarzenegger shared that it was important for him and White that Saxon was more than just a “one-dimensional douche,” Posey’s Victoria tackles her neurosis and own fear in loving her children and Rothwell’s Belinda — following the events of season one — still has her soul, albeit a little more reserved. Patravadi, who came out of retirement for the series, saw the role of Sritala as an opportunity to learn something new from White. She even bought Max just to watch the first two seasons. For the revered actress, she felt like it was her duty as a Thai person to help tell a story that’s set in her home.
Isaacs was right — nobody wants to watch a show about rich people enjoying their holiday. Instead, we want to experience their downfall in real time. Although this brand of absurdity was never lost on the show, the success of its first two seasons gave White license in the third season to dig deeper and ask even more questions about humanity. Season three’s incorporation of spirituality and the harrowing questions of life, death and ego deliver a fuller audience experience as it begs the question: Who are you when everything is stripped away?
The White Lotus season three is available to stream now on Max.
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