On the night of Feb. 16, I headed to X (formerly Twitter), anxious to see how viewers were reacting to the season premiere of “The White Lotus.” Based in Thailand for its third installment, creator and writer Mike White, along with his creative team, have kept fans on edge for nearly a year and a half after concluding the second season in Sicily, Italy.
“The White Lotus” is one of HBO’s biggest hits and Emmy nomination-earners, and after originally being greenlit for a miniseries run in 2020, it blossomed into a multi-season anthology series. Self-described as a “black comedy drama,” “The White Lotus” packs each seasons’ respective figures into the resort at the chosen vacation destination, and lets them run wild. Over the years, we’ve seen under-the-counter drug deals in Hawaii, Jennifer Coolidge falling overboard in Italy (“these gays, they’re trying to murder me!”) and apparently now, a weed-addled Rick, played by Walton Goggins, setting a plethora of venomous snakes loose in Thailand.
Each episode escalates the rising tension between wealthy guests at the White Lotus resorts. As the story progresses, we learn that each “group” of guests has more in common with each other than meets the eye, and eventually we become privy to dark secrets, class inequality and immorality abounds. However, “The White Lotus” adopts an abnormally slow pace for a show averaging only eight episodes per season. This is its greatest skill, and also its greatest source of criticism from fans and reviewers alike.
If what I saw on X in the weeks since the third season’s premiere of “The White Lotus” is anything to go by, fans are either bored with the creeping pace of the season so far, or frustrated with said bored people for not understanding how the show “works.” “Nothing happened this episode,” read a post in response to the newly-released third episode. “Average White Lotus episode,” read another. “Each character has their own conflicts and we’re seeing this develop,” responded someone else. “What are [you] expecting? This is the standard.”
Television with sharp social commentary often produces such dividing lines; those eager to critically dissect each and every moment seethe at those who express their emotional reactions at face value. In the case of “The White Lotus,” both are valid: the show exists to absorb the viewer in its universe, and also push them to analyze what they’re seeing. The writing is so meticulously crafted that viewers often receive very little “action” to dissect, and analysis drifts to the minute details: a glance between two characters, a moment’s conversation, or telling body language. Will Belinda connect Greg to the death of his ex-wife, Tanya? Will Laurie confront Kate over her vote for Trump? Does Rick secretly despise Chelsea? (Don’t worry about not knowing each character. Each of them embodies an archetype of someone we probably know in our own lives, anyway).
It takes far more than an episode –– maybe even an entire season –– to get an answer to any of these questions, and that is the ultimate test of “The White Lotus:” to see if we have the attention span to stick around. In an age where short-form TikTok content dominates attention spans and splices them in half, “The White Lotus” succeeds on its long-form subtlety, forcing viewers to pay attention if they want any sense of what’s going on. The pace may drag, but it also serves to build eerie anticipation –– for you, and for each character whose turning point lies just out of reach.
Contact the editors responsible for this article: Norah Catlin, Anabelle Meyers
