Reactions: Dark and twisted, Beautiful
Where to watch: Max

I rarely do this but: SPOILERS AHEAD. Stop reading this review now if you have not finished Season 3 of White Lotus.

The main complaint I heard from all my friends when season 3 started was, “it’s so slow.” Dude. That’s literally how every season of this show works. It starts slow. It shows us the shiny side of the characters. Then slowly it starts to reveal their darkness. The other side of their characters. Their demons.

Season 3 has some of the most compelling characters. But more importantly for me, it sets up such an interesting cast-wide plight. I call it “The loss and death of innocence.” Here are some examples of characters who experience this loss of innocence:

• The three blond best friends let their facade fall and reveal their true, uncomfortable feelings about each other.
• Gaitok struggles with his Buddhist commitment to never harming another living being, and then ends up killing people in the end.
• Belinda self-sacrifices her innocence to accept the hush money and let a murderer go free.
• Lochlan is the only true innocent in the family, proven when he tells his dad that he could live without all their money. Then Lochlan dies for his innocence. He comes back to life which maaaaybe is supposed to mean he wasn’t all that innocent, only half innocent. But I think it means he is reborn to experience another loss of innocence, the loss of the wealthy ignorant bliss that the entire family will endure.
• And of course Chelsea is the most innocent character of the show and she pays for it with her life.

Now, a little about the uproar over the incest thing that flooded headlines and social media. Can we fucking chill the fuck out? There is incest in so many tv shows and movies. Game of Thrones had twins fucking each other and bearing children for eight seasons. Not to mention Jon Snow was Daenarys’s nephew. House of the Dragon has Rhaenyra marry her Uncle then fuck him to bear rightful heirs. Cher dated her brother (sure, step brother) in Clueless. George Lucas made Luke and Leia kiss in Star Wars, when he knew they would be revealed as siblings. Not to mention the intense step-sibling sexual tension in both incarnations of Cruel Intentions.

My point is, incest is in lots of tv and movie plots. And yet, never has it received the same outrage and disgust as when it was two brothers who committed the incestuous act. Makes you think, that you know, just maybe there was an element of homophobia at play this time.

Back to the review of the show. In summary, I think this is one of the most thematically solid seasons of White Lotus. I think it’s also my favorite and I’m going to say why, even though it will make you all hate me. I never liked Jennifer Coolidge’s character in the first two seasons. At all. So it’s nice to see the show find its wings and fly without her. It’s tough, because I loved Theo James and Aubrey Plaza last season. But they weren’t enough to drown out the over-the-top caricature-of-herself Jennifer Coolidge last season.