A luxury hotel marries the exotic and the familiar: The location may be new and the fruits at the breakfast buffet varied, but the thread count of the sheets, the indulgence of the staff, the sumptuousness of the spa — these remain the same. “The White Lotus,” Mike White’s HBO show about the guests and workers of a five-star resort collection, knows this well. Maybe too well? If the surroundings for the third season of this cringingly comic, lightly murderous anthology series are different — with Koh Samui, Thailand, replacing Maui (Season 1) and Sicily (Season 2) — the characters haven’t really changed. (And is there at least one uncomfortable scene aboard a boat? You bet your yachting whites.) So garnish your poolside cocktail, tie on your sarong, and see if you can spot White’s favorite types.
In Season 1 it was the privileged mama’s boy, Shane (Jake Lacy). In Season 2, it was Cameron (Theo James), a moneyman who managed to be both smarmy and oblivious. Thailand’s entitled jackass, enrobed in family money, is Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger), a finance bro who eschews local cuisine in favor of protein shakes and complains when his massage doesn’t include a “happy ending.” It is hard to imagine someone more in need of a comeuppance, but just desserts are rarely on White’s hotel menu.
Remember the femmepreneur Nicole (Connie Britton), arranging meetings from her Maui hotel suite? Or Harper (Aubrey Plaza), an employment lawyer congenitally incapable of relaxing in Sicily? Neither of them seemed to be in as much leisure-wear agony as Timothy (Jason Isaacs) is this season. A North Carolina financier accused of fiscal malfeasance — though Isaacs’s accent often suggests other climes — Timothy’s favorite vacation pastimes include sweating through upsetting phone calls and indulging in suicidal (and murderous) ideation.
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