The White Lotus 3, the « hateful » characters, the broken taboos, the music: because the Mike White series has become a phenomenon (also social)

The third season of « The White Lotus » (available on Sky and Now) has just ended, so we will avoid spoilers in compliance with those who, on Monday evening, were unable to run immediately to look at the ending. All fans of the series created by Mike White By now they know that every season opens with someone who dies, that immediately after the sighting of the corpse there is a week back and that only in the last episode is the victim revealed. In the meantime, the public familiarizes with the heterogeneous group of Rich and spoiled characters who finds himself on vacation in the heavenly luxury of a resort of the White Lotus chain, with weaves that alternate humor and drama, thriller and comedy and give life to one ferocious social satire.

After Hawaii and Sicily, this third season is set in Thailand (He was shot to Koh Samui, Phuket and Bangkok), between crystal clear sea, luxuriant nature (and sometimes threatening), exclusive villas and boats. Also in this case, the stories of vacationers mix with those of the hotel employees, seeing among other things the return of Belinda (Natasha Rothwell), Spa Manager already present in the first season. The other characters include the Ratliff family (father, mother and three children with irritating and superficial dynamics, at least apparently), three forty -year -old blondes, Laurie, Kate and Jaclynchildhood friends, who had not been attended for some time, and Rick and Chelsea, Pair of boyfriends in which he is quite bigger (and damage) than her.

Judging by the social thermometer, the new episodes have generated contrasting feelings in fans: Many found this slow and boring third season of the first two (in some ways it is, since the action is scarce) and were disappointed by the ending (we can only say that not all the knots come to a comb). Nonetheless, Mike White has also managed to do what he is a teacher and that is to create attraction and hilarity towards almost always hateful charactersvery often repellent, from which we would all like to distance themselves, but with which we are obliged to deal with (are we really better than them? We would be ready, in their role, to do without money and social status or do you use them better?).

This is the case of Victoria Ratliff for example, played by the amazing Parker Posey, Wife of a rich businessman, accustomed to living in the bambgy and perennially overwhelmed by Lorazepam: his phrases and his way of pronounced them (for those who are watching the series in the original language) are already the subject of thousands of memes and online videos. The ignorance with which he considers Buddhism « a worship » and confuses Asian countries, the candor with which he admits that he could never give up the aging of his life make it the perfect incarnation of the whole sample of vices of whites, rich and western. Yet on social media, it is adored.

« The White Lotus » also has a tendency to dwell on social, interpersonal and sexual dynamics that they uncomfortableopening questioning points, without necessarily giving univocal answers, on the personal (and economic) difference in the couple, on the veil of superiority, tending to racism, which is often reserved for local populations and on the lack of sincerity in relationships, friendship, kinship or love that they are. In this third season, Mike White has raised the bar, going to rummage in a taboos still very little exploredfrom which the impulse of locking his gaze, that is, that of the acknowledgment is immediately.

Characters (and spectators) almost always come out battered from the week spent in the resort and even those who would like to improve, inexorably fail. But everyone deserves a separate study and everyone lends themselves to moments of great entertainment, such as Frank’s crazy monologue (a wonderful Sam Rockwell) on his sexual obsessions and his identity, giving life to a large number of scenes on which thousands of analysis, theories and hypotheses have exploded online. Undoubtedly social networks, Tiktok in the first place, they did more than ever as a amplifier In this season, between accounts that sift through every clue to get to those who died and others who analyze all the clothing and accessories that make « The White Lotus » also a fashion phenomenon.

The skill of Mike White, then, is to always choose the right actors, well -known faces, but not too much, each capable of already generating great curiosity by itself: from Aimee Lou Wood (view in «sex education») a LaLisa Manobal (Thai Star of the K-Pop Blackpink group), from Patrick Schwarzenegger (son of Arnold) a Jason Isaacs (Among other things the Lucius Malfoy of « Harry Potter »), this third season puts a nice sample in the field.

Chapter to itself for the music: the abbreviation of « The White Lotus », in the first two seasons, contributed to imprinting very strong personality to the series, thanks to the work of the Chilean composer Cristobal Tapia de Veer. It is a recurring observation among the fans that no one « jumps » the abbreviation, you listen to it rigorously every time, so much is captivating and so much allows you to enter the mood of the episodes. For this third season, however, the musical theme has changed radically (among the first two there were variations, but minimal), which generated a wave of rebellion among the spectators.

A recent interview of the « New York Times », revealed some disagreements between the composer and Mike White, so much so that Tapia De Veer will not return to work To the music of the next season: apparently, this soundtrack, although revisited, then had to lead to the main theme of the two previous ones, with the well-known « Ooh-Loo-Loo-Loos » choirs, but White would have refused to insert them, entering into conflict with the musician (and with the fans).