'The White Lotus' Season 3 Falls Flat Without Jennifer Coolidge

Mike White’s hit TV series set in the fictional resort chain The White Lotus has returned for a third season, this time abandoning the shores of Hawaii and Sicily for the jungles of Thailand.

Season 3 follows the same formula we’ve seen before, with a body on the beach and a diverse cast of characters with dubious motives. But going into this season of The White Lotus, everyone is asking the same question: Can The White Lotus survive as a show without the dynamic Jennifer Coolidge leading the helm?

The White Lotus’s Strength Remains Its Ensemble Casts

One of the great strengths of the first two seasons of The White Lotus was its ability to draw together experienced actors with strong television resumes and just enough upcoming talent to make things fresh. Pros like Connie Britton and Steve Zahn, Aubrey Plaza and Tom Hollander, have anchored White’s slow-burn dark comedies.

Did anybody else forget that season 1 of The White Lotus gave us Sydney Sweeney as a petulant teenager right before she hit superstardom? Or how could we forget that Leo Woodall, the dreamy star of One Day, shot into the public eye during his role as the mysterious Jack during season 2? White and his production team have an uncanny ability to find upcoming stars and use them to invigorate plots which could otherwise seem overdone and flat.

White’s ability to cast a strong ensemble cast remains in this third season of The White Lotus, and it makes the two episodes released so far well worth the watch. While it’s never surprising to have strong performances from pros like Jason Isaacs and Michelle Monaghan, some of the newer faces are the most impressive in this season so far. Patrick Schwarzenegger seems to be having the time of his life playing a perfectly despicable and sex-obsessed eldest son of the Ratcliff clan, Saxon. Especially impressive is the performance of Lalisa Manobal (more commonly known as Lisa, star of Korean girl group Blackpink) who brings an irresistible charm to the resort worker Mook.

Season 3 Has It Out for the Culture of the Suburban Wealthy - In Good Ways and Bad

The White Lotus has always used its black comedic tone to lampoon the foibles and faults of wealthy vacationers, and season 3 is no exception. By drawing up caricatures of well-known American suburban types, the show attempts to show the inherent violence which underlies those who value power above human decency.

Season 3 is the most successful at this social commentary with its depiction of the group of three best friends who have come to the resort to “make time for each other” and reconnect. Jaclyn Lemon (Michelle Monaghan) is a famous movie star and is clearly the queen bee of her friend group. Her friend Kate (Leslie Bibb) is jealous of Jaclyn and vies with her for alpha status. Their less competitive friend Laurie (Carrie Coon) has just recently gone through a divorce and seems to resent the subtle mistreatment of the others.

Watching the unhealthy dynamic of these three supposed friends play in backbiting, subtle jabs, and gossiping behind closed doors is terrifying and all too accurate. What White’s writing has managed to capture is how frequently a friendship which relies on evening drinks and weekend trips can be a masquerade for mean girls, plain and simple.

While some of White’s characters strike a resonant emotional chord, White’s portrayal of the Southern Ratcliff family takes the types too far and strays into the realm of caricature. Jason Isaacs’s domineering patriarch Timothy and Parker Posey’s ditzy wife Victoria don’t feel like fully formed characters, at least in these first two episodes. They’re clearly meant to be types of white Anglo-Saxon Christians from the Bible Belt (one of their children is even named Saxon). Unsurprisingly, the only Ratcliff who isn’t consistently infuriating is the daughter, an enlightened college student who is fascinated by Buddhism. It’s a lot less subtle than most of the families we’ve seen in The White Lotus so far and, if it remains unchanged, will anchor this season in mediocrity.

Yes, We Still Miss Jennifer Coolidge

The bad news for Mike White and team is that we miss Jennifer Coolidge every bit as much this new season as we thought we were going to. Coolidge’s wealthy, hair-brained, hilarious character of Tanya McQuod-Hunt brought most of the real humor to The White Lotus, and her absence can be keenly felt by the second episode. The unpredictability of Coolidge’s comedic timing made the first two seasons mesmerizing and without it, these hour-long episodes just don’t capture the viewer with the same power.

Aimee Lou Wood does what she can to bring a similar level of humor to season 3 with her role as cockney girlfriend Chelsea - and for what she’s given in the script, she does a pretty decent job. But Chelsea lacks the unhinged and wildly unpredictable element which made Coolidge’s Tanya so beloved. It’s a valiant attempt by Wood, but White’s writing doesn’t let Chelsea grow erratic enough to carry the same irresistible humor.

The first two episodes of The White Lotus Season 3 ask an interesting question about the kinds of human relationships which are most likely to escalate into violence, and we’re eager to see which direction it takes. Where season 2 focused on the secrets people were hiding, season 3 is more interested in relational dynamics - and specifically, which of those dynamics are the most likely to explode into violence. Though much of the show’s social commentary remains biting and relevant, the absence of Jennifer Coolidge makes this easily the least well-balanced season of a show which up till now, has contained some of the tightest production quality on TV.