And so we move on to chapter three in the Mike White semi-ahological luxury trip series, “The White Lotus”, which will premiere on Sunday in HBO. As before, the season begins with an unidentified corpse, then goes back in time to prepare the stage for murder, or whatever it results, since the guests arrive by sea at their elegant resort hotel.
The current series was filmed in Thailand (the four Koh Samui seasons for the homonym complex), following the first set of Maui first and the second set of Sicily. This iteration of the white lotus is an elegant well -being refuge, which attends to the mind and body, with blocked electronic devices, for those arranged, although, of course, not all are willing. (Without a doubt, there are also bars and restaurants and entertainment with splashes). The creator-writer and white director, I just realized that his name is in the title, deepens spiritual matters here, as he did in sex the last time. That does not mean that there are no sexual issues, although they are reflected in different ways about the spiritual and vice versa. In a way, it is a sequel to “Ilightened”, the 2011 HBO series created by White and its star, Laura Dern, on a businesswoman who, after a nervous collapse, returns changed after a tropical spa experience.
It is a more sophisticated and more personal version of a kind of multipro -process stars exemplified by the “Grand Hotel” of MGM in 1932 (the film in which Greta Garbo says: “I want to be alone”) and adaptations of the mid -century of the century Arthur Hailey's novels as “Airport” and “Hotel”; The latter became “Arthur Hailey's Hotel” during five television seasons in the 1980s.
Lek Patravadi plays the co -owner of Hotel Sritala, a former singer and actor.
(Fabio Lovino / HBO)
Most of the main cast is presented in a useful way as the guests Debark on the edge of the complex and meet the relevant staff, including the hotel manager, Fabian (Christian Friedel), and the co -owner Sritala Hollinger (Lek Patravadi), an old song and movie star song and a “pioneer in the welfare space.” Despite the expense, not all visitors are happy to be there.
North Carolina comes the Ratliff family: Father Timothy (Jason Isaacs), who does something in finances; Mother Victoria (Parker Posey); and the Saxon children (Patrick Schwarzenegger), a chord brother who works for his father; Piper Senior of the University (Sarah Catherine Hook), here adversely to interview a Buddhist monk for his thesis, who discards the hotel as “a Disneyland for rich bohemians of Malibu in his lululemon yoga pants”; and Lochlan (Sam Nivola), a last year student of high school. His “mentor of the house”, each group gets one, is Pam (Morgana O'Reilly).
Gathering on a girl trip are old Kate friends (Leslie Bibb), which is a television star (Sritala is a fan); Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan), a rich housewife who lives in Austin, Texas; and Laurie (Carrie Coon), a divorced corporate or another that simply has not been a partner. You could say that they attest to their mutual love. His mentor: Valentin (Arnas Fedaravicius), a Russian, tattooed fan, introduced without a shirt.
Then there are Rick (Walton Goggins), whose character is suggested by cigarettes, a half -button floral shirt and sweaty behavior, and Chelsea (Aimee Lee Wood), his cheerful and much younger girlfriend, who declares that he is going “to help you recover His joy, even if he kills me. ” His assigned mentor is Mook, played by the Thai pop star Lalisa Manoban, also known as Lisa of the South Korea Pop Group, Blackpink, well in his first role of acting. Mook directs well -being sessions, entertains at night and is the object of a crush of Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong), a sweet and unfortunate low -level security guard.
Natasha Rothwell returns to this “The White Lotus” season, repeating his character Belinda.
(Fabio Lovino / HBO)
As it has generally been the case of this series, guests are rich white people, better (or worse) to contrast with (much) staff. Neither the guest nor the staff, exactly, and nothing rich, is Belinda (Natasha Rothwell), the manager of Maui Lotus spa, back from season 1, which connects with its opposite number, Porchai (Dom Hetrakul), In a kind of professional exchange program. (She thinks she recognizes someone of that season, how could you be).
Superficially, this is a story of western souls in the moving east, such as “Lost Horizon” and “The Razor's Edge”, but apart from Piper, the lighting is not in the menu of any guest. Which does not mean that some are not the next; The philosophical therapist to Amrita (Sri Lanka actress, Shalini Peiris) would like to help.
Maybe because we have been on this road before, and because the series opens, turning the old Chechhovian dictum, with the sound of shots that later, chronologically before, they will require the exhibition of a gun, a feeling of imminent disaster pursues even the quiet silence scenes. (The program is both a whodunit and a “who was done”). There is less, really no, an explicit comedy this time, there is no replacement for the heiress needy of Jennifer Coolidge of seasons 1 and 2. (as if you could replace Jennifer Coolidge.) However, something in the direction, something like affection For these clumsy adults and young adults, lightens the tone. This is not “the night of the iguana.” And, for a program fan, there is an incorporated interest that comes from seeing which white will erect in the ancient premises, and what purposes a cast will turn and its characters mostly fresh.
If the stations share general issues, it is that money cannot buy happiness, not having money does not buy it either, and that people bring their garbage with them wherever they go. None of White's characters are really on vacation, at least not on self -vacation.
However, “the white lotus”, in all its seasons, is a comedy; If everything does not end well, some characters will be disappointed, someone will die, everything that ends well ends well. Decisions that affirm life are made, or at least the acceptance of life, a minimum of understanding is achieved, lovers reconcile, goodness tends to succeed. The change reaches the players but the playing field. (“Gran Hotel,” says a character of that movie. “Always the same. People come. People.” It also says: “Nothing happens”, but that part is irony).
There are also lizards and monkeys.
