The White Lotus Season 3 is bad, and its fans will tear you apart online if you say so

I made the mistake of posting a simple observation on Threads yesterday about a TV show I'm watching. I’m five episodes into The White Lotus Season 3 (I'm a little behind, I was too busy with Severance), and in my post, I noted that I’m still waiting for something to happen in the hit HBO series from creator Mike White.

Apparently, I touched a nerve. Within minutes, I was bombarded with responses from deeply loyal fans who seemingly took my boredom as a personal attack:

• “Gosh, TikTok has destroyed your brain!”
• “I hope this stupidity brings you the engagement you so clearly crave on here.”
• “Just stop watching if you have a (bug) up your butt about it.”
• “It’s called the art of storytelling, everyone wants instant gratification — this is a beautiful build-up for the senses.”
• “I guess you’re nonplussed about incest?” (A shockingly perceptive insight about me.)
• “Stop watching it and please don’t come back.”

Honestly, it was my fault. I forgot the cardinal rule of engaging on social media platforms that are intended for discussion — it's that people come unglued if they trip over any opinion that runs contrary to their own.

However, the fact of the matter is that while every HBO show has its diehard fan base ready to defend it to the death, this season of The White Lotus is an unenjoyable slog. A painfully slow, borderline meaningless snoozefest that relies on The White Lotus name rather than delivering anything fresh or engaging. And that too often relies on shock value instead of thought-provoking storytelling.

Every single episode so far has left me feeling like I wasted an hour of my life. This is coming, by the way, from someone who wanted to like the show.

The storylines are a mess

Let’s talk about the various subplots.

We have three women who obviously don’t like each other yet insist on spending all their time together. Their passive-aggressive interactions got old fast.

Then there’s Lisa from Blackpink, who was clearly cast for name recognition alone. Her character? Obviously meant as eye candy, and nothing more. She spends most of her screen time rejecting the resort’s security guard — who, by the way, is so bad at his job that he lets intruders sneak in and carelessly leaves a gun on his desk, where it gets stolen.

Meanwhile, Parker Posey’s Victoria Ratliff is an over-the-top Southern delight, chewing up scenery with a thick North Carolinian drawl. She’s one of the few bright spots in an otherwise lifeless season. The same goes for Aimee Lou Wood’s Chelsea, who at least brings some bright-eyed charm and warmth to the mess.

Walton Goggins is always a welcome addition to any TV show, but here he just kind of broods without doing much else. And as for Jason Isaacs’ Timothy Ratliff, he started out as an interesting character grappling with looming legal and financial trouble. But then the show just sort of left him there (at least, up to where I am, having just watched Episode 5). Now he mostly stares blankly into space, stressing about his problems but not really anything doing anything except stealing his wife’s pills. Oh, and the show gave us a gratuitous full-frontal scene with him, for some reason.

Jason Isaacs as Timothy Ratliff in "The White Lotus." Image source: HBO

The vibe is just so weird

On top of the boring plotlines, the overall vibe this season is a mix of unsettling, gross, and weird. Especially the brothers. I don’t even know where to begin with that one. Their whole vibe has been creepy from the start.

And before you say it — no, this isn’t about wanting “instant gratification.” I can appreciate a slow burn. But a slow burn implies something is building. Instead, we’re just watching characters meander through their storylines with no sense of urgency or momentum.

“The story line is not going anywhere, there's no real intrigue, (and) it's not funny,” one viewer notes on Reddit. “Piper has been reduced to the most boring person, Timothy's timeline could be interesting, instead he's just zoned out, the mean girls thing is just sad... Victoria, Chelsea and Rick are great but even they can't save this thing... Such a disappointment compared to the previous seasons!!”

Leslie Bibb, Michelle Monaghan, and Carrie Coon in "The White Lotus." Image source: Fabio Lovino/HBO

At least some fans get it

Unlike the mob that went after me, some other thankfully sane voices are prevailing on X:

• “It’s official, this is the first bad season of The White Lotus.”
• “Mike White, what happened? This season is objectively BAD. Like so fucking awful. Nothing has happened this entire season, the acting is just fucking bad, cast sucks terribly, storyline boring and redundant holy SHIT.”
• “Lisa’s character on White Lotus is absolutely useless. That filler storyline better have a killer plot twist.”
• “Unpopular opinion: White Lotus fucking sucks. Every season is 90% buildup to a mediocre ending. It’s a show that has to be binged. I can’t believe we wait every week for these bullshit episodes. People like this show because it’s ‘trendy,’ not because it’s good.”

Who knows, though: Maybe things will turn around in the final stretch. Maybe there’s some grand, mind-blowing twist just waiting to drop. Maybe I’ll eat my words. But five episodes in? This season is shaping up to be an overhyped, self-indulgent mess. There's nothing here that's even remotely interesting or redeeming.

The post The White Lotus Season 3 is bad, and its fans will tear you apart online if you say so appeared first on BGR.

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The White Lotus Season 3 is bad, and its fans will tear you apart online if you say so originally appeared on BGR.com on Tue, 25 Mar 2025 at 20:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.