Complaining is one of my greatest passions. It is like breathing to me: I need to do it to survive. It is my sustenance. A hearty meal of whining and making a fuss nourishes me. But even I have a limit.
For all the preoccupation there’s recently been over The White Lotus—and good lord, does it seem to be all anyone is talking about—I’ve noticed a concerning pattern: Far too many people scoffing to me that they’re not liking this season. I’ve heard it from friends at brunch and dinner. I’ve heard it on podcasts. I’ve seen it, against my will, in Meghan McCain’s social media posts.
There’s no accounting for taste, and it is theoretically fine for people to have different opinions from me about things—ludicrous and ill-advised as that may be. But I do find the notion that this season is too slow, too boring, or too uninteresting to be a confusing one.
As we head into Sunday night’s finale, which, at 90 minutes, will be the biggest episode of The White Lotus thus far, I’m curious how those naysayers are going to respond. The different ways the episode was talked about in The Hollywood Reporter’s recent deep-dive into the show certainly raise an eyebrow.
“It’s kind of epic. As a filmmaker, it’s probably the piece of work that I’m like, ‘I can’t believe I did that,‘” series creator Mike White said. Then there’s the assessment from actress Charlotte Le Bon, who plays Chloe: “People are going to hate Mike White.” Let’s unpack that.
In some ways, the worst thing that can happen to a breakout TV series is that it continues to grow in popularity. With success comes strong opinions, expectations, and, inevitably, backlash. Fans assume that the series they helped turn into a hit should be a certain thing and remain unchanged, or even that it owes them something. Look at the reaction to the most recent season of The Bear, for example, or the hatred Ted Lasso received in its second and third seasons.
There’s a common complaint I’ve heard from friends and have seen online that nothing is happening this season on The White Lotus: There’s not enough plot twists, or the episodes are moving too slow. I would counter that, um, there’s been an incest-y threesome, an instantly viral MAGA moment, a robbery, a man from the past returning to terrorize Belinda, two of the wildest monologues about sex I’ve ever seen, and Carrie Coon escaping through a window after being chased out of a hookup by an angry Russian girlfriend.
That’s, in my opinion, a lot that is happening this season. But part of my confusion is that this gripe seems to misremember what The White Lotus’ first two seasons were. Maybe we’re thinking back on them from the perspective of having seen all the wild plot developments that happened, being shocked at the murders, and thinking that must’ve meant that the series was pulse-pounding or twisty in every episode. Really, though, the show was always very slow-moving, chiefly wafting through the weird vibes of the characters and their rich-people problems.
Even White himself stresses this in the THR piece. “People are already like, ‘It’s too slow! Let’s go, let’s go! Nothing’s happening!’ he says “But nothing happened in the first season. Literally. It was basically people sitting around eating meals, but the music gave this tension, and you knew something bad was going to happen.”
That’s what made the show such a discovery in Season 1. Viewers watched this HBO series in the Sunday night slot that runs big epics like Game of Thrones and Succession, and couldn’t figure out what to make of it: Until the action picked up in the final episodes, we were kind just watching Connie Britton and Sydney Sweeney eat breakfast.
That, of course, is also what made the show singular and, eventually, so cool.
Surely, there are elements of this season that merit criticism. With a full-throat, I join the chorus of people who are exhausted by Jason Isaacs’ character and whatever his money problems are.
But mostly I’ve been enthralled by these new characters, invested in all their strange little problems, living for the memes that come out of each episode, and generally loving the vibes. I’m so excited for Sunday night’s big finale.
“My hope is that it’ll feel like a cathartic sad or a satisfying sad and not a ‘What the f---?’ sad, but people are going to have a million different opinions,” White said about the episode. “You just hope you stick the landing.”
