Editor’s note: The following essay assumes familiarity with all three seasons of The White Lotus. Spoilers are included throughout.
I.
When it premiered in 2021, 55-year-old Mike White’s award-winning HBO black-comedy/drama The White Lotus was a river that carried its audience briskly along with tight and inventive plotting, lively characters, acerbic dialogue, and a lean cluster of ensemble performances. But by season three, the series had swollen into a Nile delta of sluggish distributary rivulets, most of which went nowhere and were populated by deeply uninteresting people. The show retained some vehement defenders among fans and critics alike, but by the time it lumbered into its finale in April of this year, many of those who stayed the course agreed that the third season had been a big letdown.
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