The White Lotus Season 3
Just by discussing The White Lotus Season 3, you reveal who you are — and I'm so glad I waited for the whole season to stream because I ate this story up. So far, this season — with the exception that Tanya is still my favorite character — has been my best viewing experience of the whole bundle. I never found it boring, because for me, the story didn't stretch across many weeks waiting for new episodes to drop. Instead, I was able to dive into it over just four days, and because of that, I appreciated it even more.
The director really pulls something special here and gets away with his raw and tough social commentary by showing us the lives of mostly rich people — yet in the end, I was able to recognize myself in so many of them. I think people fail to see themselves in these characters because they're rich, but I'm both cursed and gifted with the clarity and awareness of who I am as a person and how multifaceted a human being can be. Because of that, I saw not only my flaws reflected in the show, but also my strengths. I thought about it yesterday, and this point of view I have is not only a gateway for change — it's also a way to love the person I truly am and to become more forgiving, even of my worst actions. The question is: Am I Laurie, or am I Chelsea?
The truth is, I saw myself in many of the characters this season, which is a huge testimony to how well the director understands human nature. Characters like Belinda and Gaitok and their vile choices on their way up — and those who deserved empathy, even when they tried to kill their own family because of their mistakes. I felt compassion and empathy for each character, especially Chelsea, whose naive, kind, and loving nature ended up getting her killed. Her connection to Rick's pain, which turned his life into a living hell, and her unwavering desire to save his soul — that speaks volumes about who I am in this moment was magnetic. Because we change, and time flies, and we can pin different eras of ourselves onto these characters — seeing our deepest weaknesses and strongest parts, examining our choices, and seeing beyond the walls of the persona we often present to others, we have to be more understanding of one another. Like Laurie, who had the best short monologue at the end, recognizing how precious the time she lived was — and how the people around her are a part of her lifeline. That got me in tears. These two characters felt like two intense points of view presented by Mike White:
If someone says they've never been like that — I probably wouldn't believe them. Life is short when you look forward, but when you look back, it's so rich. We are all full of everything — experiencing so many moments of joy, hate, betrayal, happiness, pain, sadness, sorrow, and pleasure. It's mind-boggling how desperate we sometimes are to escape from most of it, just to fit into one lane that represents us to the world in our best light. Or how we avoid those feelings by diving into distraction, never able to understand and forgive ourselves.
I found each character fascinating and real, even those that were at a secondary level in my mind. I was also really drawn to the characters chasing ambition and getting lost in the possibilities of their imagination — like Pornchai and Mook, or Belinda's son, who ultimately transformed his mother into Tanya. The evil husband of Tanya, whose soul was clearly burning somewhere else, added a thread that kept the whole series connected and gave it even deeper meaning — a sense of how the world keeps spinning.
Speaking of deeper meaning — Timothy's meeting with the monk was my second favorite scene, after Laurie's monologue. The idea that chasing pleasure leads to pain, and the conversation they had about the ongoing theme of my life — death — was incredible. The monk's comforting explanation of our deepest pain — that life is a temporary separation from the ocean we once left when we were born — was the most beautiful and calming description of death I've ever heard.
Those two scenes — Chelsea realizing that not god or religion, but time gave meaning to her life, and that she was happy just to be at the table with her girls, no matter the challenges — and the monk explaining the calming simplicity of life to Timothy, who finally found peace and courage on the boat, looking at those drops jumping from the hitting waves endlessly — are cemented in my mind as two of the best television moments I've ever seen.
Iliya Badev
Comments
Post a Comment