‘White Lotus’ Season 3 mixed bag without Jennifer Coolidge: review

Checking in. 

HBO’s dramedy hit “The White Lotus” is back (premiering Sunday, Feb. 16 at 9 p.m. on HBO and streaming on Max). This time, it’s all aboard for Thailand. 

Season 3 is slightly more subdued than the previous two seasons, and may be divisive. Nevertheless, when “True Detective” had a bad season, it was unwatchable. When “The White Lotus” falters, it’s still broadly entertaining.

Each season of the Emmy-winning show (which has already been renewed for a Season 4) can mostly be watched as a stand-alone, following a new cast of characters on vacation in a new location.

But, a few stray characters and plot lines carry over. In the first two seasons, it was the delusional heiress Tanya McQuoid (Jennifer Coolidge) before she died at the end of Season 2. Now, Season 3 brings back Season 1’s Belinda (Natasha Rothwell), an employee from the resort’s Hawaii branch.  

Similar to past seasons, Season 3 begins with an implied fatal incident at a branch of the titular resort. The story then jumps back to a week earlier, as we watch various unhappy rich people begin their extravagant vacations and it’s gradually revealed what led to the catastrophe.

This time, there’s the dysfunctional age-gap couple, Rick (Walton Goggins) and his much younger girlfriend, Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood, “Sex Education”). If any character is Tanya’s successor, it may be Chelsea, who constantly calls Rick “old” and “balding,” but also earnestly calls him her “soulmate.”

There’s also dysfunctional WASP Southern family, Timothy Ratliff (Jason Isaacs), his drugged-up wife Victoria (Parker Posey) who keeps thinking they’re in China, and their three college-aged kids: Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook), Lochlan (Sam Nivola) and Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger).

Rounding out the vacationers is a trio of forty-something childhood friends who are reuniting for a girls trip: Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan), Kate (Leslie Bibb) and Laurie (Carrie Coon). 

The elephant in the room is, how is the show without Jennifer Coolidge? The answer is, “a mixed bag.” 

“The White Lotus” was right to kill off Tanya. Otherwise, it would have run that character into the ground, similar to what the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise did with Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow, who started as a zany, scene-stealing side character and grew into a tedious caricature of himself as those movies overused him.

But it’s also apparent that creator Mike White and his team haven’t figured out how to write around the hole left by her absence. Tanya had to go, but in its first season without her, “The White Lotus” flails a bit to find its footing.

As usual, the show is visually stunning. It will make you want to rush to book a trip to Thailand. The cast is stellar, if underutilized, as the story spreads itself thin jumping around to cover them all. Everyone is fun to watch, but it doesn’t feel like some of the best actors like Goggins and Coon are given enough meaty material. The first few episodes mostly have Rick mope — surely there’s a better way to use one of TV’s finest actors.

The “locals and hotel staff” plotline isn’t bad, but it’s less vibrant this season. Staffers like Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong) are likeable enough, but they’re too normal. They lack the entertainment value and spark that the sex workers had in Sicily in Season 2, or Armond (Murray Bartlett), the manic hotel manager, had in Season 1. 

Viewers who want the characters to engage in unhinged behavior right away might be disappointed. It does happen in fits and bursts. It’s possible that it will happen more in the final two episodes (which HBO didn’t make available for review). But Season 3 feels like the show takes longer to get cooking than it did in the previous two seasons. 

Schwarzenegger’s character isn’t given much personality aside from “being horny.” There’s a limit to how interesting that is to watch. There’s also a bizarre development with him later in the season that’s sure to raise eyebrows, and feels like the show is going for shock value over believable behavior. 

Despite Season 3’s flaws, there’s still a lot to like. The show’s central premise of “rich people behaving badly on vacation” amidst a lush backdrop — with a light murder mystery thrown in — is still a winner.

“The White Lotus” remains an entertaining show that’s sure to make for watercooler conversations.