re: White Lotus S3 Discussion (spoilers)

In each of the first two seasons, White tells stories about straight male characters who are cut off from their masculinity and then find it.

In season 1, the Mossbacher men begin the show emasculated by the women in their family. By the end, Mark has demonstrated his prowess by fighting off his wife’s attacker and Quinn does what every man has to do: separate himself from his family to strike out on his own in a risky adventure.

Despite the douchey exterior, Shane is the most fully formed masculine figure across all 3 seasons. He understands who he is, his place in the world, and what he wants. Yeah, his mom showing up to the hotel is odd, but he never asked her to do it and smartly avoids a scene. He also uses the opportunity to assert to Rachel that she is his wife and that she is now part of his family. All he tells Rachel is how much he wants to make her happy, protect her, and provide a financially stable life. His frustrations and irritations come from Armand going out of his way to prevent Shane from offering her the perfect honeymoon. On the surface, his actions seem selfish, but he demonstrates that he will not be cheated, duped, or embarrassed especially when he’s in the right.

In season 2, Ethan begins the season deferring to the more outwardly domineering Cameron and allows him to pull him into situations that he worries will piss Harper off. He can’t initiate sex with his wife and consistently chooses porn over her, causing her to fall for Cameron’s advances. By the end, he learns to assert himself physically over Cameron by almost drowning him in the ocean. He screws Cameron’s wife to avenge himself then reclaims his own wife by bedding her aggressively.

Albie follows his father’s path by taking his pleasure from a prostitute as revenge for Portia passing him over for the more dangerous Jack. Lucia’s con working on him is an important educational experience where he begins to understand how women work via rejection and manipulation of “nice guys.” His quip to Portia in the airport that he “got played” demonstrates that he sees the error of his naïveté and will assert himself more strongly with Portia going forward.

I see a similar dynamic happening with Saxon and Lochlan. Saxon is pulling Lochlan out of the circle of women. Lochlan’s posture session demonstrates that he is disconnected from himself and his own masculinity. I expect Lochlan to go through some kind of initiation this season that pulls him away from his sister and into the world of men.

We’re also seeing this dynamic play out with Goggins’s Rick who is having to come to terms with the loss of his relationship with his father. He’s had no lasting male initiation experience and has been living a life disconnected from purpose and meaning. He’s right to go to Bangkok against Chelsea’s requests thus enabling him to enter into danger as a means to test himself against it.

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What a letdown of a season. Going to sit the rest of this one out, may binge it on a long flight or something but it just lacks basic entertainment.

Loved first 2 seasons fwiw, this just feels like it's missing the mark.

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And see, I think this season is far and away better than S2. I liked S2, but this season just has better characters and a better dynamic of the underlying "thing" that happens (a bunch of shite leading to a shooting/mass shooting). That is far more intriguing to me than anything in S2 (sans maybe the Plaza/husband story and the hookers).

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Despite the douchey exterior, Shane is the most fully formed masculine figure across all 3 seasons. He understands who he is, his place in the world, and what he wants. Yeah, his mom showing up to the hotel is odd, but he never asked her to do it and smartly avoids a scene. He also uses the opportunity to assert to Rachel that she is his wife and that she is now part of his family. All he tells Rachel is how much he wants to make her happy, protect her, and provide a financially stable life. His frustrations and irritations come from Armand going out of his way to prevent Shane from offering her the perfect honeymoon. On the surface, his actions seem selfish, but he demonstrates that he will not be cheated, duped, or embarrassed especially when he’s in the right.

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This is quite the spin for a spoiled mama's boy throwing a tempertantrum when he doesn't get what he wants.

I agree with everything else though.

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This is quite the spin for a spoiled mama's boy throwing a tempertantrum when he doesn't get what he wants.

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expect he was right about the hotel screwing him every step of the way. He might be a spoiled doucher but he had every right to be bitching at the hotel. They booked the wrong room, charged him more, sent him on a crazy boat ride and then took a shite in his bag.

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I'm pretty sure that is the gays boat that the murders happened on right? Looks exactly the same.

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It’s not. The gays had a monohull and Gary/Greg’s is a catamaran.

Shane and Saxon are two of my favorite characters on the show

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Despite the douchey exterior, Shane is the most fully formed masculine figure across all 3 seasons. He understands who he is, his place in the world, and what he wants. Yeah, his mom showing up to the hotel is odd, but he never asked her to do it and smartly avoids a scene. He also uses the opportunity to assert to Rachel that she is his wife and that she is now part of his family. All he tells Rachel is how much he wants to make her happy, protect her, and provide a financially stable life. His frustrations and irritations come from Armand going out of his way to prevent Shane from offering her the perfect honeymoon. On the surface, his actions seem selfish, but he demonstrates that he will not be cheated, duped, or embarrassed especially when he’s in the right.

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Meh. Cameron, Dom, Bert, and probably Ethan from S2 are all more masculine than Shane. After a rewatch I did change my thoughts on Shane about the room, but he is still a pussy. Not just a douche. I'm sorry but having your mom show up on your honeymoon is unacceptable and he was perfectly ok with it and was a sign of what Rachel was going to be in for with their entire marriage. Any non puss would have told her as soon as she showed up that that was unacceptable and she needed to go. If not right away, the next day. While he was justified in a complaint that the room was wrong, he 100% could have just dropped it. It was clear that they actually were put in a better room. Just listen to your wife and drop it. Happy wife, happy life. I liked his character, but acting like he is the most fully formed masculine character to be on the show is doing some mental gymnastics.

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White gives us a glimpse into his flaw of obsessing over it, but it’s his honeymoon. He wants everything to be perfect.

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It was also her honeymoon. She was completely happy with the room. Drop it. It was literally a better room. The other room didn't have an ocean view and when he was told that Shane clearly realized it wasn't as nice of a room, he just couldn't let it go. I'm not saying the hotel was in the right, but he was being a giant baby. Because he is a giant baby.

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Gary’s girlfriend was smoking in that pink bathing suit. Damn.

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Speaking of beautiful....