White Lotus Season 3 Finale: Good, The Critics Agree with Me 😂

Okay, good, the critics agree with me about this season (see my post below), as they pointed out some of the same loopholes that I did, and they, too, still have questions about things that didn't quite match up, so it's NOT just me being overly analytical (again).  😂

This season was too slow, too disjointed, it made us all go back and watch the opening scene to try to match things that didn't match. 

As one critic put it "It wasn't ... satisfying."

Bingo.

It wasn't all bad - I loved the spiritual bend in this one - but as much as Mike White's societal satire hits the nail on the head about the narcissism of wealth - particularly Americans -I'm not sure Mike White himself understands that Buddhism isn't just about letting go  of/ending our own personal suffering, it's about ending ALL suffering -  including ways to free others suffering of others?

(More on our Western approach to Buddhism later.)

One thing they mentioned that I didn't, in my post below, was about the three fake b*tches storyline (perhaps because I didn't care what happened to them one way or the other 😂) 

Laurie's speech at the end is so true in general, and she nails it acting wise, but I don't think their experiences earned that very real, very transparent speech and subsequent rebonding session.  Two seconds of honesty doesn't earn that kind of trust back, when you've spent the week fake-smiling, pretending your lives are great, competing with and lying to each other?

Perhaps if they'd had their near-death experience before the speech, it would've made more sense, much like Timothy Ratliff almost losing Lochy made him wake up to what he was doing?

About that, one of the critics mentioned something I said out loud at the time, but didn't mention in my below post: "I know Lochy sees that sludge in the blender. His dad just knocked the glasses out of their hands before they drank the poison, telling them the coconut milk was bad! So he says to himself 'Yummm, let me drink bad coconut milk?" What? I know teenagers like to do what you tell them not to, but I doubt that would happen."

Mark said "I've given up on this season making much sense. I'm starting not to care, it's so slow and full of holes. " 😂

And I love the stuff the Buddhist monk says ... and I get the whole thing was about letting go of the ties that bind you, letting go of the illusion of control and letting the timing be the timing ... but I'm not sure anyone really fully learned that lesson, besides maybe the Ratliffs?

I dunno, though.  Once they get back to North Carolina, when sh*t gets real and now they need to survive with no money, let's see how well they let go and truly realize it's all just stuff and what's important that the people you love are alive and healthy.  They've had a lifetime of privilege, so we shall see.

In fact, besides Rick giving in to his blind-lust for revenge, Belinda and Gaitok - our other favorite characters besides Chelsea -  may have gotten what they thought they wanted at the expense of their souls, entrenching themselves further in their own ties binding them.

Also, Belinda's son with an MBA saying "Good things happen to good people" is not only ridiculously naive in general (I can name you 30 people off the top of my head that's not true for)  but the best -hearted character on the show was just killed, so?

Lastly, I'm no expert on Buddhism, by any means - and the lessons he presents are great - but I'm not sure Mike White himself really gets it.

Because the main tenet of Buddhism is to end ALL suffering where you see it ... not just your own. 

Mindfulness/meditation are great for relieving your stress, radically accepting what happens around you, and maybe makes you an easier person to be around, but they do nothing for the suffering of others.

That's unfortunately the part of Buddhism that we've appropriated selfishly, in our typical American selfish way, rather than acknowledging the full tenet:  End ALL suffering - not just your own. 

Of course, it's important to try to relieve your own stress first before you can help others, sure - but very few Westerners practicing mindfulness/meditation go on to that next step of helping end others' suffering, too. 

So as much as Mike White wants to chide the narcissism of rich people, methinks if he really wants to hit that out of the park, there should've been a lesson on helping others, too, not just figuring out what's most important in their own messy lives, right?

As I say that, now I'm off to do my taxes and worry about paying my own bills, the tariff war, and stock markets crashing - so physician, heal thyself? 😂