The third season of the White Lotus ended – the satirical series HBO about guests and employees of the elite chain of hotels. This time the action takes place in Thailand, and Buddhism plays an important role in the plot. Critic Anton Khitrov tells why the White Lotus is a series with a unique structure, why Showranner Mike White tells several versions of the same story and what role the reference to the Hamlet plays in the third season. There are spoilers in the text. If you do not want to know how the third season of the series ends, return to the review after watching. The third season of the White Lotus went for almost two months, and all this time the series accompanied curious news. In March, for example, Four Seasons, whose elite hotels depict the White Lotus network at the show, launched a tour of the shooting sites. And in April it turned out that among the Russians the demand for clothes and books from the series grew. An amazing thing: although Showranner Mark White has been repeating the third season that premium consumption does not guarantee happiness, the audience is still trying to imitate his heroes (and the corporations are ready to support them in this desire). Of course, fans of the White Lotus can be understood, because, among other things, this is also an incredibly spectacular series. Heroes’ outfits regularly fall on the analysis of fashion magazines, and the landscapes seem to be taken from advertising of the tourist direction, and even change from season to season. The beautiful in the frame is echoing with the beauty of the dramatic structure, which is generally characteristic of TV shows with an elegant plot, full of references and multi-significant internal ties: take, for example, take, for example, take it. “Fargo” Noah Hawley or “Better Call Solu” by Vince Gilligan. Spectacular visual decisions not only hold the attention of the viewer – they emphasize the conventionality of fiction. In the White Lotus a lot of the theater, not even from modern, but from classical tragedy with its powerful heroes, five obligatory acts and three. Like the tragi of the era of classicism, Pierre Cornel or Jean Rasin, White from the season per season should be the same scheme. The place of action is the resort hotel “White Lotus”. The time of action is a week. At the beginning of the first series, he promises that one of the heroes will be killed, but does not specify who exactly. The season begins with the arrival of guests on the ship and ends with their abandonment. There is no protagonist, we share our attention between a dozen characters, among whom there are guests of the hotel, and its employees, and just people living nearby. The heroes are not repeated from season to season, with the exception of one storyline, begun in the debut episode and not finished to this day. This is the story of the mysterious swindler Greg Hunt (John Greise), who in the first season fascinated by the rich heiress Tanya Maccuid (the favorite of the audience Jennifer Kulidge), in the second – set up her murder, and by the third moved to Thailand to live there under a stranger name, and now it risks to be exposed. It is difficult to recall the series, arranged in a similar way. Already mentioned “Fargo”. But if the criminal drama of Noah Hawley once returns to the same scheme, since her heroes live in a sense in the space of the myth, then in the satirical tragicomedy of Mark White the plot patterns arise according to another logic. All the characters of the White Lotus are participants in the capitalist system, which requires about the same thing: to compete and win, and to win, and win, and win. To fix the victory with the necessary attributes of success. The location of the series is symbolic. An elite rest is an image of absolute, indisputable happiness in late capitalism, the highest reward that a person can expect. It is no coincidence that the epithet “Paradise” was firmly fixed behind a variety of resorts. But for the wealthy heroes of the White Lotus, the journey to palm trees and the warm sea is not a happy end at all: even in the earthly paradise they continue to fight for their status or deal with injuries acquired along the way. Those who serve rich tourists often share their value system and seek to replenish their ranks. The rules for all are one, and although individual ideological characters try to go their own way, almost no one succeeds. Hence the regular change of locations. It doesn’t matter in Hawaii in Sicily or in Thailand: people are chasing a consumer ideal everywhere, and having caught up, they experience frustration. It is to show the laws of the system, White creates every season the same scheme, and tells each story in several versions. The carefully thought -out structure of the series as a whole and each season in particular is the main advantage of the “white lotus”. The show can be compared not only with the classical tragedy, but also with a voluminous, multi -figure novel, where all storylines are conceptually interconnected. At once, four heroes in the third season are forced to choose between the norms and their own beliefs accepted in their environment. Young American Piper Ratliff persuades his family to spend a vacation in Thailand – supposedly to take an interview with the Buddhist preacher. In fact, the girl intends to linger for a year in a local monastery, which horrified her successful parents. Gaytok, a guards-a-guinter (Tapthimtong), also professes Buddhism and, accordingly, does not accept violence-therefore, he will rather lose his job than to pick up a weapon. At the same time, the pretty colleague Muk (Fox, the star of the Kay Pop of Thai origin) clearly makes it clear: she will not meet with the sink if he does not advance. Belinda Lindsay, an employee of the Hawaiian “White Lotus” (Natasha Rotwell), who is familiar to us in the first season, comes to Thailand at work, study local wellness practices, and faces Greg, Tanya killer: she almost opened her business with her, but then switched to a resort novel. Greg is ready to pay her a tremendous amount for silence. Belinda does not want to cover the criminal, but also from a long -standing dream of his own spa is not going to just refuse. This four of the rushing heroes are closed by a frankly comedy character named Frank (the brilliant, albeit small role of the Oscar Laureate Sam Rockwell) is a former life burner, not alien to sexual experiments, and now a teetotaler passionate about oriental spirituality. However, this repentant hedonist also has a test. There is also so that one story is ahead of another: that for some heroes the present, for others, is an inevitable future. Belinda under the pressure of the gambling son of Zayon (Nicholas Duvern) accepts Greg’s proposal – and enjoys unexpected wealth: her insolence is rewarded. However, we immediately see the father of the Ratliff family, the prosperous financier Timothy (Jason Isaac, Lucius Malfoy from Harry Potter), who in the very first days of vacation recognizes the terrible news: the authorities learned about some of his old fraud, and now he was threatened with a prison, and his family accustomed to luxury is poverty. There is no reason to think that for Belinda everything will end in fundamentally differently. The separate plot lines of the White Lotus refer not only to each other, but also to the classics. Rick Hacheccocc, the unsociable hero of Walton Goggins, comes to Thailand to avenge the killer of his father, the rich old-American, who once bought half the country, including the local Lotus. The story of Rick is the obvious paraphrase of Hamlet, only Ophelia is fighting for the prince’s soul more actively than that of Shakespeare: Chelsea, the young and vital girlfriend of Hechchet (Aimi Lu Wood), begs him to abandon revenge – and live the future, not the past. But Rick, who grew up without a father and is fixed in his pain, plays the Shakespearean play as a written one, not even forgetting about the “mousetrap” – an idea, conceived to bring the killer to clean water. In the denouement, of course, both Hamlet and Ophelia die. The frame with their bodies in the stream unequivocally resembles the picture of John Mille on the plot of the tragedy. A transparent analogy with Hamlet makes Shakespeare’s motives see in neighboring stories: several characters pairs resemble McBet and his wife, an indecisive sink and ambitious torment at once – only the most obvious example. Paralls with textbook texts emphasize the doom of heroes unable to break out of the cultural matrix. However, not all guests of the “white lotus” get a bad end. In a paradoxically in the Universe, Mike White needs to lose and put up with defeat to win – if not in the eyes of loved ones, then at least in the eyes of the audience. Timothy Ratliff is attempting to suicide and even the killing of relatives: he is unbearable that his wife and children will endure poverty – and even blame him, the father of the family, in the loss of the usual lifestyle. However, almost having lost his youngest son, he finally finds the strength to tell the truth and accept the consequences of his actions: love for the family is stronger than the fear of losing their respect. Saxon, the first -born Timothy (Patrick Schwarzenegger), a pompous macho, a sexist and, in general, at first the most repulsive hero of the season, hopes to sleep with Chelsea, a girl of Rick. When she rejects him, he, who had recently not believed either in love or fidelity, suddenly begins to review his views. Laurie, a divorced lawyer from New York (Carrie Kun), envies his married friends, especially the movie star Jacqueline (Michelle Mnegen), still popular among men. But the long -standing friendship eventually turns out to be more important to her than victory in an unwritten competition. It is only a defeat – and not an intentional attempt by a rebellion – helps the heroes of the White Lotus cope with selfishness and violate the usual patterns of behavior. In essence, White’s super-task in his show is to give new definitions “Winner” and “Loser”, words that occupy such an important place in the American, and in global culture. “The raft” is a telegram channel where they speak of a culture in the era of bad news. Every day, the editors of Medusa Sofya Vorobyova and Anton Khitrov talk about cinema, series, music, literature and contemporary art. Subscribe: we will be saved together in the storm. “White Lotus”, Judging by the first episodes, the 3rd season, we are waiting for a terrible parable about death (without Jennifer Coolidge). An important role in the series will be played by the Thai Monkeys “White Lotus”, the 3rd season judging by the first episodes, we will be awaiting a terrible parable of death (without Jennifer Culidge). An important role in the series will play Thai monkeys (Tagstotranslate) News