After a two year delay, we’re jetting off to the lush landscapes of Thailand for the third season of the award-winning The White Lotus. Part scathing social satire, part glossy murder mystery, part holiday inspiration, somehow, we’ll never tire of watching the 1% on their worst behaviour (see also: Succession, Big Little Lies).
Aimee Lou Wood, Jason Isaacs and Michelle Monaghan star in the new season – which The White Lotus creator Mike White has promised will be ‘longer, bigger, crazier’ – but there’s a familiar face in Natasha
Rothwell, aka long-suffering spa manager Belinda from the Hawaii-set first season.
One of the few characters who you can actually root for, Belinda suffered a brutal betrayal when her clingy massage client Tanya (the iconic Jennifer Coolidge) promised to help her set up her own spa, only to abandon the idea a few days later after getting distracted by a holiday romance.
But White decided there was more of Belinda’s story to tell. ‘I was over the moon,’ Rothwell says of receiving the offer to reprise her role. ‘I had to make sure no one was prank-calling me. The cast and the scope of the show is massive now. It’s really cool to see how much it’s grown.’
This season takes aim at the luxury wellness world, exploring the clash between Eastern and Western approaches to spirituality. The pill-added housewives, spoilt trust fund kids and bitchy BFFs at the resort are encouraged to embark on a digital detox, practise meditation and 'find themselves'.
‘It’s interesting exploring the rich and their relationship to the wellness industry in a country that does it for really pure, spiritual reasons,’ says Rothwell. It’s also incredibly funny. The guests engage with the wellness agenda with varying degrees of success – and sincerity. Distractions, from simmering sexual tension (hello, Valentin the hot yoga teacher) to armed robberies in the luxury gift shop – abound.
Belinda is at the resort on an exchange programme for spa practitioners, but she also gets a taste of the high life, staying in a luxury suite with her son during her trip. ‘There is a kind of intoxication when you get to be on the other side; she flirts with the idea of being part of that world, auditioning what it could be like, while also realising that she may not fit there morally.’
The cast got to stay at the resort – which IRL is the Four Seasons Koh Samui, where rooms cost from £1,300 a night – and it would have been remiss of Rothwell not to make the most of the facilities herself. ‘I literally had one of the best massages of my life – I cried afterwards because it was so cathartic,’ she says. ‘One of the perks of being on the show is being able to write off massages on my taxes!’
Watch The White Lotus on Sky Atlantic and NOW from 17 February in the UK. Episodes of the eight-part series will be released on a weekly basis.
Nikki Peach is a writer at Grazia UK, working across pop culture, TV and news. She has also written for the i, i-D and the New Statesman Media Group and covers all things TV for Grazia (treating high and lowbrow shows with equal respect).