Mike White has carved out quite the niche for himself with The White Lotus. He assembles impressive casts, films in exotic locations funded by HBO, and delves into the interactions between wealthy Westerners and local customs, inhabitants, and other unusual elements. The upcoming season of the anthology series, revolving around possibly the most brutal resort chain in existence, will unfold in Thailand.

THE WHITE LOTUS SEASON 3: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: On a tree branch in a rainforest, a monkey observes a quiet lagoon.

The Overview: The latest installment is set at a resort, where a college student named Nicholas Duvernay is engaged in a one-on-one meditation session with a staff member named Shalini Peiris. Suddenly, amidst the guidance from the staff member, gunfire is heard. Pandemonium breaks out, prompting the student to navigate through a murky lagoon to locate his mother, who is praying towards a Buddha statue and invoking Jesus. Amidst his struggle in the water, a lifeless body drifts past him face down.

Events take a step back to a week prior, when fresh guests arrive at The White Lotus wellness retreat in Thailand. As the newcomers approach on a boat, Mook, one of the health mentors, catches a ride with Gaitok, a security guard, as her scooter malfunctions. Gaitok playfully flirts with her during the ride. Meanwhile, the resort’s manager, Fabian, seeks assurance from co-owner Sritala Hollinger that everything is in order to welcome the guests. Hollinger instructs Fabian to have the boat “cruise the bay,” leaving him bewildered by the directive.

The guests arrive, already tense. The Ratliffs are from North Carolina: Timothy (Jason Isaacs) is a businessperson of some sort and seems grumpy about being on vacation, especially when his family’s health mentor, Pam (Morgana O’Reilly), suggests they give up their phones for the week. His wife Victoria (Parker Posey) is fighting off jet lag. Oldest son Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) is strangely horny; daughter Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook) wants to interview a monk at a local Buddhist monastery for her thesis; teenage son Lochlan (Sam Nivola) doesn’t quite know exactly where he stands.

Three friends are on a girls’ trip: Jaclyn Lemon (Michelle Monaghan), an actress with a TV show that’s well-known enough that it was seen in Thailand, and her friends Laurie (Carrie Coon) and Kate (Leslie Bibb). They all seem to overcompliment each other about how great they look and how they’re killing it as they try to “have it all,” but one of the three isn’t feeling quite as good as the others say they are.

Rick Hatchett (Walton Goggins) shows up with his free-spirited girlfriend Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood). She’s not really interested in any of the wellness stuff; he wants to meet Sritala’s husband Jim (Scott Glenn). He’s also quite stressed and angry.

Finally, Belinda Lindsey (Natasha Rothwell), a spa manager from the White Lotus resort in Maui, is there on a three-month program where she is supposed to learn from the staff there and bring the knowledge back to her resort. After what has been going on in Maui over the last couple of years, she can stand the time away, and she’ll be joined by her son Zion as soon as he’s done with finals.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The first two seasons of The White Lotus; as we mentioned before the second season two-and-a-half-years ago, writer/director Mike White has stuck with a pattern in this series, despite bringing in different terrible characters to do terrible things to each other. That pattern works because of the usually stellar casts he assembles.

Our Take: The pattern of The White Lotus is pretty well-established by now: We see an in medias res opening where something tragic and bloody happens: A body is found, shots ring out, something that shatters the calm of the setting we’re in. Then we flash back to seeing the new guests of that particular White Lotus resort come in, get greeted by the staff, then go about being terrible. We also get a fair amount of class conflict via the perspective of staff members, locals or both.

The first episode of each season doesn’t tend to reveal all that much, but it does give us an idea of just how terrible most of these people are. We are fascinated with the Ratliffs, for instance, mainly because Timothy is perpetually angry and is upset over something that is being reported about one of his companies in the Wall Street Journal. And Saxon is just strange, thinking he can hit on any woman at the pool then talk about jerking off to porn to his younger brother in a way that seems to be much weirder than locker room talk.

Rick has an agenda, but we don’t know what it is; it’ll likely be what he pursues as she pursues a friendship with an expat model (Charlotte Le Bon) with a mysteriously familiar boyfriend. And there’s a phoniness to Jaclyn, Laurie and Kate that will crack pretty quickly; in fact, in a typically powerful Carrie Coon moment, we see that Laurie is already starting to crack.

The person we want to see the most of is Rothwell, reprising her role as Belinda from Season 1. We loved Rothwell during that season, as well as during her just-canceled Hulu comedy How To Die Alone, and we know she can take the mantle Jennifer Coolidge left of being tied to the franchise and show the range of what it involves, from the dramatic to the emotional to the frightening to the hilarious.

Sex and Skin: A little bit of nudity from Patrick Schwarzenegger as Saxon, who actually called his sister “hot” when talking to Lochlan.

Parting Shot: Like in the first two seasons, we pull away from an open window, as if someone is watching who is inside. This time, it’s Timothy and Victoria, doing the things longtime married couples do in bed, which is look at their individual devices.

Sleeper Star: We’re curious to see Lalisa Manobal as Mook, and not just because she’s Lisa in BLACKPINK.

Most Pilot-y Line: Lachlan wears a t-shirt for a defunct bank chain that says “Talk To Me About A Reality Check.” Is this supposed to be some cool vintage t-shirt that he found on eBay somewhere?

Our Call: STREAM IT. Wven though the beats of the story in Season 3 of The White Lotus may seem familiar, we’re still on board, given the people that are playing those beats.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.