Mike White, the creator of “The White Lotus”, has responded to complaints from Season 3 viewers who felt the show’s pacing was too slow. Some fans criticized the latest season, which ran its longest yet with eight episodes, for being dull and dragging on. Even the finale, which was 87 minutes long, was seen as overly stretched by some.
“The White Lotus” Season 3 Criticism
White addressed these critiques during an appearance on “The White Lotus” podcast, acknowledging that the pacing had upset some viewers. “The pacing and the vibe… it definitely gets under their skin,” he explained. “There was complaining about how there’s no plot. That part I find weird. It never did… part of me is just like bro, this is the vibe. I’m world-building.”
Despite the mixed reactions, “The White Lotus” Season 3 captured viewers’ attention. The finale still attracted a record-breaking 6.2 million viewers, surpassing the show’s previous viewership high by 30%.
“The White Lotus” Season 4 Tease
Now that Season 3 has concluded, fans are speculating about where White will take the series next. The creator hinted at a shift in tone for the fourth season. “For the fourth season, I want to get a little bit out of the crashing waves of rocks vernacular, but there’s always more room for more murders at the White Lotus hotels,” White teased.
In the same podcast interview, White shared a detail about one of the most “disappointing” cuts he had to make from the finale. He explained that a scene where Piper loses her virginity to Belinda’s son, Zion, was ultimately removed. “She decides to lose her virginity in the script in the last episode,” White said. “There’s this whole scene where she’s like, ‘It’s true. Saxon is right about this one thing. I need to get this over with.’ And you know how after she leaves the monastery she’s just like, ‘I need to have sex.’” However, the scene was cut due to its length. “It was like, it’s already an hour and a half. It would have added 10 minutes to the thing. And it had a little bit of a rom-com vibe in the middle of trying to kill the family with the pong pong fruits. It just felt like I was trying to do too much narratively,” White explained.
For fans eager to hear more from the creator, White’s full interview is available on The White Lotus official podcast. “The White Lotus” is streaming on Max.
