The brilliance of the ‘big, blonde blob’ in ‘The White Lotus’

If there was an Emmy category for outstanding passive-aggressive performance by a female in a drama series, the trio of women exchanging loaded glances over goblets of wine and slices of vibrant fruit on “The White Lotus” this season would be in the fight of their lives.

Watching the trio of female best friends on Season 3 of “The White Lotus” exchange loaded glances over goblets of wine and pieces of vibrant fruit, you might find yourself reacting the same way “Great British Bake Off” judge Paul Hollywood would to a perfectly executed Schichttorte: Look at those incredible layers! The actresses portraying said pernicious pride of liberated lionesses are, of course, delivering exactly what creator Mike White ordered when he conceived the roles. Speaking on the show’s official companion podcast, Michelle Monaghan – one third of the triangle completed by Carrie Coon and Leslie Bibb – shared that White envisioned the three women as “a big, blonde blob,” interchangeable figures whose toxic positivity was perhaps an even more recognizable shared trait than their physical attributes. “I think what’s really relatable with the three ladies is the way that we explore the way that we’ve been conditioned as women to compare ourselves to one another, to judge ourselves – this thing that we’re always confronted with our own life’s choices and questioning our very lives based on other women’s failures or successes,” Monaghan said. The podast’s host put it even more succinctly: “There is a specifically feminized way of laundering the most unkind impulses through the most kind language.” Here lies the characters’ utter brilliance. In a series that tricks you into thinking the biggest questions are “Who died?” and “Who did it?,” the blonde blob challenges us to ask darker ones. Do we love them? Do we hate them? Are we them!?