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The reception to the final episode of The White Lotus season 3 has been more of a massacre than its brutal ending.

Spoilers ahead.

Forget the shootout that erupts throughout the luxury Thai resort in the show’s final moments, there have been more shots fired by critics.

The series finale was deemed a ‘crushing disappointment’ and a ‘waste of time’ for Forbes writer Erik Kain, while Adam White in The Independent said it was a ‘bad’ season.

Viewers also accused The White Lotus of being ‘boring’ because of its slower pace.

But everyone who falls into the ‘hater’ camp is missing the prestige drama’s point entirely.

The White Lotus, even though it is sometimes billed as such, is not intended to be a thriller with implausible plot twists and cliffhangers like a Scandi Noir or any Harlan Coben show on Netflix. It is, at its heart, a character study.

This is most pertinently explored in the toxic friendship between Laurie (Carrie Coon), Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan) and Kate (Leslie Bibb). Arguably, not much happens with them aside from catty comments and an epic bender.

Yet in the final’s stand-out scene, Laurie, out of the blue, announces their holiday has made her feel ‘so sad.’ It dawns on her that her life has just been one bad decision after the other.

She expresses regret for devoting her soul to a career that hasn’t loved her back and for previously committing to a long-term relationship with the wrong man. It is time, she says, that has ultimately given her life meaning.

Time to make mistakes, learn, take accountability and ultimately live. It’s a deeply human monologue and one all viewers can relate to.

The White Lotus also examines the corrupting effects of wealth, power and greed on the human psyche, and this is aptly illustrated by Belinda’s (Natasha Rothwell) character arc.

In season one, we saw her life in tatters after Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge) offers to change her life by funding a salon business, only to U-turn at the eleventh hour.

In season three, she has returned as a lowly-paid therapist, but this time she has a bargaining chip. After questioning the morality of accepting cash from Greg (Jon Gries) in exchange for her silence over his involvement in Tanya’s murder, she goes in hard and asks for even more dosh: $5million, to be precise.

Having been slighted herself, does she then use that money for good? No. Like Tanya before her, she swiftly tells her lover, fellow therapist Pornchai (Dom Hetrakul) that she no longer wants to go into business with him and the betrayal is worse given Belinda’s backstory and her romantic intimacy with Porrnchai.

The White Lotus puts forward the deeply uncomfortable truth that most people, no matter how good, will compromise their morality for the right price.

The other major complaint levelled at The White Lotus’s third season lacks entertainment value.

But this is wrong. While the final episode is the length of a feature film, it packs all the punches of a Shakespearan tragedy.

This is keenly felt in the Ratliff family’s final day at The White Lotus. We have suicidal father, Jason Isaacs’ Timothy, nearly killing off every member of his family, bar his hapless son Lochlan (Sam Nivola), with a poisoned pina colada to spare them the pain of being poor after his secret bankruptcy.

After their first sips, panic clouds Timothy’s face, and he smacks the drink out of their hands. Except the next day, Lochlan unknowingly drinks from the spiked cocktail and collapses by the pool.

It is great TV and I won’t hear otherwise. All the elements are there: A ridiculous family murder-suicide plot, death by a darkly hilarious means and a father’s anguish at unwittingly killing the one person he sought to save.

Yes, Lochlan eventually survives, but his near-death is a gripping narrative device. He is the ultimate red herring for the real deaths to keep viewers guessing until the final moments.

When you do learn that in the body bags are doomed couple Rick (Walton Goggins) and Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood), it’s an emotional suckepunch.

Rick finally avenges his father’s murder by shooting who he thinks is his killer Jim (Scott Glenn), only to learn that he is his father. To add to his agonising pain, Chelsea gets fatally wounded in the subsequent crossfire just hours after they proclaimed their ‘forever’ love to each other.

At least Rick is put out of his misery, as he also gets shot to death with Chelsea’s lifeless body scooped up in his arms.

It is a devastating ending and all the more so because Chelsea, with her goofy charm, is The White Lotus’s most likeable character to date.

The key to any successful drama is to make viewers care and I was in tears as the life extinguished out of her. While it is painful to say, the right people died for the purposes of gripping television.

No one would’ve cared if any of the other characters had died. I would have instantly forgotten the show if finance bro Saxon (Patrick Schwarzengger) had popped his clogs, for example. Creator Mike White crafted the conclusion expertly for dramatic effect.

Sure, The White Lotus’s ending is unsatisfying in that the good characters become bad, and the morally bankrupt always get off scot-free, but it holds up a mirror to a society that is more often than not cruelly unjust. That, I think, is the point of the show.

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing jess.austin@metro.co.uk. 

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Netflix viewers have spent their weekends binge-watching ‘disturbing but satisfying’ Korean crime thriller.

K-drama Karma, which follows the ‘intertwined lives of six characters whose fateful decisions plunge them into a relentless cycle of retribution’, dropped on the streamer on Friday.

The main characters include a desperate debtor who uncovers a 500 million won insurance policy on his father’s life and begins plotting, a woman who comes face-to-face with the source of her darkest nightmares and a reckless driver who tries to erase evidence of his crime, only to find himself at the mercy of a witness demanding hush money.

On X, viewers have been raving about the ‘mind-blowing’ six-part drama.

Among them was @RamasScreen, who said: ‘Karma was yet another crazy K-drama from Netflix. Disturbing & satisfying all at once. Stellar cast, stellar performances, brilliant twists & turns. An insane dance between consequences and actions. What goes around comes back around has never been this wild.’

Echoing their sentiment, @daheeverse wrote: ‘#Karma is straight up intense & full of twists from start to finish. A fateful thriller that intertwines six individuals through karma & crime, such a solid cast + perfect for binge-ing!’

@fatumayattani raved: ‘This show is one of the most mind-blowing thrillers I’ve ever watched. Every episode leaves you speechless. Highly recommend! #karma #KarmaOnNetflix.’

@boosqoowoo also added: ‘The lesson from #karma is “what goes around, comes around” The plot twists were insane…’

Karma’s synopsis explains: ‘In Karma, disparate lives intertwine under the ominous shadow of an unbreakable fate. The story revolves around a witness to an accident, a physician traumatized by nightmares, a man whose world was upended by an unexpected event, and another man drowning in private loans. Each one is bound by the inescapable ties of a terrible destiny, weaving a gripping crime thriller following those trapped by ill-fated entanglements.’

Karma was adapted from Kakao webtoon Karma and written and directed by Lee Il-hyung, who made the box office hit A Violent Prosecutor.

Park Hae-soo plays the Witness, Shin Min-a as Ju-yeon, Lee Hee-jun as the Debtor, Kim Sung-kyun as Gil-ryong and Lee Kwang-soo (Running Man) plays Glasses while Gong Seung-yeon is Yu-jeong.

Karma is not the only thriller gripping Netflix viewers.

They have also been devouring every episode of British psychological drama The Replacement, which shot to the top of the UK charts the week it was dropped on the streaming platform.

First hitting screens in 2017, the three-part series was written by Joe Ahearne, who has also worked on Doctor Who and This Life.

Set in Glasgow, it stars Morven Christie as Ellen Rooney, a successful architect who gets pregnant while working on a big project.

When her firm decides to bring in maternity cover, Ellen is impressed by architect prodigy Paula Reece (Vicky McClure), who is returning from a career break after raising her daughter.

The synopsis reads: ‘Initially Ellen and Paula get on, but Ellen begins to fear Paula is taking over her professional and personal life. Paula wastes no time in moving in on Ellen’s bosses, clients and friends, and Ellen fears she is being forced out. Everyone thinks Paula is great and Ellen is being paranoid, until a site accident puts Ellen’s suspicions into overdrive…’

The show, which holds a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, was praised by critics.

Morven Christie as Ellen and Vicky McClure as Paula, her too-good-to-be-true replacement, are pitch-perfect in Joe Ahearne’s tale, which started out as a thriller in the Hitchcock mode and then took a twist into crime caper territory,’ Metro’s review read.

‘It’s a joyously bonkers, highly psychological melodrama that starts with a foot in reality and then runs wild. It’s ridiculously addictive, though,’ The Guardian wrote.

‘There’s nothing quite like an emotion-shredding potboiler to get the blood up… The Replacement proved just the ticket,’ The Telegraph added.

A version of this article was first published on March 19.

Karma is available to stream on Netflix.

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The White Lotus season 3 is in the bag after a bloody and heartbreaking finale but don’t fear, murder mystery fans – we’ve got you covered.

If you’re looking for your next binge watch and fancy a crime thriller to keep you going, there are plenty of options to watch for free thanks to some streamers here in the UK.

There’s need to pay for a subscription, with all of these shows available to stream in full on either BBC iPlayer or ITVX.

From raunchy murder mysteries to black comedies, there’s something for everyone.

So here we are – seven of our top picks to fill the White Lotus gap without having to fork out.

Towards Zero – BBC iPlayer

Last month, the BBC iPlayer added all three episodes of its latest Agatha Christie TV adaptation Towards Zero.

With a cast boasting the likes of Ajelica Huston and Sex Education’s Mimi Keene, the ‘scandalous’ drama follows an ‘explosive love triangle, a formidable matriarch and a house party of enemies’.

Viewers were left gobsmacked by some of the steamy action, including that moment on the stairs, while the series was praised for turning the Christie style on its head.

Ludwig – BBC iPlayer

David Mitchell’s turn as John Taylor flipped the murder mystery genre last year as BBC finally found what was hailed as the new Jonathan Creek.

His character, who is a world-class puzzle solver writing expert books under the nom de plume Ludwig – has to pose as his twin brother when his sister-in-law Lucy (Anna Maxwell Martin) reveals the police officer has mysteriously disappeared.

The Beeb balanced comedic awkwardness with genuine intrigue without relying on a bunch of cliches.

The Bay – ITVX

The Bay returned to ITV for its fifth season last month – and now it’s all available to binge (or rewatch).

The crime and police drama started in March 2019 with Morven Christie and Marsha Thomason as detectives and family liaison officers in Morecambe.

With audiences of up to six million people, the show was initially centre on two missing teenagers, but now follows various deaths in the Lancashire seaside town.

Inspector Lynley Mysteries

This is a bit of a deep cut which aired between 2001 and 2008, but now’s the right time to revisit The Inspector Lynley Mysteries on iPlayer.

Based on Elizabeth George’s Inspector Lynley crime novels, the original show aired on BBC One, starring Nathaniel Parker and Sharon Small.

Almost two decades after it went off air, a new adaptation is on the way with Leo Suter and Ted Lasso star Sofia Barclay are taking over as ‘brilliant police detective’ Inspector Tommy Lynley and DS Barbara Havers, ‘a sergeant with a maverick attitude and a working-class background’.

North Shore – ITVX

Fans have been raving about North Shore for a while now ever since Cold Feet creator Mike Bullen’s creation first aired in Australia in 2023.

The six-part series follows a British and Australian detective forced to team up and investigate the murder of the British trade minister’s daughter after her body is found in Sydney Harbour.

It’s a cracking cast, with Downtown Abbey and Breathtaking’s Joanne Froggatt playing politician Abigail Crawford, while London based detective Max Drummond (Game of Thrones’ John Bradley) has to partner up with DS Meg Driscoll (Kirsty Sturgess) in a clash of cultures.

Black Snow – BBC iPlayer

We’re staying Down Under for Black Snow, another Australian show which has captured the attention of viewers.

The crime drama starring Vikings’ Travis Fimmel – which first launched in 2023 – is set in 2019 and followed Detective James Cormack as he investigates the cold case murder of 17-year-old Isabel Baker in 1994 in the fictional Australian town of Ashford.

Viewers hailed it as ‘suspenseful’ and ‘superb’, while the second season recently arrived in the UK with all episodes on iPlayer.

Vigil – BBC iPlayer

Earlier this year, BBC announced crime drama Vigil would be returning for a third series.

Filming is set to get underway later this year, with Suranne Jones and Rose Leslie’s characters DCI Amy Silva and DI Kirsten Longacre heading to a remote Arctic research station where ‘A member of a covert British special forces mission has been shot dead’.

There’s a bit of a wait until the third season hits our screens, but the first two series are available to watch in full now.

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Celebrity Big Brother star Mickey Rourke has debuted a bold new look before his appearance on the ITV reality series.

The Oscar-nominated actor, 72, is reportedly joining the brand new Big Brother house later today as the show returns for another year of star-studded chaos hosted by Will Best and AJ Odudu.

The former professional boxer is known for a range of action roles from Angel Heart to Sin City to The Wrestler and now he is pivoting to the British reality scene with a reinvented look.

Although he is rarely seen without a cowboy hat, the screen star is normally seen with a head of grey hair. or occasionally more blonde-looking locks. Sometimes, it is even darker hair with blonde highlights.

But in a new post to his Instagram, Mickey is seemingly wearing a new shoulder-length dark brown wig as he posed with brothers Liam and Ryan Vaughan on his arrival in London.

And it is totally different to hairdos-gone-by,. Although he is continuing the theme of longer hair compared to his close-cut brown hair from the 80s.

He is wearing a grey blazer with a silky shirt, a red sleeve, burgundy scarf and a pair of jeans.

The star is used to transformations, however.

He has previously been candid about the facial surgery he underwent after several boxing injuries left him with a broken nose (twice), shattered cheekbones and more.

In 2009, he told Mail Online: ‘Most of it was to mend the mess of my face because of the boxing, but I went to the wrong guy to put my face back together.’

And added: ‘I had to have cartilage taken from my ear to rebuild my nose and a couple of operations to scrape out the cartilage because the scar tissue wasn’t healing properly.’

The former Masked Singer contestant – who dramatically quit the show – has an estimated net worth of $5 million (£3.8m).

A source told MailOnline that Mickey repeating his past reality show behaviour has been described as the ‘worst case scenario’.

The insider continued: ‘The last time [Mickey] was really big was during The Wrestler, and he like everyone else needs to pay some bills.

‘So doing the show is a no brainer. He’s a producers dream because he has loads of stories, is a loose cannon, he is considered a huge get. 

‘Producers always hope for the train-wreck but being a revelation works as well, if we see a new side of Mickey that could work.’

Mickey is not the only upcoming CBB housemate who is causing a stir with a his hair.

Former Conservative MP Michael Fabricant has regularly been asked about his recognisable hair-do and whether it is a wig.

He has previously called it ‘complicated’ but admitted there was ‘ some — but only some—enhancement of the follicular area.’

Both Mickey and Michael are tipped to be joined in the house by internet sensation JoJo Siwa, talk show host Trisha Goddard, Olympian Daley Thompson and Drag Race star Danny Beard – to name a few.

Celebrity Big Brother returns to ITV and ITVX on Monday, April 7.

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Doctor Who has been given very specific trigger warnings for the animated version of William Hartnell’s classic 1966 adventure, The Savages.

The four-part story follows the First Doctor and his companions Dodo (Jackie Lane) and Steven (Peter Purves) as they land on a mysterious planet that has a two distinct civilisations – the Elders and the Savages.

The synopsis explains: ‘The Tardis arrives on a world [where] a seemingly utopian society enjoy fulfilling, happy lives but it’s discovered they hunt ‘savages’ outside their city to extract their life force.’ Soon enough the Doctor intervenes.

The set of episodes – reanimated by BBC studios using the original audio after the master recordings were wiped – is available on Blu-ray, DVD and Prime Video and warns that the episode ‘reflects the broadcast standards, language and attitudes of its time.’

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has added more detailed trigger warnings alerting viewers of ‘fantasy violence’.

The PG alert for episode two adds: ‘References are made to discrimination and to the exploitation of people by more technologically advanced civilisations.’

And for episode four, it reads: ‘There are verbal references to discrimination and to the discriminatory social structure of an alien society but these are brief, undetailed, and framed within the fictional world of the story.’

This is far from the first time the BBFC has shared trigger warnings in the same vein for the sci-fi show.

In its warning for the season 11 episode, Rosa, which explores the civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks, the board warns of ‘racist themes’.

And even in the first episode of Ncuti Gatwa’s season, Space Babies, it describes ‘references made to a genocide killing off the inhabitants of a planet.’

In episode five, Dot and Bubble, where the Doctor encounters a racist species, it says that ‘a group of white characters refuse The Doctor’s help for reasons that are implicitly to do with his race.’

And adds that the ‘racism is clearly condemned by the main characters’.

Although this latest trigger warning seems to be the most specific, and fictionally-based, yet.

The discussion around trigger warnings has been contentious in recent years with actors such as Matt Smith and Harry Potter’s Ralph Fiennes coming out against them.

The Doctor Who star said he wasn’t sure if he was ‘on board with trigger warnings’ in an interview with Sunday Times.

He added: ‘It’s OK to feel uncomfortable or provoked while looking at a painting or watching a play, but I worry everything’s being dialled and dumbed down. We’re telling audiences they’re going to be scared before they’ve watched something.

‘Isn’t being shocked, surprised, stirred the point?’

In recent years certain viewers have slammed the show for ‘going woke’ with its inclusive storylines.

Elsewhere, new companion Varada Sethu (who plays Belinda Chandra in the upcoming season) has pushed back against the ‘woke’ narrative in a recent interview with Radio Times.

‘There’s been a couple of Doctor Woke [references] or whatever. But I just think we’re doing the right thing if we’re getting comments like that,’ she said.

The Andor star added: ‘Woke just means inclusive, progressive, and that you care about people. And, as far as I know, the core of Doctor Who is kindness, love and doing the right thing.’

If you purchase The Savages animation you will also have access to a 100 minute documentary on the making of the original production and a 90-minute documentary on the life of Doctor Who producer, Innes Lloyd.

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