The White Lotus [HBO] Spoilers

Thelonious Monk · 20-04-2025 11:15PM

Just finished. Really liked it, maybe the end was a bit rushed but it was fantastic escapism every week. I hope we get another season or two.

Mantis Toboggan · 21-04-2025 08:05AM

Finished this last night, best season so far for me.

Thelonious Monk · 21-04-2025 05:22PM

I'm thinking maybe South Africa luxury safari type tent thing next time, rangers with guns and wild animals providing the danger, but then someone on reddit says they have a contract with the 4 seasons to use their hotels, not sure how true that is.

volchitsa · 21-04-2025 06:30PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123377453#Comment_123377453

I've just looked up where they are situated and there is one in the Serengeti, so that would be a possibility wouldn't it?

https://www.fourseasons.com/serengeti/

deandean · 21-04-2025 08:44PM

Just finished thos season, I thought it was fairly good.

One thing that struck me, is how impossibly thin several of the female cast are. Like, so thin as to look unhealty. I hear that half Hollywood is on Ozempic, maybe that explains it.

Thelonious Monk · 21-04-2025 09:52PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123378011#Comment_123378011

But to be fair all the white women at least were portraying the thin obsessed ozempic prescribed women mike white is trying to portray

cdgalwegian · 22-04-2025 04:27PM

Slow start, but strong finish. So with season 3 of Hotel Cluedo, it was the security guard, with the revolver, outside the meditation pods.

In Cluedo, we never know who the victim is, and in The White Lotus, it’s impossible to know who the victim will be in terms of motive - because they all die accidentally (contra line of thinking in post #217). In season 3, it’s Chelsea - hence the last episode’s title ‘Amor Fati’: Chelsea, the hippy-chick, ties her fate to Rick’s (I never saw Rick’s Oedipus Rex reveal coming), thereby ending up the accidental victim in the current examination of western greed and our ambivalence to it. This season’s background theme being Buddhist detachment was a great thematic counterpoint to the theme of 'greed and the postmodern condition' running through all the seasons.

Carrie Coon's monologue brings the search for meaning not being though money and status all together -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikleyT_4j0w

volchitsa · 25-04-2025 01:00PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123380213#Comment_123380213

TBH I think it was kind of obvious that Rick's father was going to be Kun Jim - and the way he killed his own father, the man who supposedly killed his father, was a nice mise mise en abyme. So I still liked it. Sad about Chelsea though. But again, she had tied her fate to his.

astrofool · 25-04-2025 07:45PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123388204#Comment_123388204

This was emphasising that Chelsea was, fatally, not following her own advice when doling it out to Saxon (particularly their parting words).

volchitsa · 26-04-2025 01:54PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123389531#Comment_123389531

TBH I forget what she said - can you remind me?

(I thought she just said they were were soul mates and their fortunes were intertwined, IOW she died because of his actions. I can't remember advice that she gave but didn't follow: what was that?)

volchitsa · 26-04-2025 02:02PM

Thelonious Monk Apr 21, 2025

I'm thinking maybe South Africa luxury safari type tent thing next time, rangers with guns and wild animals providing the danger, but then someone on reddit says they have a contract with the 4 seasons to use their hotels, not sure how true that is.

https://www.fourseasons.com/serengeti/

I'm getting quite keen on this idea, @Thelonious Monk - it has real possibilities, I think.

Belinda could (would have to!) be in it, going back to her roots in Africa, newly wealthy but still looking over her shoulder, and Zion would be great too IMO.

volchitsa · 26-04-2025 02:06PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123377453#Comment_123377453

https://www.fourseasons.com/serengeti/

I'm getting quite keen on this idea, @Thelonious Monk - it has real possibilities, I think.

Belinda could (would have to!) be in it, going back to her roots in Africa, newly wealthy but still looking over her shoulder, and Zion would be great too IMO.

astrofool · 27-04-2025 10:33PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123391244#Comment_123391244

CHELSEA: She has this theory that there are different groups, and we're in these groups with people we know and people we don't know. And these groups are working together to fulfill this divine plan. And sometimes you don't even know you're in the same group as someone else. So, you and I, we could be in the same group and not even know it.

They (Saxon and Chelsea) were in the same group but Chelsea didn't realise it being infatuated with Rick as the "soulmate", Rick turns up as she finishes that sentence to Saxon and she runs over to Rick leading to her death the next day (or whenever it was chronologically).

Bacchus · 21-05-2025 11:02AM

We just finished season 3 last night (only started season 1 a month ago).

Not as good as season 1 but I enjoyed it more than season 2. Mostly because the dynamics of the different groups had that slightly more chaotic nature like season 1 brought. The Ratliff family were brilliantly dysfunctional. Patrick Schwarzenegger was a standout performance. Great unlikable character with a nice arc (and that scene + aftermath). Their story as a whole was very well played out. Jason Isaacs too did a phenomenal job of showing the descent towards suicide/familicide. The pressure cooker he was in, the realization of the spoiled family he created, the feeling that there was no escape. It was just brilliantly done. I like that he came out the far side of it with a sense of hope after nearly losing Lochlan.

The Chelsea and Rick took a while to find it's groove but, obviously, had the biggest payoff in the final episode. Walton Goggins chewed up the last two episodes. The Sam Rockwell cameo was fun too.

The hotel staff were much more interesting this time around vs season 2. Again, the slightly chaotic, quirky cast of characters played better (for me) than the stiffer, more mundane staff season 2 offered.

The themes of masculinity vs spirituality (Saxon, Gaitok, Rick) and materialism vs spirituality (Piper, Bellinda, Chelsea) offered something deeper too that the first two seasons didn't quite have. Loved the parallel of Belinda ditching Pornchai being almost word for word what Tanya said to her in Season 1. $5 million changed her character in an instant. It was nice rug-pull.

The only weak aspect was the 3 friends. The first half was really good, the building back stabbing but it petered out to very little in the end. Laurie's speech in the last episode though pulled it back together in a nice way.

The only things that took me out of the story are bit were 1) why did the dad not tell Rick who was… or at least not completely provoke him; It was also very obvious from when they met that he was his dad; 2) Lochlan should have died. That scene was a sucker punch and so well done. I felt it a bit cheap to then pull him back from that. I like the slightly upbeat ending Tim got but I think having a dark ending to that journey would have been one of those endings that sits with you for a long time.