The White Lotus - series three - starts February 17th

[curiositykilledthiscat]

The Emmy-award winning HBO original series, which offers an inside look at the powerful and wealthy as they navigate complex personal dynamics and face potentially dangerous experiences while on vacation, returns for its third season this month.

"Seeking peace can be a trip," reads the tagline for this season, which was created, written and directed by former "Survivor" contestant Mike White.
This time around, viewers will be whisked away to an "exclusive" resort in Thailand, where an eclectic group of guests and resort employees will play, and likely misbehave, over the span of a week. "The White Lotus" Season 3 guests include a wealthy businessman and his family, three longtime friends who haven't seen each other in a while on a girls' trip and "rugged man with a chip on his shoulder" and his girlfriend, among others.

Anyone else looking forward to this? Starts on Monday and will be shown on Now and Sky. No watching on demand as all episodes will be dropped weekly.

Janice Turner must have watched a different version of The White Lotus to the one that I saw, because Mike White’s writing of female characters was awful. Also, Laurie is no underachiever.

I don’t know how anyone could have been ‘devastated’ at the death of Chelsea. She was a pretty dull character. And really quite stupid. She actually reminded me of the threads on MN of women accepting appalling behaviour from their other half for the sake of financial security and ‘love’. Rick point black calls her an “idiot” over breakfast and her reaction wasn’t to throw her orange juice in his face and walk away? She’s proved him right. Also she’s no less of a gold digger than Chloe just because she’s more innocent-looking and wanks on about star signs and ‘fate’.

So yeah, I had zero investment in Chelsea (and Rick) and their death was kinda meaningless. By contrast, I was devastated when Tanya died, especially after her bravery on the boat, shooting her kidnappers. White Lotus season 2 was some of the best television I’ve watched. (I still enjoyed S3 and loved Victoria who was fantastic in every scene).

We loved 1 and 2. Slogged our way through 3 but found it really disappointing and boring.

I was embarrassed that I insisted a colleague watch it based on how much we enjoyed previous seasons and she was, wtf?

I agree Laurie was no under achiever but I assumed she meant by comparison with the other two.

I've always found his female characters more credible than average. The way in which the three women navigate deep personal differences and even spats and retain an enduring friendship due to greater commonalities is pretty common IME. The way in which Parker Posey manages the rest of the family day to day without actually giving orders is also very recognisable. Belinda pushing to succeed on her own but ultimately taking business advice from her newly graduated son with zero business experience is also common.

I like the fact that all his "good" characters have flaws and his bad characters show frailties or better aspects.

Around about episode 4 I thought it would be my least liked WL but now I think it was just a different pace and the interesting characters were all there.

Hearing lots of rumours it will be set in the very wealthy part of the Algarve

I imagine there are tourist agencies all over promoting their area as the next WL. If in Portugal I'd expect it to be the Silver Coast/ Nazare and upwards on the West Coast which is currently dead trendy with the super rich, European royals etc.

Mike White hasn’t even started scouting yet. He traveled for 6-7 months in Asia before choosing Thailand (it was going to be Japan initially). So unless you know him, it’s probably not true.

Mike White and HBO will already have potential locations in mind. The HBO head of drama has said they’ll be travelling soon to Europe, he doesn’t like cold weather, and HBO have done a deal with the Four Seasons company so that all their hotels will be featured in TWL.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/apr/11/location-scouting-where-next-white-lotus-who-will-star

Quinta do Lago area etc, in the Algarve

Quinta is very on brand WL territory and has a 4 Seasons.

I'd like to see Ski Lodge or African safari lodge as well. I was once lucky enough to stay at a beautiful luxury tented lodge in the Serengeti and was shcoked by the behaviour and attitude of the American gane hunter types there.

It is! I also think there are much more interesting places, but it’s Europe so, who knows 🤷🏻‍♀️

Saturday Night Live has blessed us with The White POTUS. Enjoy!

Fantastic! 😂😂😂

Excellent! Thanks for that.

Someone’s keen to get an Emmy nomination…

https://deadline.com/2025/04/aimee-lou-wood-apologies-snl-mean-unfunny-impression-1236367493/

I actually agree with her- seems unnecessarily mean to laugh at her appearance, and quite lazy comedy for 2025.

I was coming here to say the same thing, not cool to compare these people and their actions over her natural appearance.

A lot of Americans genuinely believe that Britain is a dentistry-free zone, so it wouldn’t surprise me if SNL thought it would be fine.

I liked the SNL skit, but it wasn't as funny as the one they did for series 2, which of course was set in 'It'ly'. Great impression of Jennifer Coolidge's Tanya, and the hotel reception staff were hillarious!

Hope that works.

I watch SNL regularly and find it quite misogynistic which is what you get, I suppose, from having an 80 year old man in charge who makes all the “joke”decisions. I read that there is going to be a U.K. version of SNL next year - interesting , because Ben Elton hosted Saturday Live in the late 80//early 90s which was more of a standup show (it launched Harry Enfield) - Ben tried to recreate it a year or so ago and all I remember is that awful Jordon person singing a song about how “she” is better than cis women and then playing the piano with her willy.

Who spotted Aubrey Plaza from WL S2 as the blonde bartender?

Totally agree. How is it funny to take a swipe at a woman's appearance. It was like watching a sketch show from the 1970s

I do not understand the love for SNL, any sketch I've ever seen is unfunny. I understand that it launched the careers of genuinely talented and funny people but the show itself is cringe.

Fair play to Aimee for being honest about finding it mean spirited rather than playing along with it.