The White Lotus season 2

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Responding to 17:52 re people who take lazy vacations. I think there is commentary in WL on the counter to that with Portia who wants “adventure” and not just Instagram pictures, but once she gets a taste of adventure (i.e., danger), realizes she made a mistake.

Hmm, disagree because the whole deal with Portia is that she *could* go have some adventures (i.e. leave the freaking hotel when her boss has ordered her to "get lost" anyway), go proactively meet people, go for walks, etc. But instead she passively waits for other people to invite her to do things, and as a result she just winds up hanging out with Albie and his family and then going off on these escapades with Jack that turn out to be highly questionable. It's not that she was adventurous and got punished for it, it's that she was waiting for someone else to figure it all out for her and therefore didn't get what she wanted or needed.

Portia is passive but so are many of the other characters on the show. It's just that Portia is passive while not being rich, so her experience is a bit different. Either way, Tanya is right (even if she doesn't follow her own advice): Portia needs to get her $hit together and actually do something to change her circumstance, or she's going to end up like Tanya when she's old, just without the massive inheritance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Responding to 17:52 re people who take lazy vacations. I think there is commentary in WL on the counter to that with Portia who wants “adventure” and not just Instagram pictures, but once she gets a taste of adventure (i.e., danger), realizes she made a mistake.

True. But the other thing is, there's a time and a place for a relaxing vacation vs an adventurous vacation. I like both, but they are not the same.

Also, for me, the adventure I enjoy the most is not trying a new restaurant every night. I like seeing new museums and archeological sites. To each his own.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does Tanya like this coked up lion-looking Italian with the elephant trunk penis? Didn’t even get to see her boobs

I thought he was gorgeous

Serious question, you’d call that elephant trunk? It’s not that big, is it?

I thought he looked great naked

Agree. It wasn’t even hard

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Responding to 17:52 re people who take lazy vacations. I think there is commentary in WL on the counter to that with Portia who wants “adventure” and not just Instagram pictures, but once she gets a taste of adventure (i.e., danger), realizes she made a mistake.

True. But the other thing is, there's a time and a place for a relaxing vacation vs an adventurous vacation. I like both, but they are not the same.

Also, for me, the adventure I enjoy the most is not trying a new restaurant every night. I like seeing new museums and archeological sites. To each his own.

You seriously cannot go to Italy and NOT experience the good. My god!! Start watching Stanley Tucci’s “Taste of Italy” on CNN stat.

I am 1/4 Italian and what you say is sac religious! And go first to the tiny family places not the restaurants with plastic food menus with pictures or Michelin stars. The best Italian food is amongst the locals and little hole in the wall family joints.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does Tanya like this coked up lion-looking Italian with the elephant trunk penis? Didn’t even get to see her boobs

I thought he was gorgeous

Serious question, you’d call that elephant trunk? It’s not that big, is it?

I thought he looked great naked

The mustache was horrible. Reminded me of half of Pikesville.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is anyone else judging most of these people for taking a very expensive vacation to a beautiful place and then kind of blowing it by being boring? They are barely leaving the hotel, spending a lot of time just sitting on the beach or at the pool (which you could do at any resort anywhere), doing very little to experience Italian culture, no one has once mentioned some great restaurant they want to go try (this is like 90% of what I do in Italy), very little time spend enjoying the cute little towns or the interesting architecture, etc. One trip to see ruins, one ride on a vespa, a visit to Noto that winds up being a little shopping plus bumming around a huge and empty palazzo.

It was funny when Cameron said that he didn't know why they kept giving them menus at dinner since they all had the menu memorized, but like... you are in Italy, dude. Go out to dinner. Your rich af and could charter a boat, hire a private chef, whatever you want. At least Portia went and had arancini in Palermo! And even though it's tinged with danger, at least Portia and Tanya have enjoyed meeting new people and stepping outside their comfort zones.

I would not want to vacation with these people, especially the foursome, even if they were footing the bill. I'd rather stay in a budget hotel and actually go experience things and see a lot and eat all kinds of food, go hiking and exploring, etc. These just spending hours a day eating three meals a day at their hotel, hanging out by the pool, and having tense conversations with their spouses and relatives, would annoy the crap out of me

(I get this is part of the point of White Lotus, just needed to express it -- this great vacation is so wasted on these people!)

I know someone who went to Barcelona and didn't even set foot outside of their hotel all week

I don't really disagree and I would definitely want to eat outside of the hotel more, but they aren't just sitting in their rooms. They went to Noto for the night, they went wine tasting, they went shopping in town. Plus they are at what is likely one of the most beautiful spots in Sicily. They probably chose the location for the resort (not vice versa) and they want to enjoy it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Love how Mike White randomly drops red pills in this season and last season. The British nephew giving some well needed perspective and context to rebuke Portia’s woke prattling about the world falling apart is a prime example.

Yes telling a woke millennial have the quality and safety of life - for all- is at all time human history highs in 2022 was awesome perspective.

wait i didn't catch this part - what happened / what did he say?

It was the first scene after he took Portia out with his “uncle’s” car so that his “uncle” could get Tanya high at the party. They’re drinking overlooking a gorgeous seaside town and Portia is ranting about how the world is falling apart and it’s the worst it’s ever been. The British kid, rightly, calls what she’s saying BS and asks her if she’d rather live in the Dark Ages when people were cutting each other to bits and points around and says the world is pretty good right now. And he’s right. Someone like Portia would be dead by 35 and live an utterly depressing life centuries ago. Yet she’s complaining about how much the world sucks while drinking a cocktail in a beach in Sicily. She had utterly no sense of appreciation or historical context, like a lot of woke kids these days.

I think the show is definitely mocking people like Portia and Harper who live extremely privileged lives but make statements like "the world is on fire" or "with everything going on in the world" (from Harper's first conversation with Daphne/Cameron) without much sense of history or context.

But I don't think the show is sympathetic to people like Daphne and Tanya and Essex boy who don't think about anything beyond their own day-to-day comfort and wellbeing. More understandable for Essex boy - he has had real struggles and can probably be forgiven for not worrying about climate change or whatever when he's just thankful to know where his next meal is coming from. But being someone like Daphne who just lives her super privileged life without ever thinking about the state of the world or how to improve it is not something to aspire to either.

I don't think you can really talk about Portia and Harper's privilege in the same breath. Harper is a lawyer married to a tech milliionaire at the White Lotus on vacation. Portia is at the hotel as the dogsbody to an odious woman.

True but compared to 95% of people in the world, she has a lot of privilege. Also her job seems kind of easy - she literally does nothing to help Tanya

Well, sure, but then the employees at the hotel have a lot of privilege, if that's the standard. The hookers even have a lot of privilege, as they are not starving refugees.

If you don’t think someone like Portia - who has not motivation, isn’t ridiculously smart - doesn’t have a lot of privilege when she is staying for free in one of the nicest hotels I’ve ever seen on a television series just because she occasionally has to coddle Tanya, I don’t know what to tell you.

If you read closely, my initial point was that Portia and Harper were lumped together as “privileged” when they are on entirely different planes of privilege. Does a nanny exist on the same level of privilege as their employer? No, and I bet the ides of that would be infuriating to a lot of mom bosses.

No but we are still privileged to live in this time. And these people are privileged to live in these countries and have this type of access. I don't think a nanny has the same privilege that their employer has, but depending on the circumstances they could have and objectively pretty decent life. Especially compared to historical comparisons. That doesn't mean they can't have problems or work to fix them or that they can never vent, but Portia is not supposed to just be someone who has problems, she is someone who complains while being inert. And the lack of inertia she displays while doing almost nothing but griping is what highlights just how much she DOES have.

But Portia is not complaining about what she doesn't have, she is complaining about the state of the world. Her quibbles are not material in nature, she is concerned about war, climate change, women's rights. And if she were complaining about income inequality, why not? It's a totally valid complaint.

Yes, but the world is still is at a better place than it was at any time in history. Someone like Jack, who would have been worked to death in a factory 100 years ago or died in a foxhole in WW1 or on a beach in WW2, know full well how good he has it. He has some context and is also, unlike Portia, appreciative of life because it’s obvious his life has been extremely depressing and troubled so drinking cocktails in Sicily overlooking the beach is paradise by comparison. Portia wasn’t rich, but had a comfortable middle class upbringing without a great college education to boot, which fosters her ennui and her uncontextualized hubris about the world falling apart.

Oh my GOD. Give it a rest. We more than understand your point of view.

There are at least two posters saying this pov

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Responding to 17:52 re people who take lazy vacations. I think there is commentary in WL on the counter to that with Portia who wants “adventure” and not just Instagram pictures, but once she gets a taste of adventure (i.e., danger), realizes she made a mistake.

True. But the other thing is, there's a time and a place for a relaxing vacation vs an adventurous vacation. I like both, but they are not the same.

Also, for me, the adventure I enjoy the most is not trying a new restaurant every night. I like seeing new museums and archeological sites. To each his own.

You seriously cannot go to Italy and NOT experience the good. My god!! Start watching Stanley Tucci’s “Taste of Italy” on CNN stat.

I am 1/4 Italian and what you say is sac religious! And go first to the tiny family places not the restaurants with plastic food menus with pictures or Michelin stars. The best Italian food is amongst the locals and little hole in the wall family joints.

25% Italian, 100% insufferable

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Check out Fresh Air - Terri Gross interviews Mike White this morning. Worth listening to!

Thank you for posting this!

Excerpts:

I'm excited about the finale. I do feel like it sort of feels like it's - there's a justification for it.

And

And I was like, OK - because the two prostitutes in the show - I was like, this is - there's something very "Laverne And Shirley" here of these girls, like, trying to, like, you know, like - because Laverne and Shirley were always trying to break into the - like, you know, the party that they weren't invited to. And, you know, like, they were kind of these, like, underdog, working-class girls.

When you're on HBO and there's this - all this sense of - like, you know, it's prestige TV and blah, blah, blah. And, like, I was just like, I'm doing, like, basically a reboot of "Laverne And Shirley" meets, you know, "Fantasy Island" with some "Survivor" dropped into it.

White is specifically referencing the murder in the bolded. And in the context of the conversation it's not clear (to me) if he means the murder(s) of the particular character is justified by the character's actions or if he means the season has been constructed such that the murder is a believable event/payoff. Kind of the same thing, but it was a little vague. At this point I'm not sure I think any character has behaved badly enough to justify murder.

The gays will die. So wasted and trying to kill Tanya, that they overdose and go overboard instead. I must say though, if the gays die, it will be a huge problem for the writer.

I'm not sure they're actually guests of the hotel -- don't they not really have money?

I saw some interviews of the case and everybody admits the worst characters were Greg and Cameron. That blasts my theory that Greg just wanted to make a nice day for Tanya before he died. So I think he really was probably trying to blackmail or kill her -- but I think she comes out on top because Mike White wants her to be in the next season. I still remember a shot in the season opening promo where she opens a bag and finds a gun and tape (like to tape someone's mouth).

And maybe Cameron does kill Ethan. In the interview, where the reporter asked the actors who play Cameron and his wife to explain how they aren't bad people, they both looked distinctly uncomfortable, and Cameron described his character as a psychopath. So ... between that and all the promo stuff about the end being really horrifying, and Aubrey saying it scared her ... I think maybe the body in the water is Ethan and Cameron did it.

[Anonymous]

I think it's sort of odd to have a show that's all about sex and power dynamics and not have at least an attempted r*pe scene. So I agree with the PP who thinks it's coming. It seems like it would most likely be Cameron and Harper, which could then easily lead to Cameron's death at the hands of some combination of Harper/Ethan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does Tanya like this coked up lion-looking Italian with the elephant trunk penis? Didn’t even get to see her boobs

I thought he was gorgeous

Serious question, you’d call that elephant trunk? It’s not that big, is it?

I thought he looked great naked

Somewhat related: have others noticed that there has been lots of male nudity in the season and little or no female nudity? I’m assuming that Mike White is purposely doing his part to even out the usual dynamic of clothed men and naked women.

I haven’t personally found any of the scenes to be “sexy,” but I absolutely love that the women don’t have to carry the burden of all the nudity, for once.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does Tanya like this coked up lion-looking Italian with the elephant trunk penis? Didn’t even get to see her boobs

I thought he was gorgeous

Serious question, you’d call that elephant trunk? It’s not that big, is it?

I thought he looked great naked

Somewhat related: have others noticed that there has been lots of male nudity in the season and little or no female nudity? I’m assuming that Mike White is purposely doing his part to even out the usual dynamic of clothed men and naked women.

I haven’t personally found any of the scenes to be “sexy,” but I absolutely love that the women don’t have to carry the burden of all the nudity, for once.

I’ve seen a lot of Lucia’s boobs and ass but no other woman’s nudity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Responding to 17:52 re people who take lazy vacations. I think there is commentary in WL on the counter to that with Portia who wants “adventure” and not just Instagram pictures, but once she gets a taste of adventure (i.e., danger), realizes she made a mistake.

True. But the other thing is, there's a time and a place for a relaxing vacation vs an adventurous vacation. I like both, but they are not the same.

Also, for me, the adventure I enjoy the most is not trying a new restaurant every night. I like seeing new museums and archeological sites. To each his own.

You seriously cannot go to Italy and NOT experience the good. My god!! Start watching Stanley Tucci’s “Taste of Italy” on CNN stat.

I am 1/4 Italian and what you say is sac religious! And go first to the tiny family places not the restaurants with plastic food menus with pictures or Michelin stars. The best Italian food is amongst the locals and little hole in the wall family joints.

25% Italian, 100% insufferable

DP. Anyone that goes to Italy and dies not care about the food or seek it out is somebody that is literally dead inside.

[Anonymous]

Grandpa dies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The preview is pretty helpful: Tanya survives the night. Cameron is wrestled under the water. Harper is showing emotion. Ethan is paranoid. Albie wants to save Lucia. Can't wait til Sunday!

Yes but why did the Italian stud muffin who seduced her have a gun? Why did they keep Portia away for the night? My bet is that Quentin and the gays are in cahoots with Tanya’s husband Greg who absconded suddenly from Sicily. He is setting up Tanya via the gay ring master Quentin (who is actually banging Portia’s cockney fling and ostensible nephew Jack). Maybe they will force Tanya to sign a new will at gun point or there may be an infidelity clause in the prenuptial agreement that would endow Greg with lions share of fortune if she dies: They may be planning to throw her overboard and Portia will not be there to help save her. Greg was very irate that Tanya brought Portia along. If the scheme works - The gays get half of the billion which should be enough to keep Quentin’s palazzo and their grand life style going for a few more years.

Yet Quentin told that story about Isola Bella island and the wealthy Swedish family who owned the island. She refused to sell the island and her body washed up on the rocks later and the estate became open to the public. Would Tanya’s estate become public somehow if she washes up on the rocks after being thrown overboard?

Also Quentin discussed that he has only ever loved one man - a heterosexual cowboy from Wyoming - and that 30 years later he would still do anything for him. Is Greg the cowboy who thirty years later is on his fourth wife? When he married Tanya he thought he was dying and she spent a fortune on medical care for him. But now he may have many years ahead of him he is not thrilled to spend them with Tanya. Has he given Quentin false hope of them having a luxurious future together if they can get rid of Tanya?

I wonder whether GLBTQ folks are annoyed by the portrayal of the gays as sleazy, dishonest, fawning, superficial, hedonistic and immoral degenerates? Or they straights painted similarly so they don’t mind?

In your scenario, seems more likely his palazzo would be open to the public after his body washes up.