crazy paradise

The finale of "The White Lotus" will air tomorrow. So much for being a fan, without overdoing it.

I try to lead a pop-cultural life without regrets, but there are a few Sundays, in an almost postprandial runaway after watching "The White Lotus" I did something I wish I could take back.

I read every comment, every fan hypothesis, every impeccably researched theory of how the season will pan out in the post-show thread on Reddit.

I had no intention of spoiling the show for myself. I just wanted to get together with (or hide among) fellow enthusiasts, to enjoy the glorious and increasingly rare experience of treating an episode of a show in real time, right after it airs, before the rest of the internet has caught on with it.

Instead, I walked out of a mind-blowing hour (or was it three?) of reading, certain that I knew exactly how the season would go, who would double who, who would live and who would meet a watery death. (That there is, indeed, a watery death in prospect was established in the first episode of the season.)

Although I would have liked Not having entered Lotus' lair of Reddit sleuths, I do regret the other mildly obsessive - but mostly plot-preserving - fan search I conducted.

I'm glad I listened to this "Fresh Air" interview of the week with Mike White, the show's creator, in which he explained how his love for "Fantasy Island", "The Love Boat" and "Laverne & Shirley" influenced this season. I'm also glad I tracked down White's favorite books (he, like Torrey Peters, who spoke to The Morning earlier this year, loves Halldor Laxness' 'Independent People') and saved many of them from the library. . I brilliantly read this interview with Simona Tabasco, who plays Lucia, and listened to this episode of "Las Culturistas" with Meghann Fahy, who plays Daphne. I watched Aubrey Plaza respond to fans on social media and re-watched Jennifer Coolidge's lovely Emmy acceptance speech.

I'm glad to learn more about the people who make the show that I find so compelling. I just wish I hadn't let my fandom drag me into the neon-lit land of plot spoliation. White Lotus” is mixed with grief and relief. I'm sad to say ciao to the enchanting views of Sicily; to the characters I wondered about as if I knew them personally; to what has become, for me, date television. But I can't wait for this season's mysteries to be definitely solved and, maybe even more so, to watch next season spoiler-free.

" The White Lotus" is "positively haunted by the films and the fantasies they engender", writes Carina Chocano in The Times.

F. Murray Abraham and Michael Imperioli caught the Covid at the same time while filming in Sicily.

The show is...