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      ‘The White Lotus’ Season 3 Finale Recap: Bloodshed and Sacrifice

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      Some characters got happy endings, while some decidedly did not. But there were enough twists to keep viewers guessing until the end.The conversations around this “White Lotus” season have been fascinating to follow. Is the pace too slow? Is Mike White shortchanging his Thai characters? Does all the incest stuff go too far? Most important: Has White run out of things to say about fabulously wealthy, terminally dissatisfied white people?Before the season started, I made the decision to watch all six of the episodes HBO provided to critics over a two-day stretch, and by the time I got to the end of Episode 6, this season was really clicking for me. I found all the talk about whether people can ever really leave their worst selves and bad choices behind to be incredibly moving, lending a deeper, more haunting meaning to all of this show’s usual kinky sex and barely contained violence.Then Episode 7 was kind of a bust. It had too many anti-climactic moments and too many blunt conversations. It was the first new episode I had watched in over a month, and it made me wonder: Had I been too forgiving of the season’s lapses? Was I seduced by the binge?For better and for worse, Episode 8 brings all the climaxes Episode 7 dodged. During this 90-minute finale (a lengthy one, but never a dull one), nearly every major character faces a choice about who he or she really wants to be. Several of them make terrible decisions, and some of them are rewarded handsomely for it — so long as you consider money and security a reward.Let’s start with Belinda, our connection to Season 1 of “The White Lotus” — and Season 2, via Tanya and Greg. When we met Belinda in Hawaii, she was being coaxed into starting her own spa business with Tanya. Then Tanya fell for Greg and crushed the dreams that Belinda was just beginning to believe were possible. Something similar happens in the Season 3 finale as Belinda and her son, Zion, pressure Greg into giving them $5 million. Belinda immediately ditches her own plan to open a spa with her Thai lover, Pornchai.It is hard to begrudge Belinda a financial windfall, especially given that she barely knew Tanya. But the way it plays out does not put her in the best light. During the negotiations, Belinda looks very upset with Zion’s casual dismissals of Greg’s shady past, and she seems especially bothered when he quotes a Langston Hughes poem to prove a point. But it turns out this was all a bargaining tactic. The money is what matters to her.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘Your Friends and Neighbors,’ Plus 9 Things to Watch on TV this Week

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      The AppleTV+ show starring Jon Hamm premieres. ‘Black Mirror’ returns for an eighth season.Between streaming and cable, there is a seemingly endless variety of things to watch. Here is a selection of TV shows and specials that air or stream this week, April 7-13. Details and times are subject to change.Some troubling … fiction?“The Handsmaid’s Tale” started as a onscreen retelling of Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel by the same name, but over multiple seasons, it has expanded the story line beyond the book’s plot. Now, the show is coming back for its sixth and final season, with Elizabeth Moss still at the helm as June. The showrunners noted that even as this series wraps up, its finale will end on a cliffhanger that will later pick up in a screen adaptation of the 2019 novel “The Testaments,” Atwood’s own sequel to “The Handmaid’s Tale.” That series is forthcoming. Streaming Tuesday on Hulu.There are two things that can be guaranteed when watching “Black Mirror”: It will provide deeply unsettling scenarios that seem not too far from reality, and there will be a slew of familiar celebrity faces. For Season 7 of the show, Netflix is dropping all six episodes at once, and cast announcements have included Tracee Ellis Ross, Paul Giamatti, Emma Corrin and many others. One episode, titled “USS Callister: Into Infinity,” seems to be a follow-up to the Season 4 episode “USS Callister,” with Jesse Plemons and Cristin Milioti. Streaming Thursday on Netflix.From left: Shabana Azeez, Noah Wyle and Supriya Ganesh in “The Pitt.”Warrick Page/MaxThough there is no shortage of medical shows currently airing, “The Pitt,” a series that goes hour-by-hour in a Pittsburgh emergency room, has captured the particular interest of doctors and nurses who experience these scenarios day after day. In The New York Times, Reggie Ugwu reported that medical professionals were impressed by the accuracy of not only the intricate procedures shown but also the chaotic environment portrayed. After 15 episodes, the show is wrapping up its first season, but don’t fret: It has already been renewed for a second. Streaming Wednesday at 9 p.m. on Max.Chit chatting and pitching baseballs.The N.F.L. has “Hard Knocks,” F1 racing as “Drive to Survive” and now a certain M.L.B. team is getting its own reality show — “The Clubhouse: A Year with the Red Sox.” The eight-part documentary series follows the team throughout their 2024 season while also showcasing the personal stories of the players. Streaming on Tuesday on Netflix.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Jay North, Child Star Who Played ‘Dennis the Menace,’ Dies at 73

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      Mr. North was best known for playing the towheaded Dennis Mitchell on the television series, which ran on CBS from 1959 to 1963.Jay North, who played the well-meaning, trouble-causing protagonist of the popular CBS sitcom “Dennis the Menace” from 1959 to 1963, died on Sunday at his home in Lake Butler, Fla. He was 73.His death was confirmed by Laurie Jacobson, a friend of Mr. North’s for 30 years. The cause was colorectal cancer, Ms. Jacobson said.Mr. North played the towheaded Dennis Mitchell, who roamed his neighborhood, usually clad in a striped shirt and overalls, with his friends, and often exasperated his neighbor, a retiree named George Wilson, who was played by Joseph Kearns. Herbert Anderson played Dennis’s father, and Gloria Henry played his mother.Dennis winds up causing lots of trouble, usually by accident.In one episode, a truck knocks over a street sign, and Dennis and a friend stand it up — incorrectly. Workmen then dig a gigantic hole, meant to be a pool for a different address, in Mr. Wilson’s front yard.The show, which was adapted from a comic strip by Hank Ketcham, presented an idyllic, innocent vision of suburban America as the 1950s gave way to the tumultuous ’60s.But things were not easy for Mr. North behind the scenes.Many years after “Dennis the Menace” ended, Mr. North said that his acting success came at the cost of a happy childhood.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘S.N.L.’: Trumpeting Tariffs and Predicting a ‘Great’ Depression

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      Cheeseheads and cheesecakes join the punchlines and headlines, and an enthusiastic audience gets a mild scolding for slipping past the censors. Temporarily.It’s not as reliable a metric as, say, the Dow Jones industrial average, but one sign that the U.S. economy is in an unusual place is when “Saturday Night Live” needs someone from its cast to play the secretary of commerce.In the opening sketch of this weekend’s broadcast (hosted by Jack Black and featuring the musical guests Elton John and Brandi Carlile) the brief part of Howard Lutnick went to Andrew Dismukes. But center stage was given to James Austin Johnson in his recurring role as President Trump — this time, recreating the speech from the Rose Garden where Trump announced sweeping new tariffs on Wednesday. (An introductory “S.N.L.” voice-over declared that, “like everything else so far in his presidency, it was a total home run.”)In his version of the speech, Johnson called “tariff” his favorite word (because it was “short for tariff-ic idea”) and said that tariffs would be the backbone of his “incredible plan” for the economy.Johnson added, “It’s actually even better than a plan because it’s a series of random numbers. Like the numbers on the computer screen in ‘Severance.’ You have no idea what the hell they mean.”He vowed he would MAWA — Make America Wealthy Again — although before that, there could be another phase, Johnson said. “We’re going to do MAGDA. Make America Great Depression Again. You know what? It’ll be gr — it’ll be better than great. It’ll be a fantastic, unbelievable Depression, the likes of which you’ve never seen before.”He added that this Depression would “be so great, we’ll be the ones eating the cats and the dogs.”Presented by Dismukes with a large cardboard placard that turned out to be a page from a Cheesecake Factory menu, Johnson then was handed another board detailing his tariff system.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘The White Lotus’: 7 Questions for the Season 3 Finale

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      As this season heads into its supersized conclusion on Sunday night, here are a few questions that need answers.Season 3 of “The White Lotus” has been the show’s longest, with the creator Mike White spending eight episodes instead of six or seven to tell the stories of superrich tourists and their messed-up personal problems. The extra time has allowed White to slow the pace a bit, to match the more meditative vibes of the high-end Thailand resort where this season takes place.But has there been violence? Oh yes. Kinky sex? The kinkiest. Unsolved mysteries? Of course. Everything fans have come to expect from “The White Lotus” has been abundant this season. Episode 1 began with gunshots, and in the weeks since we have seen armed robbery, white-collar crime, multiple violent threats and arguments and — yikes — fraternal incest.As this season heads into its supersized finale on Sunday night — at around 90 minutes, it will be the show’s longest episode to date — here are a few of the questions we hope will get some answers.Will Gaitok get a promotion?This may not seem like the most urgent issue facing the “White Lotus” characters this year, but I think that by the time the season ends, it will turn out to be very important. Granted, one of the biggest complaints about this season — especially as compared with Seasons 1 and 2 — is that White has not integrated the resort’s staff into the action as well as he usually does. But from week to week, the front gate security guard Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong) has been moving closer to the heart of the plot. In Episode 7, he realized that a major heist at the resort earlier this season was likely perpetrated by a fellow employee, Valentin (Arnas Fedaravicius), and his two Russian friends.Gaitok has been in trouble with his bosses since the robbery. He has wrestled with self-doubt, wondering if he is too soft to follow his dream and become one of the well-paid bodyguards to the resort’s married owners, Jim (Scott Glenn) and Sritala Hollinger (Patravadi Mejudhon). Busting the Russians could be just what Gaitok’s career needs — and could also win the heart of his love interest, Mook (Lalisa Manobal), a co-worker with ambitions of her own.Is landing a plum job with a sizable salary the key to happiness? This is one of the big questions “The White Lotus” asks every season, and it is also why Gaitok’s story line matters.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      After “The White Lotus,” Lorazepam Lives On in Memes and Merch

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      “The White Lotus” Season 3 may be ending, but the medication that has become synonymous with it has found a new life in memes and merchandise.Etsy has been flooded with hats and candles asking the question: “Has Anyone Seen My Lorazepam?” Social media is rife with videos of people enunciating “lorazepam” in a faux Southern drawl. Lorazepam even made a cameo on a recent episode of “Saturday Night Live,” when the actress Chloe Fineman raucously shouted the word during a sketch.As anyone even loosely familiar with Season 3 of “The White Lotus” may know, this sudden tsunami of references to a prescription medication used to treat anxiety is not a sign of mass desperation. Rather, it’s a manifestation of an unceasing fan obsession with Victoria Ratliff, a character on the HBO TV show, the current season of which ends on Sunday.Played by Parker Posey, Victoria is a wealthy North Carolina woman on vacation at a wellness resort in Thailand, who, despite the idyllic setting, regularly expresses a need for her lorazepam, a drug known for being tough to quit.A massage? It could make her “very stressed out” and “claustrophobic,” Victoria says. The lorazepam helps her “to really relax,” she tells a masseuse.A party on a yacht? “Certain social situations make me anxious,” Victoria drawls at her eldest son, Saxon.Her daughter Piper’s decision to make a major life change? “I don’t even have my lorazepam,” a distraught Victoria declares after her bottle goes missing. “I’m going to have to drink myself to sleep.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Paige DeSorbo of ‘Summer House’ Adds Author to Her Resume With ‘How to Giggle’

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      When Paige DeSorbo graduated from college in 2015, she scored a full-time position at a TV station in her hometown, Albany, N.Y. She’d always wanted to be an on-air personality, so the job seemed perfect, at least on paper. As her mom put it at the time, Ms. DeSorbo could work her way up to anchor, get married, have kids, and live down the street.But she imagined something different for herself.“I remember just getting the biggest pit in my stomach of like — no, that’s not my life. No way,” Ms. DeSorbo, now 32, said in a recent interview.Instead, she persuaded her parents to foot six months of rent in New York City so that she could try to find something better. She took a job as an executive assistant at ABC before landing a role on “Summer House,” a Bravo reality show that follows young New Yorkers as they spend debaucherous summer weekends at a shared house in the Hamptons.“​​I called my dad crying when they offered it to me because I was like, ‘I think I’m actually too sensitive to do this,’” Ms. DeSorbo said. “And I remember him saying: ‘Do it for the first summer, and if you hate it, we’ll get you out of it. You never have to go back. And if you love it, you’ll never wonder, Oh, imagine if I didn’t do this.’ And honestly, after the second weekend, I was like, ‘I love it.’”So began Ms. DeSorbo’s unexpected career as a reality star.Paige DeSorbo worked at a television station in Albany, and was an executive assistant at ABC, before breaking into reality TV on the Bravo show “Summer House.”Eugene Gologursky/BravoTo date, she’s appeared on three Bravo shows — “Summer House,” “Winter House” and “Southern Charm” — despite the fact that, in many ways, she’s the antithesis of the modern-day reality personality. She has a New Yorker’s authenticity: direct, assertive and unafraid to voice her opinion even if it might make her look bad. She lacks pretense and showiness, which has earned her fans.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      The Trump Administration’s Department of Homeland Publicity

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      A cabinet member’s social feed is one example of the administration’s turn to reality-TV tactics — slick, showy, sometimes cruel — as a means of government.Some days the show is a prison drama: A mass of prisoners assemble under the watch of an authority. Some days it’s a police procedural: Protagonists in uniform conduct raids on dark city streets. Some days it’s a western: A figure in a cowboy hat patrols on horseback, keeping an eye on the wild frontier.The show has many forms, but it is all one production — the social-media feed of the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem. Since she took office in January, the secretary’s online video presence has been helping a media-minded administration broadcast images of unsparing domination with a telegenic face.Ms. Noem’s social feed drew wide notice last week when she posted a 33-second video from a Salvadoran prison where the administration has been sending detainees. Dressed in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement cap and active-wear, a $50,000 Rolex watch on her wrist, she warns that “if you come to our country illegally, this is one of the consequences you could face.”There are other people in the video too. Though Ms. Noem uses the word “terrorists,” we do not know their history; legal cases and reporting have questioned the charges of gang membership against some El Salvador detainees, and the administration has acknowledged deporting at least one man in error.The figures behind Ms. Noem are not so neatly or expensively styled but they also convey an aesthetic message. The men, many of them shirtless, are crowded, teeming, sitting and standing, seemingly at attention, to face the camera from behind bars. Ms. Noem, the image says, is literally standing between them and you. They are objects, warnings, a forbidding wallpaper of fear and subjugation.The video sent a stark message, if not a universally lauded one. As with all things Trump, however, the video seems meant to appeal to one viewer above all. Before he took office for his first term, President Trump, the former host of “The Apprentice,” told top aides that they should approach every day as if it were an episode of a TV show, in which their goal was to win. He also had a preference, then and now, for underlings who perform well on camera and “look the part.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More