Popcorn Perspectives with Danny Minton
Week of April 7, 2025
The White Lotus: Season 3
Rated TV-MA
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 86%
Streaming on MAX
Now that this popular TV event is over for the season, it is fully available to binge at your leisure, and I would highly recommend you do so sooner than later, as it is the show everyone is talking about and you are bound to learn things you don’t want to know, the longer you wait. In season three, creator Mike White brings us to a beautiful resort in Thailand. The show begins with gunfire and a dead body floating in water before it goes back a week, giving you time to put everything together before finding out what actually happens in the season’s finale. As you’d expect, the characters are full of drama, maybe more so than previously, and you can see the death coming from inside any of the camps. The season brings on some big names and an overall very talented ensemble, with some of the biggest names stepping in later in the season. The group includes Walton Goggins, Michelle Monaghan, Jason Isaacs, Parker Posey and Patrick Schwarzenegger, as well as some names that we will no doubt be seeing and remembering in the future. While the previous two seasons have brought about some disturbing and reckless behavior, this season takes the cake with themes of incest, familicide and revenge. But it’s mostly in good fun, if you have the right sense of humor, and the drama proves to be riveting. While a lot of folks choose to wait and binge, millions of people tuned in every Sunday, impatiently waiting to see what would happen next to this huge gang of misfits. Yes it pushes the envelope, but in a way that makes the audience into more a voyeur, looking through the window, watching what they know they aren’t supposed to see. This just adds to the fun, and by the end, your jaw will surely drop to the ground as much of the story is resolved. I’ve always enjoyed Mike White’s projects, but I’m especially glad that he has found his footing here and I can’t wait to see what he has in store for season 4. A
1923: Season 2
Rated TV-MA
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%
Streaming on Paramount+
This Yellowstone spinoff got off to a hell of start, leaving us with a huge cliffhanger waiting for this series finale. Picking up right when there left off, John Dutton’s great aunt and uncle (Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford) are being threatened by the town’s billionaire (Timothy Dalton) who wants their land in order to build a giant ski resort. Meanwhile, Dutton’s mother and father (Julia Schlepper and Brandon Sklenar) are desperately trying to make it to Montana from Africa in order to finally be together and save the ranch. Having been separated in season one, they both are making the difficult journey with a huge plethora of obstacles at every turn. While I love the show and the drama it provides, these obstacles for getting back to Montana will truly wear you out as it doesn’t seem that anything goes right for them at all. But the acting and the tremendous production carry us through the blood-drench conclusion that everyone wanted to see coming. Unlike Taylor Sheridan’s other hit shows (Yellowstone, Lioness, Landman) this one comes close to being pornographic or at least like something you used to see on late night Cinemax. Dalton’s character is a sadomasochist and the scenes involving his two prostitutes are highly sexual and disturbing. I remember I tried to get my mom to watch 1923 at the beginning of last season, and I am glad that she ignored me on that one. The Hallmark Channel it ain’t. But regardless, this final chapter in the 1923 saga is a solid piece of entertainment and another excellent example of Sheridan’s work. A-