· The 90-minute Season 3 finale of The White Lotus airs this Sunday, and let’s just say—expect chaos.
· The show is bigger than ever, setting a new record with its seventh episode, which drew 4.8 million viewers on HBO and Max.
· Season 3 is averaging a massive 15 million viewers.
· But here's the real plot twist: The entire season came to creator Mike White in a dream… or more accurately, a hallucination.
· While scouting locations in Thailand, Mike ended up in the hospital with bronchitis and was put on a nebulizer.
· He described the experience by saying, “It was like I’d smoked crack… not that I’ve smoked crack.”
· He says he didn’t sleep for two days and just lay there in a hospital bed, and in that delirium, the entire season came to him.
· Producer David Bernard confirms, “I saw Mike the next morning, and he told me what he’d hallucinated. That’s basically what we shot.”
· So, to recap: A fever dream became an HBO hit. Which makes me wonder—should I be taking naps more seriously?