BLOOMIN' BRILLIANT

Cult black comedy-drama The White Lotus is returning, this time against the backdrop of a luxurious resort on Thailand's Koh Samul island, with a new cast and some old favourites. So buckle up for TV's hottest show

- By Gabrielle Donnelly

GRAB your passport and a blunt instrument in case of emergency it's time to check into The White Lotus again. The endlessly surprising comedy-mystery-drama series that focuses on a group of disparate strangers checking into a different branch of the White Lotus hotel resort - super-luxurious, yet dogged by tragic happenings returns this week.

And after a slew of awards and a careerdefining performance by American actress Jennifer Coolidge as brassy heiress Tanya McQuoid, anticipation for the new series is running high.

Some of Hollywood's hottest new names appeared in the first two seasons set among the sandy white beaches of tropical Hawaii and Sicily Leo Woodall, Sydney Sweeney, Theo James and Aubrey Plaza included.

This time we're off to Thailand to perhaps the most stunning resort yet: an oasis of polished wood, turquoise pools and sink-into chairs facing jaw-dropping views. It stays fabulous when the cameras stop rolling as the series was shot at the Four Seasons Resort, Koh Samui, set on 43 acres above the pristine clear waters off the Gulf of Thailand.

Why Thailand? Simple, says the HBO show's creator, writer and director, Mike White - it was the right destination for The White Lotus's delicious mix of dark secrets and black comedy.

"I felt like we had to focus on something new, to give the show a new place to go with different kinds of stories, and Thailand is a very complex country," he says.

"It's a Buddhist country where there are a lot of Buddhist concepts that I thought it would be interesting to explore because I thought it would be cool to do something about spirituality - and yet, there's also a different culture in Thailand that has some chaos to it." Without Tanya McQuoid's iconic presence, it's not only the setting that could be chaotic.