Everybody’s favourite comedy drama The White Lotus is back on our screens for its third season – but is it worth all the hype? The first two seasons have won 15 Primetime Emmy Awards and two Golden Globes and the show has already been renewed for a fourth season.
With a cast that boasts talent such as Jason Isaacs, Patrick Schwarzenegger and Aimee Lou Wood, The White Lotus season 3 was always going to get people watching, but now it’s time to find out what the critics think of the latest incarnation of the show – set in Thailand.
Halfway through the season airing, review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes currently has the series at a very high rating of 95% after collating 116 reviews.
The website says the new season of writer and director Mike White’s show is ‘darker and more patient with its storytelling than previous seasons while brandishing a superb new ensemble full of acidic performances.’
One review from Phillip Maciak at The New Republic praises the show, ‘Several screener episodes in, I’m hoping it never blows up, that it stays at this exquisite simmer, but, as White keeps visually suggesting, the tsunami is on its way.’
Hannah Giorgis of The Atlantic adds, ‘What makes The White Lotus often satisfying to watch is how the show challenges these characters, however briefly, to confront the assumptions they’ve built their life on.’
While Kelly Lawler of USA Today writes, ‘Full of veterans and bright young faces alike, the cast is once again perfectly predisposed to their roles.’
Financial Times’ Dan Einav says, ‘White ensures that every expectation is met. Those accustomed to its style, subtlety and commitment to delivering moments of intense discomfort will not be disappointed.’
And Chicago Sun-Times reporter Richard Roeper says, ‘What a marvel of casting, with some of our best actors doing spectacularly entertaining work as they dive into their performances.’
However, some critics disagree with the show’s glowing praise, with The New Yorker’s Inkoo Kang saying, ‘There’s something similar at work in the third season, a promiscuous application of the formula that yields diminishing returns. It isn’t just the characters who seem a bit lost in Thailand; White does, too.’
Sam Adams of Slate writes, ‘While the series has always both reflected and embodied its characters’ insular surroundings, the third season is especially uninterested in the specifics of its surroundings.’
Boston Globe’s Steven Nguyen Scaife reports, ‘The problem is that the returns are diminishing, and fast. Each new season of The White Lotus has had one more episode than the last, yet the series has less to say than ever. It’s comfort food masquerading as social critique.’
And a final critic – Caryn James of BBC – says, ‘Unlike the credit sequence and the previous two instalments, the rest of this very slow-burn season doesn't get to the danger nearly fast or vividly enough. A series should never move so slowly that it only begins to take off halfway through.’
So, perhaps it’s best to give the show a go yourself and see which side of the fence you sit on.
The White Lotus is available to stream on HBO and Sky Atlantic
Samuel McManus is a senior content creator for Bauer Media, writing celebrity news and features across five of the company’s brands – heat, Closer, Grazia, Bella and Yours. Samuel has worked at Bauer Media since November 2024.