Critics seem to be mixed on The White Lotus Season 3.
The White Lotus is returning for its third season on February 16, 2025. Created by Mike White, the new season is set in Thailand and features an ensemble cast that includes Leslie Bibb, Carrie Coon, Walton Goggins, Natasha Rothwell, Jason Isaacs, Michelle Monaghan, Patrick Schwarzenegger, and more.
“The social satire is set at an exclusive Thai resort and follows the exploits of various guests and employees over the span of a week,” the official logline reads.
What are critics saying about The White Lotus Season 3?
Variety’s Alison Herman said The White Lotus Season 3 gets off to a slow start, noting that it is “the least immediately gripping entry in this running vacation diary to date.” Around the halfway point of the season, however, Herman said the story becomes “as wild and unpredictable as any of the powder kegs White has combusted.”
The Hollywood Reporter’s Daniel Fienberg said the new season will “likely to face some criticism that its formula has become, well, formulaic.” While Fienberg said the show’s “archetypes and commentary have become, if not stale, very comfortably entrenched,” he praised the cast for playing “mostly venal, barb-throwing characters.” Fienberg specifically mentioned Goggins, Coon, Schwarzenegger, Parkey Posey, and Aimee Lou Wood as standouts.
IGN’s Tara Bennett also praised the casting; however, Bennett said there is a “surprising lack of engaging stories” in The White Lotus Season 3.
“This season of The White Lotus comes across as almost too disparate and laid back,” Bennett wrote. “The characters are left to marinate in their individual inability to act on the problems they bring with them to the resort – and frankly, it gets boring. The stakes and the personal drama barely escalate during the episodes HBO made available for this review.”
Rolling Stone’s Alan Speinwall called it “extremely entertaining” even if it feels like “White is trying to mix and match ideas he used in the two previous” seasons.
The White Lotus Season 3 will have eight episodes in total, making it the longest season of the series to date.
