On the small screen, 2025 looks set to be the year of buzzy returning favorites, from the sophomore installments of The Last of Us and Wednesday to the conclusions of Stranger Things and Squid Game. But perhaps the most breathlessly anticipated release on this list, at least for some of us, is The White Lotus. Mike White’s sun-, sea- and satire-filled romp about the super rich has been a staple since 2021: Its first season took a newlywed couple, a deranged heiress, a dysfunctional family, and a disillusioned hanger-on to Maui for soul searching, holiday romances, and murder; and its second, the installment that confirmed the show as a global phenomenon, featured tech bros, enterprising sex workers, and a listless Gen-Zer galavanting across Sicily.
Now, after a more-than-two-year-long gap, a third season, set in Thailand and with an almost entirely new cast, is about to be served up—the first without series standout Jennifer Coolidge, following the (spoiler alert) tragic death of the demented millionaire Tanya McQuoid, and with viewer expectations higher than ever before. Can it possibly live up to all the hype?
Well, the result is a season which—at least in the first six episodes shared with press—never quite reaches the jaw-on-the-floor highs of the first two seasons, but it’s also one that is layered, rich, weirder, and often more interesting than what’s come before it. It’s a reminder that in an era where shows can go from incredible to highly disappointing in a single season (The Bear, Severance), there are still some that continue to deliver time and again.
