Zoe Saldaña in “Lioness” Season 3.
Paramount+/Ryan Green
Taylor Sheridan’s Lioness Season 3, starring Zoe Saldaña and Nicole Kidman, is here, and Rotten Tomatoes critics in early reviews are engaged in the new episodes in the government spy series.
Sheridan is the creator of Lioness (formerly Special Ops: Lioness), a Paramount+ series that follows the harrowing path of CIA Station Chief Joe McNamara (Saldaña) and her covert operations team around the world as they fight the war on terror, while Joe tries to strike a balance with her family at home.
Kidman plays CIA Clandestine Service supervisor Kaitlyn Meade who guides Joe’s missions along with CIA Deputy Director of Operations Byron Westfield (Michael Kelly) and U.S. Secretary of State Edwin Mullins (Morgan Freeman).
Lioness Season 3 premiered on Paramount+ on Sunday with Episode 1. In the season premiere, Joe and her team join a covert strike team in Ukraine to seize a valuable asset but the threat follows her home to Washington, D.C., where Joe immediately realizes that she’s in grave danger.
The cast of Lioness Season 3 also includes Dave Annable, Jill Wagner, LaMonica Garrett, Genesis Rodriguez, Thad Luckenbill, James Jordan, Austin Hébert, Jonah Wharton, Hannah Love Lanier and Ian Bohen. Sheridan also appears in a guest role in Episode 1.
As of Sunday morning, Lioness Season 3 has earned an 86% “fresh” critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer, based on seven reviews. RT’s Critics Consensus, Audience Summary and Popcornmeter score based on verified user ratings are still pending.
By contrast, Lioness Season 1 earned a 54% “rotten” critics’ score on RT based on 35 reviews, while Lioness Season 2 earned a 90% “fresh” score based on 10 reviews.
Note: This article will be updated as more RT reviews are posted on the site.
What Are Individual Critics Saying About ‘Lioness’ Season 3?
Richard Roeper of RogerEbert.com is among the critics on RT who gives Lioness Season 3 a “fresh” score, writing that the new season “amps up the action and increases the personal risk factor, reflecting the real-life chaos of today’s geopolitical landscape while telling fictional — if mostly plausible — stories.”
M.N. Miller of FandomWire also gives the new season of the show a “fresh” score on RT, writing, “The third season of Lioness is lean and mean, a spectacular pressure cooker of espionage, politics, and personal sacrifice.”
Katie Doll of CBR joins Roeper and Miller in their praise of the new episodes of Lioness. Doll writes in her “fresh” review on RT, “The third season of the female-led spy thriller series ambitiously turns the dial on the melodrama up and keeps the story relentlessly exciting.”
Therese Lacson of Collider also gives Lioness Season 3 a “fresh” score, though with some reservations. Lacson writes on RT, “While the cast is still the same and the team that Joe works with is still around, Lioness Season 3 is wading into new waters, and there are definitely growing pains.”
Brittany Frederick of TVBrittanyF.com is the only critic on RT as of this publication to give Lioness Season 3 a “rotten” score. Frederickson writes, “The Taylor Sheridan action drama returns to Paramount+ with plenty of shooting, swearing and excitement, but it continues to lack the depth of Sheridan’s other shows. There’s not much to hold onto after the weekly burst of adrenaline wears off.”
Lioness Season 3, Episode 1 is now streaming on Paramount+, as are all sixteen episodes in Seasons 1 and 2.