REVIEW: 'Loot' Season 3 Doubles Down On Heart and Hilarity
- Emma Fisher
- Oct 10
- 7 min read
Updated: Oct 10
This article contains spoilers for Loot Season 3.
Loot returns for its third season on Apple TV+, doubling down on its satire of excess and emotional honesty, proving there's still plenty of fun and feeling to be had from billionaire self-reflection. Season 3 picks up with Molly Wells (Maya Rudolph) at a crossroads, determined to redefine herself following her public divorce, foundation drama, and will-they-won't-they relationship with Arthur. What unfolds is a brisk, often ridiculous exploration of privilege, accountability, and love, balancing outlandish comedy with surprising tenderness.
The premiere wastes no time in signaling that we’re in for a good time this season. We continue where we left off in the Season 2 finale, after Molly and her ever-loyal assistant Nicholas (Joel Kim Booster) boarded a private jet to escape LA and her fellow billionaires who were not in agreement about stepping up philanthropy. The pair wake up on what appears to be a deserted island after a plane crash. Instead of panic, there’s absurdity: they scrawl “UH OH!” in the sand rather than SOS, and Nicholas promptly wanders off to consult with the island's kitchen staff, wondering what a desert island deodorant might look like. It’s a brilliantly deranged start that turns out to be a ruse. The crash, the island, and the survivalist set-up are an elaborate healing retreat invented by Nicholas to pull Molly out of her spiral. Their location, a private island called St. Novak’s, was acquired as part of her divorce settlement.
When the rest of the Wells Foundation crew – Sofia (Michaela Jaé Rodriguez), Howard (Ron Funches) and Rhonda (Meagen Fay) – arrive, they are bewildered by the make-believe circumstances the pair have found themselves in. The comedy deepens when they encounter a neighbouring nudist commune, Vagine, led by Henry Winkler’s blissfully unfiltered Gerald Canning, resulting in some of the funniest physical gags Loot has ever staged. Yet beneath the laughter, the episode quietly reaffirms Molly’s growth, even if she has a long way to go, as she tells Rhonda that she must stay on the island, believing it to be where she belongs, after the older woman was delighted by the nudity surrounding her. Perhaps this good deed is why, when Arthur (Nat Faxon) finally tracks her down at Vagine, the rekindled chemistry feels earned rather than forced, a reward for those rooting for them, rather than a reset button.
That tone, silly but sincere, carries into the next few episodes as Molly and Arthur begin to navigate their new romance amid Nicholas’s suffocating overprotectiveness. His micromanaged binder of Molly’s preferences and a subsequent mishap for Arthur with a gold chain offer laugh-out-loud moments that Rudolph and Faxton shine with. The show remains most successful when it lets its ensemble bounce off each other with a mix of affection and hilarity, and the beginning of the season delivers exactly that.
Episode three swings for a bigger target, aiming at deepfakes, digital disinformation, and performative philanthropy. When an edited version of Molly begins circulating online, singing about hating poor people, the scandal threatens to undo her foundation’s work due to the attention it gets. However, a perfectly timed invitation to Britain, where she’s due to receive the Silver Cross for Good Works honour from Lady Olivia Tottenham (the fifth richest person in the UK between Baby Spice and Posh Spice), gives Loot room to poke fun at the contradictions of old-money charity. It’s perhaps the broadest episode of the series, leaning heavily into British stereotypes that some may find tedious, while further cementing the show’s cynicism about inherited wealth. Rudolph’s delivery of Molly’s climactic outburst as she rejects the medal and denounces Olivia’s colonial hypocrisy lands as both triumphant and self-aware. It’s the kind of comedic activism that Loot enjoys playing with, part spectacle, part substance.
John Novak (Adam Scott), Molly’s ex-husband, re-enters the picture in episode four with a new girlfriend, Luciana (D’Arcy Carden), who harbours a secret of her own. The episode’s farcical dance-off and motorboating sequence might be one of the series’ most hilarious turns, but the emotional undercurrent is sincere. When Molly tells John he needs to find happiness beyond wealth and figure out who he is, it feels like she’s finally speaking to herself as well.
If the fourth episode is the funniest, then the following episode, a Nicholas-centric story, is the most emotionally satisfying of the season. Through flashbacks to his first encounters with Molly, we see how their bond was forged through mutual loneliness. The present-day scenes, in which Molly tries to re-energise a visibly burnt-out Nicholas by showering him with attention and Kesha, reflect the show’s core theme: money can’t fix disconnection. His eventual decision to take a new opportunity abroad, a conclusion he is helped come to by Molly, who wants him to put himself first for once, gives the series a bittersweet moment through a recognition that growth sometimes means stepping away.
With Nicholas gone, Season 3’s latter half delves into the cracks between Molly and Arthur, testing whether love can survive unequal power and financial circumstances. Their romance falters when a weekend away exposes their class divide: Molly’s instinct to solve discomfort with extravagance collides with Arthur’s modest sensibilities and a desire for his normal. A bird-watching debacle with Paula Pell’s fiercely territorial president of SCAB (Southern California Alliance of Birders) is excruciating in the best possible way, ending in embarrassment for all and a deceased bird.
The subsequent episodes unfold with a lighter but melancholic rhythm. Molly’s attempts to deny the breakup, staging lavish romantic gestures rather than addressing the problem, underline how deeply she still defines herself through control. A visit to Korea to see Nicholas, now working on a television show inspired by the Wells Foundation, re-centres the series on friendship and found family.
By the time we reach the finale, the show begins to map out its future. Sofia faces the possibility of a political career, Nicholas has returned to the fold in LA, and Molly’s tangled personal life collides spectacularly with her professional one. A wedding in Italy, inevitably disrupted, brings all of Loot’s competing themes into focus: image versus integrity, self-reliance versus connection, and the seductive pull of spectacle. While the details of the episode veer toward soap opera, the emotional resolution feels earned, even if it ends on a cliffhanger.
Season 3 never quite loses faith in the possibility of good people doing better. The writers are aware that audiences no longer want a simple story where rich people learn empathy. Instead, they give us a version of Molly who still makes absurd choices, still relies on money as a buffer, but now recognises that emotional labour cannot be outsourced. The humour, too, is a standout. Maya Rudolph, Nat Faxon, Adam Scott, and D'Arcy Carden deliver the funniest moments of the season. At the same time, Joel Kim Booster remains a highlight, delivering sarcasm as he grounds Nicholas’s loyalty in real affection. Elsewhere, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez continues to be the series’ moral compass, even when Sofia’s rigidity falters, and Faxon brings a vulnerability to Arthur that makes his exasperation with Molly both justified and deeply sympathetic.
Visually, the show maintains its signature sheen. The billionaire chic of its Los Angeles offices and homes, an island retreat in the Indian Ocean, and shenanigans in Italy still look aspirational, even as their luxury is gently mocked. If there’s a criticism to be made, it’s that Loot occasionally spreads itself too thin. The Luciana subplot, though hilarious, sometimes undercuts the emotional focus, and a few of the show’s late-season twists risk melodrama. We also don't spend enough time with Luciana herself. As Carden appears in three episodes to Scott's one, there isn't enough time to invest yourself in their story beyond rooting for Molly. Similarly, if you’re a fan of Molly and Arthur, the constant back and forth of their relationship will also become tedious as the show creates drama for the sake of it. But, even at its lowest points, the series retains a beating heart: a belief that reinvention is messy but worthwhile.
Three seasons in, Loot has evolved from a post-divorce comedy into something more complex, even if the mark can be missed. It’s a glossy, surprisingly reflective look at how privilege both shields and isolates. Its latest instalment finds the sweet spot between satire and sincerity, and while its cliffhanger may frustrate those craving closure, it also signals that the show still has places to go and things to say.
Rating: ★★★1/2
About Loot
Premiere Date: 15 October 2025
Episode Count: 10
Executive Producers: Matt Hubbard, Alan Yang, Maya Rudolph, Danielle Renfrew Behrens, Dave Becky, Dean Holland, Natasha Lyonne
Showrunner: Matt Hubbard
Writers: Emily Spivey, Maya Rudolph, Luke Del Tredici, Jeremy Beiler, Sudi Green, Gabe Liedman, Zeke Nicholson, Anna Salinas, Nick Lehmann, Maggie Sheridan, Leigh Pruden, Hank Winton, Matt Hubbard
Directors: Claire Scanlon, Rebecca Asher, Carrie Brownstein, Dean Holland, Anna Dokoza,
Production: Universal Television
Distribution: Apple TV+
Cast: Maya Rudolph, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, Nat Faxon, Ron Funches, Joel Kim Booster
Synopsis: In “Loot,” billionaire Molly Novak (Maya Rudolph) has a dream life, complete with private jets, a sprawling mansion and a gigayacht — anything her heart desires. But when her husband of 20 years betrays her, she spirals publicly, becoming fuel for tabloid fodder. She’s reaching rock bottom when she learns, to her surprise, that she has a charity foundation run by the no-nonsense Sofia Salinas (Michaela Jaé Rodriguez), who pleads with Molly to stop generating bad press. With her devoted assistant Nicholas (Joel Kim Booster) by her side, and with the help of Sofia and team — including mild-mannered accountant Arthur (Nat Faxon) and her optimistic, pop-culture-loving cousin Howard (Ron Funches) — Molly embarks on a journey of self-discovery. Giving back to others might be what she needs to get back to herself.
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