--- title: Review: 'The Third Day' Is a Riveting Psychological Thriller description: Jude Law's stunning performance grounds this fascinating riff on centuries' worth of mysterious-island lore. canonical: https://time.com/5887930/third-day-review-hbo/ author: Judy Berman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-09-14T11:00:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:55:45.259Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: HBO's 'The Third Day' Is a Riveting Psychological Thriller og:description: Jude Law's stunning performance grounds this fascinating riff on centuries' worth of mysterious-island lore. og:url: https://time.com/5887930/third-day-review-hbo/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt93e5338133819c72/698a121b457a524a48d6463f/jude-law.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: jude-law og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: HBO's 'The Third Day' Is a Riveting Psychological Thriller twitter:description: Jude Law's stunning performance grounds this fascinating riff on centuries' worth of mysterious-island lore. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt93e5338133819c72/698a121b457a524a48d6463f/jude-law.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # HBO's _The Third Day_ Is a Riveting Psychological Thriller and a Stunning Showcase for Jude Law > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Judy Berman](https://time.com/author/judy-berman/)  ## Judy Berman TV Critic Sep 14, 2020 11:00 AM UTC  Jude Law in 'The Third Day' Jude Law in 'The Third Day'Liam Daniel/HBO  by [Judy Berman](https://time.com/author/judy-berman/)  ## Judy Berman TV Critic Sep 14, 2020 11:00 AM UTC Jude Law paces on a bucolic road, shouting into his phone about money and police. He hikes through sun-dappled woods, cues up “[Dog Days Are Over](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWOyfLBYtuU)” by Florence + the Machine, sits down next to a waterfall, sobs operatically for a while, then gently places a child-sized striped T-shirt in the bubbling river and watches it float away. On the way back to his car, he stumbles upon a teenage girl and a younger boy, arriving just in time to see her hang herself from a tree branch and her companion run off into the forest. He saves the girl’s life and drives her home, to Osea Island, whose eccentric residents are preparing for a festival. If you’ve seen [_The Wicker Man_](https://entertainment.time.com/2013/03/18/questionable-authority-10-crazy-leaders-in-movies/slide/the-wicker-man/), you can probably guess that things only get weirder once they arrive. Yet for all its familiarity, _The Third Day_, an eerily beautiful psychological thriller co-produced by HBO and Sky UK that will premiere Sept. 14 on HBO, rarely comes across as derivative. Creators Felix Barrett (who founded Punchdrunk, the immersive theater company best known for their long-running _Macbeth_ riff [_Sleep No More_](https://time.com/7272/queen-of-the-night-show-immersive-theater-sleep-no-more/)) and Dennis Kelly (who created the cult-hit British thriller _Utopia_) seem keenly aware of the [mysterious-island trope](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IslandOfMystery). More than a pastiche, their story accesses layers of emotional resonance in centuries’ worth of lore, encompassing [_The Tempest_](https://time.com/4304793/ian-mckellen-shakespeare-app/) and _The Island of Doctor Moreau_ as well as more contemporary tales like [_Lost_](https://time.com/collection-post/3103624/lost/) and [_Shutter Island_](https://techland.time.com/2010/02/19/shutter-island-author/). Law, a classically handsome movie star who’s been one of the most fascinating actors alive since coming to TV for the title role in Paolo Sorrentino’s deeply bizarre HBO drama [_The Young Pope_](https://time.com/4623402/hbo-jude-law-the-young-pope/), is the perfect choice to play a character that contains multitudes. The protagonist of the first half of the six-episode series, subtitled “Summer,” Law’s Sam finds himself stuck on Osea, a real island off the coast of England whose causeway is submerged at high tide. The couple that operates the local pub (a creepily folksy [Paddy Considine](https://entertainment.time.com/2013/03/15/a-brogues-gallery-hollywoods-worst-and-best-irish-accents/slide/daniel-day-lewis-in-my-left-foot/) and his prickly wife, played by Emily Watson—a veteran of Lars von Trier’s mysterious-island masterpiece _Breaking the Waves_) insists he stay overnight, but Sam discovers the room he’s been assigned is already occupied by a woman (the always-great, perennially under-appreciated Katherine Waterston). Reality, dreams, substance-induced delirium and possible psychosis start to blur together. The third day of this adventure—as chronicled in an episode for which Law’s disoriented, often solo and silent performance, deserves an Emmy nomination—truly is a doozy.  L-R: Nico Parker, Charlotte Gairdner-Mihell and Naomie Harris in 'The Third Day' Liam Daniel/HBO To say much more about the plot would detract from the sense of confusion the show creates—one grounded enough in the characters’ consciousnesses to build suspense rather than cause frustration. “Summer” director Marc Munden (another _Utopia_ alum and a British TV stalwart) renders Sam’s journey in startlingly bright, overexposed color, fixating on details that mingle natural beauty with death and decay: a metallic-orange dragonfly whose exoskeleton bursts to reveal swarming ants; a cute rodent with its gut slit open, surrounded by its own slick, neatly extracted, ruby-red organs. Filmed from above, luxuriant shots of the winding causeway flooded with pale turquoise water are like _National Geographic_ photos. The second half of the miniseries, “Winter,” is also set amid the inscrutable community on Osea. Along with a new main cast, led by _Moonlight_ Academy Award nominee [Naomie Harris](https://time.com/4661306/naomie-harris-oscar-single-mother/), this story has a different director, Philippa Lowthorpe ([_The Crown_](https://time.com/4542526/the-crown-netflix-queen-elizabeth-history/), _Call the Midwife_)—although the frosty, gray seasonal backdrop might deserve more blame than the cast and crew for its initial tedium. In any case, the action picks up toward the end of the first hour. My take on “Winter” may also be lacking some crucial narrative context; its airing will be preceded by “Fall,” billed as a “live theatrical event” broadcast on the Internet that will follow Law and his cast mates through a day on the island in real time. This, ostensibly, is where Barrett’s expertise comes in. Much of the project’s success is riding on “Fall”—in terms of its artistic execution as well as the number of viewers it attracts, and for how long. (Then again, has there ever been a better year to catch millions of us at home all day in search of entertainment? I’ll certainly be watching, and especially with theaters closed, fans of live performance are sure to be intrigued.) And after five episodes I’m worried the show’s finale, which wasn’t sent to critics, won’t have room to adequately resolve its most ambitious themes: grief, parenthood, spirituality, the darkness lying dormant within the human soul. A _Lost_\-level disappointment seems at least as likely as a bonkers _Wicker Man_ show-stopper. Still, on the strength of “Summer” and in anticipation of the experiment in hybrid storytelling that is “Fall,” _The Third Day_ more than earns the benefit of the doubt. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5887930/third-day-review-hbo/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5887930/third-day-review-hbo/"},"headline":"HBO's The Third Day Is a Riveting Psychological Thriller and a Stunning Showcase for Jude Law","datePublished":"2020-09-14T11:00:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:55:45.259Z","description":"If you’ve seen 'The Wicker Man,' you can probably guess that things only get weirder once the characters arrive on a mysterious island","url":"https://time.com/5887930/third-day-review-hbo/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt93e5338133819c72/698a121b457a524a48d6463f/jude-law.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Judy Berman","jobTitle":"TV Critic","url":"https://time.com/author/judy-berman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt93e5338133819c72/698a121b457a524a48d6463f/jude-law.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"jude-law","caption":"Jude Law in 'The Third Day'","creditText":"Liam Daniel/HBO","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5887930/third-day-review-hbo/","name":"HBO's The Third Day Is a Riveting Psychological Thriller and a Stunning Showcase for Jude Law"}}]}] ```