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After more than a year away, “Dear White People” returned to Netflix on August 2 with volume three. The latest batch of episodes continues to explore life at Winchester, a fictional ivy league university brimming with racial tension. So where does the show stand in its junior year?

As of this writing season three of the satire has a MetaCritic score of 77 based on six reviews counted thus far — five of them positive, one of them somewhat mixed. That’s lower than the 85 for season one and the 89 for season two, but while one critic, Robyn Bahr (Hollywood Reporter) says the new season is a “minor disappointment,” she prefaces that by saying that it’s still “one of the best shows on TV that you might not be watching.” These episodes are also being described as “lighter, funnier, more relaxed,” pushing its characters “toward thrilling new beginnings.” It “captures the boundless...

“Dear White People” is anything but apathetic. The provocative, oft-misunderstood title speaks to a sense of urgency all by itself, and digging into the episodes reveals vivid arguments and imagery, ambitious story arcs and directorial choices, not to mention commanding performances from a talented ensemble. All of these assets remain in the new “Dear White People” Season 3, but its inherent desire for progress brings along a mixed bag of experiments and reversals, which when viewed in total present a more thoughtful but less potent set of episodes.

Signs of change surface pretty quick, as series lead and lead instigator Sam White (Logan Browning) starts the new school year adrift and in search of purpose. When a filmmaker creates a main character who’s also a filmmaker, and proceeds to write about how lost they are in their work, it’s easy to read as meta signaling — that the real-life artist is going through similar struggles,...

“Think ‘Moonlight’ meets ‘Sex and the City,’ but boiling over with all the tea,” says Joelle (Ashley Blaine Featherson) in the new trailer for “Dear White People” volume three, which premieres on Netflix on Friday, August 2. That may or may not be self-referential about the show itself, but I’d sure watch that. Check out the trailer above.

Created by Justin Simien based on the 2014 independent film he wrote and directed, “Dear White People” is a pointed satire about race relations in the 21st century as seen through the eyes of black students at fictional Winchester University, a mostly white ivy league institution. That includes but is not limited to Sam White (Logan Browning), an activist who hosts the on-campus radio show that gives the series its title; Lionel (DeRon Horton), a gay student journalist trying to fit in and find his voice; and Coco (Antoinette Robertson), an ambitious social climber with lofty ambitions.