Close Menu
  • Support Us
  • Newsletter
  • News
  • Features
  • Interviews
  • Reviews
    • Video Games
      • Previews
      • PC
      • PS5
      • Xbox Series X/S
      • Nintendo Switch
      • Xbox One
      • PS4
      • Tabletop
    • Film
    • TV
    • Anime
    • Comics
      • BOOM! Studios
      • Dark Horse Comics
      • DC Comics
      • IDW Publishing
      • Image Comics
      • Indie Comics
      • Marvel Comics
      • Oni-Lion Forge
      • Valiant Comics
      • Vault Comics
  • Podcast
  • More
    • Event Coverage
    • BWT Recommends
    • RSS Feeds
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
Support Us
But Why Tho?
RSS Facebook X (Twitter) YouTube
Trending:
  • Features
    Warframe

    Biggest ‘Warframe’ Announcements From PAX East 2025

    05/13/2025
    The First Descendant Season 3: Breakthrough keyart

    ‘The First Descendant’ Season 3 Looks Like A Gamechanger

    05/11/2025
    Mafia: The Old Country promotional still

    Everything We Know About ‘Mafia: The Old Country’

    05/08/2025
    Sunderfolk Phone Players

    10 ‘Sunderfolk’ Tips To Help You And Your Party Thrive

    05/02/2025
    Bob in Thunderbolts But Why Tho

    ‘Thunderbolts*’ Visualizes Depression As Only A Superhero Movie Can

    05/02/2025
  • Star Wars
  • K-Dramas
  • Netflix
  • Blood of Zeus
  • PAX East
But Why Tho?
Home » TV » REVIEW: ‘Floor is Lava’ is Fun and Suspenseful

REVIEW: ‘Floor is Lava’ is Fun and Suspenseful

Jason FlattBy Jason Flatt06/20/20204 Mins ReadUpdated:06/29/2020
Floor is Lava
Share
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Reddit WhatsApp Email

Floor is Lava

Floor is Lava is a new, absurd game show from Netflix. Hosted by Rutledge Wood, the show sees three teams of three competing to cross large rooms without falling into the lava. Only by climbing, leaping, pushing, and using various objects found throughout the rooms can the teams cross the finish line and potentially win $10,000.

Get BWT in your inbox!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and get the latest and greated in entertainment coverage.
Click Here

Get BWT in your inbox!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and get the latest and greated in entertainment coverage.
Click Here

As an avid Floor is Lava player myself, this series captures the hijinx of the classic game perfectly and then cranks it up to a ten. Each episode takes place in a hyperbolized version of rooms in ones’ house, emulating how you might play the game in real life, but then adds a huge layer of fictionalization to turn the rooms into places that would just be the absolute most fun to play in. The first episode, for example, takes place in “the basement.” But the basement is decked out like a museum storage facility, complete with Easter Island heads, giant cargo boxes, and sarcophagi.

Players must navigate their way up, over, and around these obstacles to escape the room before the staircase at the end completely sinks into the lava. Any objects they drop or a toe dipped into the bubbling red water that excellently simulates lava is eliminated.

The suspense is absolutely palpable. Everything from the music to the constant eruptions from the lava to the sweat on the players’ brows had me in suspense nonstop throughout each episode. Even watching teams compete on the same course in separate episodes, the game never got stale just because of how many different ways teams could come up with to navigate the rooms.

It also helped that the host is genuinely funny most of the time. The commentary in these types of shows can get stale quickly sometimes, but host Rutledge Wood genuinely had me laughing often and never felt particularly grating. Plus, he shuts up when the suspense is high and the focus is on the heat of the moment. However, I did not like how much of an emphasis the show puts on showing action replays of how hurt some of the players got with the jumps they made. Watching players bang themselves on what looks like hard surfaces close-up and on a loop is not fun. However, watching them dramatically “drown” in the lava when players fall in is hilarious every time.

200619 floor is lava 1 ew 642p afdd193787b22129bb328dc0f14c4204.fit 760w

Other small complaints: the color palette gets drab fast. I know that lava is red, but having different color palettes in different rooms would have been nice. Additionally, the beginning of each episode lays out the room in extreme detail. While on one hand I really like the detail and the way the paths are presented, it also feels like it takes away from the opportunity for audiences to figure out how best to navigate the obstacles alongside the contestants. The same schematic breakdown could happen concurrently to the teams encountering new parts of the room rather than being frontloaded and it would have the same effect without feeling like a giant spoiler.

Besides being a well-executed game and show, what makes Floor is Lava stand out among other summer game shows is how badly I want to play it myself. Sure, I want to be a Jedi and be in Jedi Temple Challenge, but even as a kid I would have found it a bit basic. Holey Moley on ABC is a cool idea, but I can just go to a real mini-golf course and probably have more fun. With Floor is Lava, there is no premise of humiliation found in so many of these shows either, nor is there a barrier to entry to American Ninja Warrior with how insanely strong you have to be.

Floor is Lava is simply a fun looking game that I loved playing as both a camper and camp counselor, cranked up to a ten. And, it’s a game that can be played right now in virtually any home with little more than a few pieces of furniture and an active imagination. In fact, I hope after watching an episode or two, everybody who is able to immediately plays their own floor is lava, whether they live alone or with five other people. And when public spaces become safe again one day, forget about escape rooms, I want floor is lava rooms when the pandemic is over.

Floor is Lava is a fun, suspenseful, captivating new game show that will not only have you wishing you could get on the next season yourself, but it will also have you setting up a course in your own home as you wallow away the stay-at-home hours.

Floor is Lava is streaming now on Netflix.

Floor is Lava
  • 8.5/10
    Rating - 8.5/10
8.5/10

TL;DR

Floor is Lava is a fun, suspenseful, captivating new game show that will not only have you wishing you could get on the next season yourself, but it will also have you setting up a course in your own home as you wallow away the stay-at-home hours.

Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit Email
Previous ArticleADVANCED REVIEW: ‘Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba,’ Volume 14
Next Article ADVANCED REVIEW: ‘RWBY: The Official Manga,’ Volume 1
Jason Flatt
  • X (Twitter)

Jason is the Sr. Editor at But Why Tho? and producer of the But Why Tho? Podcast. He's usually writing about foreign films, Jewish media, and summer camp.

Related Posts

Aisha Hinds in 9-1-1 Season 8 Episode 18
5.5

RECAP: ‘9-1-1’ Season 8 Episode 18 — “Seismic Shifts”

05/17/2025
Cho Bo-ah and Lee Jae-wook in Dear Hongrang
8.0

REVIEW: ‘Dear Hongrang’ Weaves A Tangled Web

05/16/2025
Love Death and Robots Volume 4
9.0

REVIEW: ‘Love, Death, + Robots’ Volume 4 Shows The Power Of Versatile Storytelling

05/15/2025
Marie Bach Hansen in Secrets We Keep
6.5

REVIEW: ‘Secrets We Keep’ Will Give You Whiplash

05/15/2025
Bet (2025)
6.5

REVIEW: ‘Bet’ Is a Bold and Risky Live-Action Adaption

05/15/2025
Go Min-si and Kang Ha-neul in Tastefully Yours Episodes 1-2
8.0

REVIEW: ‘Tastefully Yours’ Episodes 1-2

05/13/2025
TRENDING POSTS
Cho Bo-ah and Lee Jae-wook in Dear Hongrang
8.0
TV

REVIEW: ‘Dear Hongrang’ Weaves A Tangled Web

By Sarah Musnicky05/16/2025Updated:05/16/2025

With its foundation set in mystery and intrigue, it’s no surprise that Dear Hongrang (Tangeum) is a complicated viewing experience.

Aisha Hinds in 9-1-1 Season 8 Episode 18
5.5
TV

RECAP: ‘9-1-1’ Season 8 Episode 18 — “Seismic Shifts”

By Katey Stoetzel05/17/2025

9-1-1 Season 8 Episode 18 tries really hard to sell a reunited 118 but instead results in unearned, cheap emotional catharsis.

Star Wars Series Ranked But Why Tho BWT Recommends

Ranking Every Star Wars Series On Disney+

By Adrian Ruiz05/17/2025Updated:05/17/2025

Ranking the Star Wars series on Disney+ that prove the galaxy was never just about the Skywalkers and hasn’t been for a long time.

Dino Path Trail keyart News

Dino Path Trail Is Officially Out Now On Steam

By Sarah Musnicky05/09/2025

After more than three years of development by indie studio Void Pointer, the roguelike Dino Path Trail is finally out on Steam.

But Why Tho?
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest RSS YouTube Twitch
  • CONTACT US
  • ABOUT US
  • PRIVACY POLICY
  • SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER
  • Review Score Guide
Sometimes we include links to online retail stores. If you click on one and make a purchase we may receive a small contribution.
Written Content is Copyright © 2025 But Why Tho? A Geek Community

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

But Why Tho Logo

Support Us!

We're able to keep making content thanks to readers like YOU!
Support independent media today with
Click Here