TV Review: ‘Squid Game’ Season 3

‘Squid Game’ Season 3 receives 7.5 out of 10 stars.Released on Netflix on June 27th, ‘Squid Game’ Season 3 represents the final batch of episodes for creator Hwang Dong-hyuk’s violent, satirical, dystopian saga of lethal games where desperate people compete for cash, but only one winner can triumph.

​‘Squid Game’ Season 3 receives 7.5 out of 10 stars.Released on Netflix on June 27th, ‘Squid Game’ Season 3 represents the final batch of episodes for creator Hwang Dong-hyuk’s violent, satirical, dystopian saga of lethal games where desperate people compete for cash, but only one winner can triumph.   

‘Squid Game’ Season 3 receives 7.5 out of 10 stars.

Released on Netflix on June 27th, ‘Squid Game’ Season 3 represents the final batch of episodes for creator Hwang Dong-hyuk’s violent, satirical, dystopian saga of lethal games where desperate people compete for cash, but only one winner can triumph.

Starring Lee Jung-jae (‘The Acolyte’), the cast also includes Lee Byung-hun, (‘A Bittersweet Life’), Yim Si-wan (‘Unlocked’) and Jo Yu-ri (‘My Lovely Liar’).

Related Article: David Fincher is Reportedly Developing an English-Language Series Adaptation of ‘Squid Game’

Initial Thoughts

This third season of ‘Squid Game’, despite being released six months after the second, isn’t really its own set of episodes, really just a continuation of the storyline from that sophomore outing, itself a surprise (in all ways except business terms) since the original run of ‘Squid Game’ was intended to be a one-and-done tale.

With creator Hwang Dong-hyuk once more serving also as showrunner and director, it offers a lot more of what we’ve come to expect from ‘Squid Game’ –– brutal versions of childhood games, conniving villains both inside and running the games sacrificing humanity for profit and the continued story of Lee Jung-jae’s Seong Gi-hun and his efforts to take it down.

Yet the specter of diminishing returns does hang heavy over the series, which stumbles a little in reaching its goals while still providing enough twisted entertainment to keep us engaged.

Script and Direction

As if he was making a movie spread out across these episodes,  Hwang Dong-hyuk is truly in charge of every creative aspect of the show, and it continues to be driven by his ideas and intentions.

The theme remains the caustic, divisive impact of greed on humanity and those who are trying to counteract it. I suppose every time in history gets the series it deserves, and ‘Squid Game,’ with its story of billionaires mistreating others for their own amusement could rarely be timelier.

Yet this third chunk falls into some narrative repetition and hammers its message home in places in such a way that you can almost imagine the cheery robotic voice of the game announcing that the show itself has been eliminated.

There are also pacing issues, the show spreading itself thin across subplots such as a detective Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon) searching for the island where the games take place (and his own brother, who happens to be orchestrating things as the Front Man) and Kang No-eul’s (Park Gyuyoung) attempts to rescue a co-worker from within.

But when focused on the grim visage of Gi-hun and his increasingly desperate attempts to tear it all down, the show really works.

Cast and Performances

Lee Jung-jae continues to be the MVP of both the show and the game within it. While he calibrates himself to match the heightened, melodramatic levels the series usually heads for, he’s also human and relatable in a way that most of the other cast can’t quite match.

It helps that we’ve watched him evolve from the jolly, if troubled man in debt and danger of losing his family to an overseas move to the deeply determined zealot who knows he’s one of the few people who might actually be able to stop the games once and for all.

Lee Byung-hun’s In-ho, the current Front Man of the games, is all steely, callous orchestration, but does undergo his own transformation, which we won’t spoil here.

Among the players around Gi-hun, the likes of Jo Yuri’s Kim Jun-hee (who is pregnant in the games and ends up giving birth to a baby who becomes a key component of the story), Kang Ae-sim’s Jang Geum-ja, an exhausted mother to a worthless son, pop on screen.

Others in the game tend to be more one-note and vicious, but they work for the story as it moves forward. And, of course, are fodder for the series’ increasingly nasty ways of taking out players.

If there’s one element that truly lets the side down, it’s the ridiculous caricatures of the VIPs, the wealthy types who pay for the games and watch the suffering with effusive cruelty. They’re pitched at such a weird level with dreadful line readings, that they’re more distracting than additive.

Final Thoughts

This wrap-up for the main ‘Squid Game’ story might not satisfy all fans, but it’ll certainly provide enough nasty fun to make you question quite how you feel enjoying all the twists and turns.

And the finale, while closing off Gi-hun’s story, does leave the door ajar for other takes on the tale –– you just know Netflix won’t want to stop milking this particular cash cow (cash pig?) any time soon.

What’s the plot of ‘Squid Game’ Season 3?

The third and final season of ‘Squid Game’ follows Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) after losing his best friend in the game and being driven to utter despair by The Front Man (Lee Byung-hun), who was hiding his true identity to infiltrate the game.

Gi-hun persists with his goal to put an end to the game, while the Front Man continues onto his next move and the surviving players’ choices will lead to graver consequences with each round. revealed.

Who stars in ‘Squid Game’ Season 3?

Lee Jung-jae as Seong gi-hunLee Byung-hun as Front ManYim Si-wan as Lee Myung-giKang Ha-neul as Kang Dae-hoWi Ha-jun as Hwang Jun-hoPark Gyu-young as Kang No-eulPark Sung-hoon as Cho Hyun-juYang Dong-geun as Park Yong-sikKang Ae-sim as Jang Geum-jaJo Yuri as Kim Jun-heeRoh Jae-won as Nam-gyu

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