Released on Netflix on June 27th, ‘Squid Game’ Season 3, because apparently two seasons weren’t enough, represents the final *alleged* batch of episodes for creator Hwang Dong-hyuk’s violent, satirical, dystopian saga of lethal games. You know, the one where desperate people compete for cash, and only one winner can triumph…or can they? 🤔
What’s the plot of ‘Squid Game’ Season 3?
The third and final season of ‘Squid Game’ follows Gi-hun after losing his best friend in the game and being driven to utter despair by The Front Man, who was hiding his true identity to infiltrate the game. Basically, more of the same. 🔄 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. Consequences! Drama! More death! 💀
Starring Lee Jung-jae (‘The Acolyte’ – because why not?), the cast also includes Lee Byung-hun (‘A Bittersweet Life’ – which is probably what the actors feel like after filming this), Yim Si-wan (‘Unlocked’ – more like “Unwatchable” amirite?) and Jo Yu-ri (‘My Lovely Liar’ – who probably regrets this career choice).
Because what this show *really* needs is an American remake to strip away any remaining subtlety. 🙄
Initial Thoughts
This third season of ‘Squid Game’, released six months after the second (because Netflix needs those quarterly earnings!), isn’t really its own set of episodes. It’s just a continuation of the storyline from that sophomore outing, itself a surprise since the original run was intended to be a one-and-done tale. Surprise! Money talks! 🤑
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 –– brutal versions of childhood games, conniving villains sacrificing humanity for profit, and the continued story of Lee Jung-jae’s Seong Gi-hun and his efforts to take it down. Because one man can totally dismantle a system built on exploiting the poor. Right? 🤡
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. Or maybe we’re just hate-watching at this point. 🤷♀️
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. Or, you know, Netflix’s demands. 😈
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. Or, you know, just another excuse to show people getting brutally murdered. 🤷♂️
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. Please, Netflix, eliminate it. 🙏
There are also pacing issues, the show spreading itself thin across subplots such as a detective Hwang Jun-ho 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 attempts to rescue a co-worker from within. Because more characters = more drama = more episodes = more money! 💰
But when focused on the grim visage of Gi-hun and his increasingly desperate attempts to tear it all down, the show really works. Or, you know, it’s slightly less boring. 😴
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. Maybe because the writing is terrible? ✍️
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. Because that’s totally believable. 🙄
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. Mostly because it’s not worth spoiling. 🙊
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. Because nothing says “compelling drama” like a pregnant woman in a death game. 🤰
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. Because violence! 🔪
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. They’re basically Bond villains but somehow even more cartoonish. 🤡🤡🤡
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. Or you’ll just be bored. 😐
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. Expect “Squid Game: The Prequel” and “Squid Game: Junior” coming to your screens in 2026. 🎬
‘Squid Game’ Season 3: Still Milking It? 🐄 Gets a Generous 7.5/10
Finn McFrame, celebrated satirical mastermind and self-proclaimed “Emperor of Irony,” started his illustrious career as a cinematographer, where his expertise in capturing every single frame of a squirrel stealing a baguette earned him accolades at obscure film festivals.
Born in the glamorous town of Boring, Oregon, Finn grew up with dreams of being a Hollywood director until he realized that satire, not cinema, was his true calling—or at least the one that let him sleep until noon.
Finn McFrame: changing the world, one satirical lens flare at a time.
