Squid Sport season 3 overview: an uneven conclusion

The third and ultimate season of the industry-defining Squid Sport confidently delivers every new spherical of the deathly video games with spectacularly brutal aplomb — however its makes an attempt at worldbuilding are disappointingly drained and uneven.

A few of Squid Sport’s most fascinating dynamics from the primary two seasons — the politics among the many masked guards, the organ-harvesting operation, the connection between Entrance Man/In-ho (performed by Lee Byung-hun) and brother Jun-ho (Wi Ha-jun), the crew of burly males led by Jun-ho attempting to uncover and infiltrate the island internet hosting the video games — screech to frustratingly lackluster conclusions, with out enlarging the world past what we’ve got already seen to date.

A brand new season of any present ought to at all times intention to ask new questions. For Squid Sport, there are a lot to select from. What’s the choice course of like for guards, and the way do they get promoted up the hierarchy into the “triangle” sergeants or, finally, the “sq.” leaders? What are their inside politics like? What different issues occurred between brothers In-ho and Jun-ho earlier than In-ho joined the video games? If Jun-ho’s crew manages to infiltrate the island, will the video games be stopped? How will that occur? Who’re these English-speaking VIPs, actually? Have there been events previously the place the video games had been practically publicly uncovered?

Nevertheless, the third season’s worldbuilding efforts stay frustratingly unimaginative for essentially the most half, though the season’s ultimate 10 minutes ship a few of its most superb moments that happen outdoors the video games. They’re so intriguing that it makes you surprise why we didn’t simply begin there.

The third season picks up a number of threads from the place the earlier left off (season 3 features extra as a second half to season 2 than a standalone season). Jun-ho and his crew stay adamant about discovering the island, whereas loyal helper Woo-seok (Jun Suk-ho) claims a stake in one of many present’s extra thrilling scenes when attempting to uncover the boat captain’s previous. There may be one plotline between North Korea-born guard No-eul (Park Gyu-young) and one other trooper, with the sport’s top-ranking guard getting pulled into the scuffles. But, these endeavors are erratically fleshed out and don’t enlarge the Squid Sport universe a lot.

Squid Sport creator Hwang Dong-hyuk appears to be at his greatest when directing the action-filled contests, which function kids’s video games like Leap Rope and Cover and Search on this season. From the vertigo-inducing, towering sport of Leap Rope to lengthy pictures down Cover and Search’s labyrinthian corridors of seemingly countless doorways and rooms in arresting colours, Hwang is a magician of concern, suspense, and aid. Within the throes of the video games’ battleground, the alchemy of circumstantial belief, solid and damaged alliances, and flashes of humanity reminds viewers of all the weather that made Squid Sport such a worldwide hit when it first premiered in 2021.

The perfect a part of Squid Sport additionally grows into its greatest curse: it’s a present that simply works so nicely with an ensemble forged. Past headliner Gi-hun/Participant 456 (Lee Jung-jae), different characters — just like the chilly, calculative crypto bro Myung-gi (Yim Si-wan), strong-willed and closely pregnant Jun-hee (Jo Yu-ri), keen however self-doubting Dae-ho (Kang Ha-neul), former marine Hyun-ju (Park Sung-hoon), unpredictable however fascinating Nam-gyu (Roh Jae-won), and mother-son duo Geum-ja (Kang Ae-sim) and Yong-sik (Yang Dong-geun) — all pull their weight.

A part of the third season’s unsteady steps could be pardoned on the idea that a number of the characters that audiences are most invested in simply… die, because of the nature of the present as a survival sport. That is amplified significantly on this season, as greater than three quarters of the gamers have already been eradicated. The spectacle and extravaganza of Squid Sport thrives on the cacophony of 456 determined however complicated people decked out of their blocky inexperienced tracksuits taking up their lives’ greatest probability at redemption within the video games enviornment. It’s the good conflict of gallows humor, personalities huge and small, and 100 totally different worth programs that has propelled a lot of the present’s momentum.

Because the gamers are killed off, the dormitory empties out and the present wants to show elsewhere to search out its verve and momentum. Whereas this presents a possibility for the story to grow to be extra intimate, fleshing the remaining characters out with larger depth, Squid Sport out of the blue turns into uncharacteristically too timid to tread these waters.

The third episode, titled “It’s Not Your Fault,” is the present’s most affecting one, and maybe its strongest. The boisterous enviornment of video games offers option to honest emotional change. Because the video games declare their victims, a number of the surviving characters utter the phrase “it’s my fault” of their despair. They grapple with an overbearing guilt that their private survival has come at such nice value, and in addition blame their very own missteps and shortcomings that introduced them to the video games within the first place.

But, amid all of the ache and damage, the episode makes manner for expressions of profound grace and knowledge. Whereas Gi-hun has turned practically mute, burning with unspeakable rage and guilt after an unsuccessful and costly rise up (which we noticed in season 2), it’s on this episode that he speaks essentially the most, in looking for connection and catharsis. One sagely character muses to Gi-hun, “Irrespective of the way you take a look at it, life simply is unfair. Unhealthy folks do unhealthy issues, however they blame others and go on to stay in peace. Good folks, then again, beat themselves up in regards to the smallest issues.”

Contextualized within the present’s wider critiques of unchecked capitalism and inequality, this episode brings the query of guilt into sharp aid. As a lot as the sport fashions its personal heroes and losers, victors and victims, everybody who’s a participant right here is in the end a casualty of society within the “actual world” outdoors the video games. Some are born into poverty or into damaged households. Others can’t discover assist for his or her drug or playing dependancy. Some simply by no means had the perfect playing cards to start out life with. Who is actually at fault?

Whereas the third episode flows easily in its plot and character growth, the identical can’t be stated for a lot of different elements of the season. A number of the season’s plot twists may even show divisive amongst audiences — for instance, a brand new participant is unceremoniously launched into the video games with out having the ability to give their consent, and even take part in every spherical of voting. This introduces a remarkably new dynamic among the many gamers, though the participant’s participation could make for uncomfortable viewing at instances.

The present modifications gears in its ultimate minutes, when it picks up the tempo dramatically. It additionally ends in a manner that opens up many new instructions for future Squid Sport spinoffs, which really feel like an inevitability at this level. With such a giant prize to be gained, it’s onerous to think about Netflix staying away from one in all its most profitable sequence for lengthy.

_{Squid Sport season 3 is streaming on Netflix now.}