Squid Game

Though we do get the occasional glimpse of hope, it’s overshadowed by horror after horror, each revealing a new dimension of Director Hwang’s diatribe against greed. This doesn’t make Season 3 a rehash of Season 1 but a profound, frequently poignant, and, yes, thrillingly twist-packed deepening of its themes.

While refusing to resolve the show’s existential drama in a simple, easy way. It’s messy, magnificent, and a fitting conclusion to the sensational story that started back in 2021.

When “Squid Game” digs into its intense moments, the show proves it’s still more than capable of rendering a tragically compelling story that manages to entertain and have you emotionally invested in its characters.

The season maintains focus on its core themes and characters, offering a final stretch that's just as engaging as it is ominous.

If you feared that Squid Game had lost any of its bite after that middling second season, prepare to be brutally corrected in a final chapter so dark that you'll be gasping no matter how strong your constitution.

This epic dystopian tale’s final chapter retains the qualities that made it a global behemoth. Its poptastic visuals, perfectly pitched performances and cruel twists are a wild ride worth staying seated for.

“Squid Game” Season 3 isn’t as haunting and spectacular as the first two seasons, mainly because of the repetitive structure of the games and the lack of new characters. Still, there are certainly some compelling twists that make the last six episodes of this intense saga worthwhile.

As taut, startling, and unhinged as ever. Moreover, it mercifully avoids falling victim to its preceding episodes’ shortcomings on the way to its do-or-die finish.

Nothing will recapture the sheer “what the hell am I watching?” quality of a first season that came out of nowhere. But this is a satisfying sign-off – tied up winningly with a blood-stained bow.

But for all this chaos and apparent disregard for life, this final run manages to find light in the shadows. This is what makes it so compelling.

Rather than deepen the capitalist satire that initially made it a phenomenon, Squid Game tries to critique humanity writ large—and delivers shallow thrills instead.

Amid the plentiful greed and treachery on display as the field relentlessly dwindles, we also witness moments of great bravery and sacrifice.

Ultimately, the series understands the dismal realities of late-stage capitalism, but doesn’t know what to do with all that angst, resulting in a disappointing end to an otherwise compelling game.

We get more quiet moments with Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), or scenes outside of the games with Hwang Jun-ho's (Wi Ha-joon) investigation, and the show continues beyond the competition to give us a sort of epilogue that is both unsettling and satisfying.

This final chapter isn't without flaws, but it still delivers the suspense and cinematic polish that made Squid Game a hit in the first place.

While the plotting could be tighter, that doesn’t diminish the amount of cruelty flung at both these characters and the audience alike. .... A good ending can be tough for any show, but it definitely helps if the showrunner knows exactly what they want to say with it, and that’s very true in this case.

Most characters end up exactly where you expect, but at least the performances remain strong and moving, and a few flourishes in the epilogue have a lasting impact.

In season three, the plot has lost some of that nerve, reaching for redemption that feels slapdash and therefore, sometimes, hollow. If you can forgive such muddled character motivations, there’s more than enough gripping action to compensate.

If you can get on board with the new contestant twist – and that is a big if – then the final two episodes have a nicely grand and operatic feel to them, and ultimately, Squid Game does its job. But it leaves the impression, too, that it has become a more traditional action-thriller than it once was.

There's plenty of impressive production design coupled with some thrilling moments in these final episodes, and the last scene of the finale is bound to get lots of people talking (I know I almost let out a yell at the screen). But as "Squid Game" season 3 ticked off its final hours I could feel my interest slipping — and it certainly didn't help that those uber-wealthy masked VIPs return to spout more horrendous dialogue.

Squid Game might have obscured that hopefulness with how it fetishizes bloodlust, and how it normalized the accompanying gore so that we, too, craved more than what we needed. But if the series has a legacy, it’s in choosing not to finish Gi-hun’s statement in the series finale about what he thinks “humans are.” This time, Squid Game wants us to make up our own minds.

This season is a melange of other stories.

“Squid Game” suffers mightily in its pacing during this second half. The nihilism of its remaining characters also carries quite the strain. .... Netflix, in its zeal for more content for the trough, went back to the well for an extensive, overlong repetition of the beats of the first show, just more and tougher and nastier.

The last couple of games are bare bones in their conception, the only suspense coming from the choice of victims. And throughout, after having made Gi-hun’s guilt and his attempt at atonement the framework of the story, Hwang strains to bring those feelings to life, to make us believe in them. Here Lee, who gives a glum, one-note performance, shares the blame.