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News18
35 minutes ago
- Entertainment
- News18
Squid Game Season 3 Review: A Bleak, Brutal Farewell That Loses More Than It Wins
Last Updated: Squid Game 3 Review: Netflix's Squid Game 3 closes the chapter with more tragedy and gore, but less soul and surprise. Squid Game Season 3 Review: After the breakout global success of its first season, Squid Game returns for a third and final outing on Netflix, closing the door on one of the most talked-about dystopian thrillers of the decade. With a bigger canvas, more twisted games and a heavier emotional load, Season 3 attempts to wrap up multiple threads including the long arc of protagonist Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), the mystery of the masked Front Man and the inner workings of the organisation behind the games. The result is a grim, at times exhausting, but undeniably impactful finale that asks viewers whether some games should never have been played at all. Picking up immediately after the failed rebellion in Season 2, Season 3 thrusts Gi-hun back into the nightmarish arena, this time emotionally broken and physically spent. He's no longer the scrappy survivor but a haunted man on a near-suicidal mission to destroy the system from within. His earlier efforts to inspire the players to rise up have failed, and now the games resume as ruthlessly as ever, beginning with a shudder-inducing version of hide-and-seek and escalating to a vertigo-triggering 'Sky Squid Game." Meanwhile, a subplot follows a rogue staffer, a former player-turned-guard, who infiltrates the organisation with a personal vendetta. Outside the island, the long-missing police officer Jun-ho is still hunting for proof of the game's existence, confronting not only the physical barriers of the island but the emotional ones with his estranged brother, the Front Man (Lee Byung-hun). What's compelling is how the show weaves these three storylines into one chaotic storm. All converge toward the final game, culminating in a disturbing, unforgettable ending that both honours and dismantles the mythology of Squid Game. Lee Jung-jae's Gi-hun has become a shadow of the man we met in Season 1 and that's the point. His arc, steeped in grief and disillusionment, is portrayed with haunting restraint. The performance is stripped of charisma, leaving behind a broken man barely holding onto purpose. Among the standout new additions, Kang Ae-shim shines as Jang Geum-ja, whose quiet dignity and heartbreak culminate in one of the series' most affecting moments. Jo Yu-ri (Jun-hee), playing a pregnant contestant, and Park Sung-hoon (Hyun-ju), a transgender former soldier, both bring emotional heft to a season otherwise consumed by bleakness. Roh Jae-won's sadistic Nam-gyu and Im Si-wan's morally slippery Myung-gi are compelling antagonists, even if their motivations feel overly telegraphed. Hwang Dong-hyuk once again proves adept at orchestrating psychological warfare masked as childhood play. The production design continues to dazzle, surreal pastels clashing with life-or-death tension. Yet, as stunning as it looks, Season 3 suffers from pacing issues. The episodes are bloated with filler dialogue, excessive foreshadowing and predictable twists that sap the urgency built so carefully in earlier seasons. The tone, too, shifts into unrelenting nihilism. There's little reprieve, little hope just wave after wave of gut-wrenching choices and grisly outcomes. Even the signature games including 'Sky Squid Game," a vertigo-inducing contest played on towering columns, begin to feel like macabre spectacle for spectacle's sake. Where Season 1 balanced moral ambiguity with razor-sharp tension and occasional empathy, and Season 2 faltered with a sluggish plot and undercooked expansion, Season 3 attempts to tie everything together. Unfortunately, it loses sight of what once made the series tick which is emotionally rich characters faced with impossible decisions. Season 3's character development feels more strategic than sincere. We're told who to root for and who to fear, robbing the narrative of surprise. The show's early capacity to shock with both violence and vulnerability now leans heavily into the former. Ah yes, the VIPs are back in their gold-plated masks with atrocious dialogue, as cartoonish as ever. Whether this is intentional parody or a missed tonal cue is still up for debate. Either way, their presence remains Squid Game's most jarring flaw. In a series grounded in human desperation, these exaggerated caricatures feel like a parody within a tragedy. Visually, Squid Game is still exceptional. From its sterile dormitories to the nightmarish playgrounds, every frame is deliberate. The colour palette remains psychologically dissonant. The writing, however, stumbles. While the themes capitalism, democracy's failures, exploitation remain potent, they're now delivered with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Lines like 'We're going to need you to die" are played straight, lacking the nuance and grim irony of earlier seasons. The pacing is a particular weak point. With a runtime bloated across fewer episodes, there's an odd rhythm of long stretches of exposition followed by condensed violence. It's emotionally exhausting, but not always narratively satisfying. There are moments of brilliance in Squid Game 3, twists that shock, deaths that sting, monologues that momentarily revive its social critique. A particularly horrifying sequence involving a baby reveals Hwang's enduring skill in provoking moral discomfort. And the final twist? It's cruel, calculated and classic Squid Game. Yet the magic is dimmed. The series, once groundbreaking, now teeters dangerously close to becoming the very thing it once critiqued, a spectacle of suffering. When even Gi-hun's once unshakable humanity is lost in the chaos, it becomes harder to find an emotional entry point. This isn't to say Squid Game 3 is a bad season, it's not. It's competently made, strikingly acted and thematically coherent. But it is a tired one. A finale that reinforces the message of the show but doesn't evolve it. Squid Game ends not with a bang, but with a deep, unsettling sigh. For all its visual bravado and moral complexity, Season 3 is less a triumphant finale and more a slow, painful surrender. Still, it deserves credit for staying true to its bleak worldview and in a world of endless reboots, there's something powerful in closing the book, even if the ending doesn't quite land. First Published: June 27, 2025, 22:08 IST
Pink Villa
8 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Pink Villa
Squid Game Season 3 Ending Explained: Is Lee Jung Jae the final winner of Hwang Dong Hyuk's Netflix thriller?
Squid Game Season 3 has dropped its final installment. The cast includes Lee Jung Jae, Lee Byung Hun, Kang Ha Neul, Im Siwan, Park Gyu Young, Wi Ha Joon, and more, presenting a promising lineup for the show's final shot at global success. With games like Hide and Seek, Jump Rope and Sky Squid Game being set up for the finale rounds, the winning prize hanging in the air, and deadly threats awaiting at every corner, the Hwang Dong Hyuk creation allowed a rich experience for the viewers. So many players, and the final winner was revealed as Player 222 and not Lee Jung Jae! Who is the new player 222, and why is it not Jo Yu Ri? Some very predictable and other surprising twists awaited fans of the Korean thriller as they tuned into the 6 new episodes on June 27. With the death of some very important characters like Kang Dae Ho (Kang Ha Neul) and Cho Hyun Ju (Park Sung Hoon) right in the first couple of episodes, the suspense was built on whether Jo Yu Ri would be able to survive as she battled a broken ankle and a newborn baby. Her player number, 222, was assumed to be killed off as she takes off from the platform at the end of the Jump Rope game. However, wanting to enjoy the games even more, Lee Byung Hun wishes to transfer her player tag to the baby, officially entering it into the game. How was Lee Jung Jae's Seong Gi Hun eliminated from Squid Game? The most satisfying end for the character of Seong Gi Hun came in the form of him choosing to save the baby, instead of letting it suffer with a father like Im Siwan's Lee Myung Gi. After pushing him off the last circle stand of the Sky Squid Game round, he and the baby are revealed as the final winners. However, he went off on a redemption arc, declaring himself a human, not a puppet to the games, and someone who can make their own decisions. Choosing to end the agony, he soon jumps off from the last step, making Kim Jun Hee and Lee Myung Gi's unnamed baby the sole winner of 4.56 billion KRW. In the end, Wi Ha Joon's Hwang Jun Ho successfully finds the island where the games are held, but the location is blown up and burned to ashes. Park Gyu Young and Lee Jin Wook's characters find their own escape, continuing to live a normal life. The winning prize for the baby is gifted to Hwang Jun Ho by Hwang In Ho (Lee Byung Hun) in a card, who is shocked at the amount. Seong Gi Hun's daughter is visited by The Front Man himself and given the rest of her father's money. Does Squid Game end with season 3? The Netflix show has come to an end with the series finale airing on June 27; however, the horrendous story continues as Hwang In Ho spots Cate Blanchett taking over the role of The Salesman, taking over Gong Yoo's job after his passing.
Business Insider
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Business Insider
All the 'Squid Game' challenges ranked from easiest to hardest
Netflix's " Squid Game" features several children's games that are amped up to a dangerous level. The series, which released its final season on Friday, follows a group of people in debt who compete in these games to win billions of South Korean Won. However, the players are killed if they lose the game. Across the three seasons, people compete in 11 different games, with one game that was repeated across the two seasons. Here's the games ranked based on their survivability. Squid Game The final game of season one is Squid Game, which the show is named after. In the real-life South Korean children's game, players try to reach a goal zone while their opponents attempt to block them. In the show, each player is equipped with knives to harm their opponent until they can no longer move. You have a 50/50 chance of survival since it's one of the few challenges where you're only up against one other player. Of course, that can be skewed based on your strength and ability to fight versus your opponent's. This game is much more in your control than other games, giving you a higher chance of survival. Sky Squid Game In Sky Squid Game, the final game of season three, the players are put on a very tall stone structure and told to push at least one player off the structure to their deaths before the time runs out. After one round, they move to another smaller stone structure, and the game is repeated. There are three rounds of this game. In the show, player 100 and his group of men have the right idea for success: they team up and push out one of the other players each round. However, neither player trusts the alliance, leading to it falling apart. With nine competitors and only a minimum of three needing to be killed, you have a high chance of survival compared to most of the games. Avoid being the least liked player in the group, keep aware of any backstabbers, and make sure you always have the pole (the only weapon to push people off), and you've survived the Sky Squid Game. Marbles In season one, episode six, players are told to pair up before learning they are playing Marbles, which is a game within a game. They are each given a bag of marbles and told they must choose a game to win their opponent's bag. The winner moves on, the loser dies. Since most players teamed up with an ally or close friend, this game brutally manipulated their emotions and trust, forcing them to turn on their allies. So there's a chance you would forfeit to let your partner go through. If you decide to play, the difficult part is persuading your partner to play a game in which you think you'll have an advantage. But you may still get lucky and win on a random game, so we're not putting this game higher on the ranking. Mingle In Mingle, the game shown in season two, episode six, players ride on a carousel until a number is called out. Then, they have run into a room in a group the same size as that number before time runs out. Of course, this game can quickly become chaotic as players forcefully take people into rooms or drive them out. If you make the right alliances beforehand, you have quite a good chance of succeeding. Ensure you're never the odd one out, and you should be fine. Dalgona In Sugar Honeycombs — known to many fans as the Dalgona challenge — players must cut a shape out of a biscuit without breaking it. They get shot if they don't complete the game in 10 minutes or break the biscuit. Dalgona requires speed and care, which are often two conflicting attributes. Some people may be able to do both, but many won't be able to handle this game under the pressure of their possible death and hearing people being shot around them. Red Light, Green Light In Red Light, Green Light, the opening game in seasons one and two, players must run to a finish line in five minutes. The twist is that a rotating doll at the finish line turns sporadically during the game. A player is shot dead if a doll sees them move or they don't reach the finish line in time. The pressure is the worst part of this game. Can you keep your cool and stay still when people around you are getting shot? Can you make sure you won't trip? And there's a time limit, too, so you can't be too slow. All these factors culminate in a game that is a lot harder than it seems. Even with the help of Seong Gi-hun, the show's lead character, who has played the game before, many people still died in season two. That's why we're putting this in the middle of our ranking. Jump Rope The final 24 players play Jump Rope in season three, episode three. Except that the rope is a giant rotating metal bar, and they have to cross a bridge with a small gap in the center, while avoiding being hit by the bar. If you get hit, you fall off the bridge, which is very high in the air, and die on impact. It's a game that looks relatively easy to complete. The two challenges are having enough energy to keep jumping until you reach the end, and timing your jump over the gap in the middle so you don't get hit by the bar. But this game can also become more complicated based on the players around you. They can push, stop you from going forward, or tire you out. The biggest threat here is your fellow players, and that unpredictability makes this game much harder. Tug of War In season one, episode four, players are asked to form teams to play Tug of War. Two teams are taken to high platforms, chained to a rope, and instructed to pull the other over the edge to their death. You may be able to trick your way to win, like Gi-hun's team did in the show, but in most cases, the game is a matter of strength and resilience. You could put in all your energy, but if you're against a stronger team, there's no way to survive this. Six-Legged Pentathlon In the second game of season two, players get into teams of five, are chained together, and have to race another team around a circuit. But at five sections in the circuit, the team has to stop and complete a minigame to move forward. A different member has to do each challenge. You are shot if the other team reaches the finish line first, or neither team makes it to the finish line in time. This is another game in which you rely on your fellow players and hope your allies have the right skills to complete the five tasks. Plus, some of the minigames are pretty hard, especially under the pressure of death, making this one of the most difficult games to survive. Hide and Seek The first game of season three is Hide and Seek, in which players are randomly assigned to the hiding or seeking team. Hiders are given one of three types of keys to open doors and have to either survive for 30 minutes or find the exit to escape. Seekers are given knives and must kill at least one hider to pass the game. If you're a hider, your chances of winning are slim. Players learn halfway through the game that they need all three keys to get through all the doors to survive and exit the game. But working together makes you a bigger target for the seekers, and the exits seem near impossible to find in the episode since only two players could find them. Your best bet is to find a good hiding spot and hope you can fight any seekers that find you. The seekers get an advantage of having a knife, but a weapon is useless if you don't know how to use it, or face someone skilled enough to disarm you. Hyun-ju took out multiple seekers, and she's probably not the only one. Although Hide and Seek doesn't have the highest kill count in the show, over half the players died in it, making it the second toughest game to survive. Glass Bridge In Glass Bridge, players pick jerseys that put them in order from one to 16 and are instructed to cross a bridge of two columns of glass platforms. The catch is that one glass platform in each row is too weak to carry your weight, leading to you falling to your death. This is the cruellest game of the entire show. While other games test your strength, intelligence, agility, or other skills, this game is pure chance. If you're anywhere in the top 12 spots, you'll have to be the luckiest person in the world to get to the end without stepping on the wrong platform. Players at the back have to hope the other players are willing to be sacrificial lambs, or no one will make it to the finish line. If every game were as difficult as this one, no one would be left alive by the end of the show.
