This review may contain spoilers
I don’t know what is darker — the message and plot of this season or the audience reaction...
If you’re going into this season with the hopes of a happy ending, well… you’re going to be disappointed.
Squid Game Season 3 doesn’t hold back. It digs deep into the ugliest corners of human nature. greed, desperation, betrayal and captures them with terrifying precision. This season wasn’t made to comfort you. It’s meant to shake you, and in that regard, it absolutely succeeds.
All of the actors gave absolutely incredible performances. Every single one of them committed so deeply to their roles that it felt painfully, uncomfortably real. They deserve all the awards. Oscars, Emmys, everything. And the show itself? Just as masterfully done. Whether you liked the ending or not, you can’t deny the level of talent on display.
But what shocked me more than the story itself was how people reacted to it. So many viewers are genuinely upset that it didn’t end the way they wanted, like this is some fairy tale where the “good guys” win and everything wraps up neatly. Even worse, I’ve seen countless comments defending player 333’s choice to wanting kill his own daughter for the prize money. Some even said Gi-hun should have gone through with it instead of taking his own life to save the daughter.
I mean… really?
I don’t know what’s darker: the themes explored in this season, or the fact that so many people see the horror and think “Yeah, I would’ve done the same.”
Season 3 doesn’t give you easy answers. It forces you to sit with uncomfortable truths. And maybe that’s why it’s such a powerful piece of storytelling. Not because it tells us what we want to hear, but because it reflects what we might not want to admit about ourselves.
And yes. I understand the controversy around the one particular scene that hints at Netflix turning this into a franchise. I wasn’t thrilled either. But let’s be real: that’s on Netflix, not director Hwang. People forget that Netflix owns the IP. Hwang didn’t even profit from Season 1 (and i highly doubt he earned anything from season 2 & 3 either). That scene wasn’t him selling out, that was him doing what he probably had to do to keep his story alive. Honestly, he probably added it just to make the Netflix execs happy.
That being said, I personally won’t be tuning into a potential American version or spin-off — unless Hwang himself decides to do a backstory series. That, I’d be curious to see. But I’m not going to sit here and say the entire season “sucked” because of one reveal near the end. You watched six hours of brilliant writing, direction, and acting — just because one scene didn’t land for you doesn’t mean the whole thing is suddenly worthless.
In the end, Squid Game Season 3 did exactly what it was meant to do: hold up a mirror. Whether we like what we see in the reflection… that’s on us.
Squid Game Season 3 doesn’t hold back. It digs deep into the ugliest corners of human nature. greed, desperation, betrayal and captures them with terrifying precision. This season wasn’t made to comfort you. It’s meant to shake you, and in that regard, it absolutely succeeds.
All of the actors gave absolutely incredible performances. Every single one of them committed so deeply to their roles that it felt painfully, uncomfortably real. They deserve all the awards. Oscars, Emmys, everything. And the show itself? Just as masterfully done. Whether you liked the ending or not, you can’t deny the level of talent on display.
But what shocked me more than the story itself was how people reacted to it. So many viewers are genuinely upset that it didn’t end the way they wanted, like this is some fairy tale where the “good guys” win and everything wraps up neatly. Even worse, I’ve seen countless comments defending player 333’s choice to wanting kill his own daughter for the prize money. Some even said Gi-hun should have gone through with it instead of taking his own life to save the daughter.
I mean… really?
I don’t know what’s darker: the themes explored in this season, or the fact that so many people see the horror and think “Yeah, I would’ve done the same.”
Season 3 doesn’t give you easy answers. It forces you to sit with uncomfortable truths. And maybe that’s why it’s such a powerful piece of storytelling. Not because it tells us what we want to hear, but because it reflects what we might not want to admit about ourselves.
And yes. I understand the controversy around the one particular scene that hints at Netflix turning this into a franchise. I wasn’t thrilled either. But let’s be real: that’s on Netflix, not director Hwang. People forget that Netflix owns the IP. Hwang didn’t even profit from Season 1 (and i highly doubt he earned anything from season 2 & 3 either). That scene wasn’t him selling out, that was him doing what he probably had to do to keep his story alive. Honestly, he probably added it just to make the Netflix execs happy.
That being said, I personally won’t be tuning into a potential American version or spin-off — unless Hwang himself decides to do a backstory series. That, I’d be curious to see. But I’m not going to sit here and say the entire season “sucked” because of one reveal near the end. You watched six hours of brilliant writing, direction, and acting — just because one scene didn’t land for you doesn’t mean the whole thing is suddenly worthless.
In the end, Squid Game Season 3 did exactly what it was meant to do: hold up a mirror. Whether we like what we see in the reflection… that’s on us.
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