Squid Game Season 3 Review: Brutal, Twisted & Totally Off the Rails — But You’ll Still Watch Every Second
Alright, let’s get one thing straight — talking about Season 3 of Squid Game without dropping spoilers is basically impossible. There are two major plot twists that completely flip the game on its head, and I’m dying to talk about them... but I can’t. Especially that final minute. It’s such a wild, out-of-nowhere moment that I actually bet my editor she wouldn’t see it coming — and she didn’t. Honestly, that kind of reckless betting is exactly how you'd end up in the Squid Game to begin with.
There’s also another big twist I have to tiptoe around. Let’s just say a new player gets dragged into the game against their will, and things get seriously messy from there. Now, I get that we’re watching a show where people play deadly versions of kids’ games, but even by Squid Game standards, this one feels like it’s really stretching believability.
Still, this show is a global phenomenon, and let’s be real — most of us were going to watch it no matter what. Even though Season 2 was kind of all over the place and ended in yet another bloodbath, people stayed hooked. But after watching Season 3, I’ve gotta say… they probably didn’t need to split it into two parts. It feels like they stretched the story just to make it longer, and in the process, it lost some of its sharpness.
We pick up right where Season 2 left off. The rebellion's been crushed, and 60 players are still alive, chasing that massive piggy bank of blood money. Gi-hun (Player 456), played by Lee Jung-jae, is basically traumatized into silence in the early episodes — which makes sense given everything he’s been through. The violence is constant, the brutality ramps up, but the clever social commentary? It’s almost gone. What’s left is just people getting more and more vicious.
Even the player voting, which used to be one of the show’s more thought-provoking parts, is starting to feel repetitive. Before each game, they vote to either keep playing or walk away with a cut of the prize. Meanwhile, the VIPs — you know, those weird rich folks in animal masks — are still making awkward, over-the-top comments. One even says watching the players vote is more entertaining than the games.
Spoiler: it’s not.
It’s just recycled drama. We’ve already seen this debate. Let’s move on and get back to the games! Sadly, the new ones just don’t hit the same. There are three challenges left, but none of them have that same genius mix of childlike innocence and absolute terror that made Season 1 so unforgettable. Instead, it feels like the writers came up with the story first and then threw in the games afterward just to keep the format going.
There’s also a lot of screen time given to Kang No-eul (Park Gyuyoung), a North Korean defector turned undercover guard, and Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon), who’s still chasing his brother, In-ho (Lee Byung-hun) — aka the mysterious Front Man. In-ho finally takes on a bigger role this season, and honestly, he brings some much-needed emotional weight. But don’t get me started on the VIPs again — it still feels like they belong in a completely different (and worse) show.
Now, if you’re okay with the wild new contestant twist, the last couple of episodes do have a cool, epic vibe. It’s dramatic, intense, and ties things up in a way that mostly works. But let’s not kid ourselves — Squid Game doesn’t feel as original anymore. It’s turned into more of a standard action-thriller, which isn’t necessarily bad, just... different.
As for what comes next? Who knows. After that ending, anything's possible. Season 4 might just be leapfrog with landmines. And honestly, we’ll all still watch.
Discription:
"Squid Game Season 3 delivers shocking twists, nonstop violence, and a finale that redefines the series. But has the show lost its original magic? A brutally honest review, spoiler-free."