Everyone had high expectations of Squid Game season 3, expecting the same level of emotion, the same thrills, and the same cinema. But it failed to deliver, sighs Vihaan Kulkarni.
That's right, folks! The infernally entertaining Squid Games are back!
A game in which 456 participants enter and play games to relieve themselves of crippling debts by winning a prize of 45.6 billion won. Sounds like the dream deal, right? It should be. But 456 players play the games, and only one player wins. The rest? They die.
Squid Game Season one had an ability to keep the viewer at the edge of his seat.
In any other show or movie, a person might think, 'This person is the main character, he/she will not die.'
Squid Game took away that certainty.
The character arcs in season one were flawless, with each character's humanity fading away bit by bit.
A prime example was Sang-woo, with his innate desire to survive at any cost turning him from an honourable gentlemen to a backstabbing killer.
The protagonist Gi-hun went from an irresponsible gambling addict to a broken shell of his former self, scarred forever by the deaths he witnessed.
Season two saw a magical reunion between Gi-hun and the games that broke him, and was also executed masterfully.
New characters were introduced, each one greedier than the next.
New games, new ideas, and the Frontman himself participating in these games. A masterpiece.
So everyone had high expectations of season 3, expecting the same level of emotion, the same thrills, and the same cinema.
Instead, it failed to deliver, with a mediocre soundtrack (unlike in the first two seasons), an inability to give the characters good deaths, and way too much melodrama.
Season 3 starts with a broken Gi-hun, still recovering from the death of his best friend, Jung-bae, at the end of S2.
There were many good characters like Geum-ja, Hyun-ju and Dae-ho, and all see bad endings. Especially Yong-sik's death, when he almost killed a baby.
The Frontman's unmasking was meant to feel like a climax. It was meant to bring to the viewer, 'OHHH HE'S GONNA UNMASK HE'S GONNA UNMASK OH MY GOD!'
But the confrontation between Gi-hun and Frontman, the moment that we were all really looking for, is such a letdown. One wonders why Frontman even took off his mask at that moment.
Jun-ho is a great detective but it took him two whole seasons to find the island, where the games were held.
Squid Game Season 1 and 2 were peak cinema. There was no detail spared, such meticulous planning.
Season 3, on the other hand, was a poorly executed attempt at making the audience feel a certain set of melancholic and gut-wrenching feelings.
Of course, it was the darkest and most twisted season of them all.
But the first 2 seasons set the bar too high, and Season 3 didn't quite get there.
And oh, why did they show all the bad guys drinking so much?!!
Squid Game 3 streams on Netflix.
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