Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Squid Game Season 3.There’s a lot to like about the third seasonof Netflix’s South Korean thrillerSquid Game. The powerful storylines of characters like Player 456 SeongGi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), Player 149 Jang Geum-ja (Kang Ae-shim), and Player 222 Kim Jun-hee (Jo Yu-ri)are ultra-compellingas the group tries to survive following the failed coup attempt in the Season 2 finale. The new games are incredibly intense and gory, laced with fraught-filled tension. However, there’s a glaring weakness in the final five episodes that carries over from Season 2, which could have been avoided if creatorHwang Dong-hyukhad made the right pivot. HavingCate Blanchettmake a terrific cameo at the very end was a stroke of genius and a great note to resolve on. The show must have dug deep into Netflix’s pockets to get her to play the American recruiter that locks eyes with the mercurial master of ceremonies, Hwang In-ho (Lee Byung-hun). However,ifSquid Gamecan afford A-list talent like Blanchett, why are viewers stuck with awful VIP actors who almost spoil the entire season?
The VIPs Feel Like AI-Generated Cartoon Characters in ‘Squid Game’ Season 3
In Season 1,the idea of a KubrickianEyes Wide Shutkind of bougie and elitist group of wealthy VIP voyeurs added at least a little something to the show in the way of conveying aBong Joon-hotype deep dive into the irony and cruelty of class divideand haves vs. have-nots. I could have done without them, and the actors were awful, but they didn’t ruin the show. But this time around,the special guests were a double-down mistake and added nothing to the proceedings. In fact, they nearly sabotaged what is a well-crafted and superbly acted (by the main cast) season. So why are they even in the show? Several alternatives regarding the VIP device and subplot would have made for a better conclusion.
Here’s an idea — either bring in better actors or get rid of the terrible “VIPs” entirely!Especially the yahoos that are supposed to be the Americans. They not only brought back these “bad actors” but they gave them even more lines in Season 3. In Episode 4, I’m supposed to be shocked as the faces of some of the murderous guards are revealed to be the VIPs. Not only was I not shocked, but what is the point of the masks if the audience has already seen their faces? And, my God, the dialogue and delivery are just so far below that of the main characters that it is hard to watch. Don’t even get me started on the American with the long hair and the beard. He was so over-the-top awful and oh so cringey.It feels like he is an AI-produced version of what the casting staff thinks a nouveau riche tech bro or finance bro looks like.
Maybe ‘Squid Game’ Creator Hwang Dong-hyuk Was Taking a Shot at Modern American Culture
They’re all ridiculously bad, but the one with the English accent at least has a fiendish Bond-villain thing that I could work with.It is mainly the loud, misogynistic, lewd, crass, and completely obnoxious American VIP who needed to be toned down, more believable, or eliminated, and instead, the showrunners went the other way and made them way more involved than they needed to be. Every time I got to the edge of my seat during a squid game, there would be a cut to the VIPs, and it completely set me back as a viewer. Perhaps it was an intentional dig or commentary on American culture in general, but it comes across as bad acting delivering cringeworthy lines. And apparently, showrunnerHwang Dong-hyukhadalready cut a lot of the VIP scenes from Season 3.
Despite the cuts, the scenes still feel likea not-so-thinly veiled swipe at the unearned entitlement and hubrisof the nepo-babies of the American 1%. But then I see how he goes out of his way to get an Oscar-caliber actress like Blanchett to portray the only other American in the show, and I am perplexed by the choice. I realize that the whole point of having Blanchett appear just briefly at the end is for a kind of “Wow! It’s Cate Blanchett!” twisty moment, but Dong-hyuk and the Netflix money people would be better served using that part of the budget on bringing serviceable actors to play the VIPs if you’re dead-set on having them as a part of the show at all. The A-list cameo is a fun moment, but by hiring subpar actors to play recurring roles,the show is lessening the overall quality of the product. And the great South Korean main cast deserves better than that.
Squid Gameis currently available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.
Squid Game
Hundreds of cash-strapped players accept a strange invitation to compete in children’s games. Inside, a tempting prize awaits with deadly high stakes: a survival game that has a whopping 45.6 billion-won prize at stake.
