The Netflix Phenomenon Grows More Focused In Its Final Season, But Still Never Reaches The Consistent Heights of Season 1

The first season of “Squid Game” remains, to my knowledge, the most watched piece of Netflix television content outside of “Stranger Things,” and deservedly so, as it’s maybe the best piece of television content the streaming service has ever produced. Similar to another Korean phenomenon, “Parasite,” Hwang Dong-hyuk’s savage series of adults competing in deadly versions of children’s games for insane wealth struck a chord of universality around class warfare. The first season is a total masterpiece and, if left undisturbed, could’ve gone down as one of the best miniseries ever.

Buuut, in a move apropos for the series’ themes, the allure of additional cash was just too seductive, so we got two more seasons of admittedly unnecessary storyline. They’re not bad seasons by any means, just nowhere close to the heights of their predecessor, and don’t offer nearly enough consistent storytelling intrigue to really support their existence.

Thankfully, though, the third and final season of the show (which, I know, I am incredibly late in reviewing), does shed some of the major flaws that made the second season such a disappointing drop off in quality compared to the first. The season is sharper, a little more focused, a little leaner. It still is fairly repetitive, and does tend to recycle a lot of the same beats across the season, something that really hurt the show’s sophomore effort, but it’s less severe in this season. Overall, the season just feels less bloated. I do think a part of that is the truly extraordinary second episode of the season, “Starry Night,” which is maybe the best episode of the whole show. The episode serves as a nice and effective dramatic anchor in the beginning of the season that a lot of the show is able to hinge on and operate around. The finale is a decent episode, too, although maybe tying things up a bit too nicely for my taste, missing some of the chaotic unpredictability that the series does so well.

Ultimately, “Squid Game” succumbs to the pandemic of sequelitis which is so rampant through all forms of modern media. When there’s more money to milk from the cash cow, folks just can’t say no, even if what existed initially was just perfect, like the first season pretty much was. Serviceable subsequent seasons, but all they really serve to do is hurt the legacy of once incredible story.