Movies

After That Main ‘Squid Recreation’ Season 3 Cameo, the Worst A part of the Present Makes No Sense

July 8, 2025

Editor’s Be aware: The next incorporates spoilers for Squid Recreation Season 3.I’ve to confess, there’s a lot to love in regards to the third season of Netflix’s South Korean thriller Squid Recreation. The highly effective storylines of characters like Participant 456 Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), Participant 149 Jang Geum-ja (Kang Ae-shim), and Participant 222 Kim Jun-hee (Jo Yu-ri) are ultra-compelling because the group tries to outlive following the failed coup try within the Season 2 finale. The brand new video games are extremely intense and gory, laced with fraught-filled rigidity. Nevertheless, there was a evident weak spot within the ultimate 5 episodes that carried over from Season 2 and will have been averted if the showrunners had made the best determination. Having Cate Blanchett make a terrific cameo on the very finish was a stroke of genius. They should have dug deep into Netflix’s pockets to get her to play the American recruiter that locks eyes with the mercurial grasp of ceremonies, Hwang In-ho (Lee Byung-hun), felt like the proper method to exit. So my query is, if they’ll afford an A-list expertise like Blanchett, why will we get caught with the terrible VIP actors who nearly spoiled the whole season for me?

The VIPs Really feel Like AI-Generated Cartoon Characters in ‘Squid Recreation’ Season 3

In Season 1, the thought of a Kubrickian Eyes Vast Shut form of bougie and elitist group of rich VIP voyeurs added not less than a bit one thing to the present in the best way of conveying a Bong Joon-ho sort deep dive into the irony and cruelty of sophistication divide and haves vs. have-nots. I might have completed with out them, and the actors have been terrible, however they did not damage the present. However this time round, the particular company have been a double-down mistake and added nothing to the proceedings. In reality, they almost sabotaged what’s a well-crafted and fantastically acted (by the principle solid) season. So why are they even within the present? A number of alternate options relating to the VIP machine and subplot would have made for a greater conclusion.

Here is an concept — both usher in higher actors or eliminate the horrible “VIPs” totally! Particularly the yahoos which can be purported to be the People. They not solely introduced again these “dangerous actors” however they gave them much more traces in Season 3. In Episode 4, I am purported to be shocked because the faces of a number of the murderous guards are revealed to be the VIPs. Not solely was I not shocked, however what’s the level of the masks if the viewers has already seen their faces? And, my God, the dialogue and supply are simply up to now under that of the principle characters that it’s onerous to look at. Do not even get me began on the American with the lengthy hair and the beard. He was so over-the-top terrible and oh so cringey. It looks like he’s an AI-produced model of what the casting workers thinks a nouveau riche tech bro or finance bro seems to be like.

Perhaps ‘Squid Recreation’ Creator Hwang Dong-hyuk Was Taking a Shot at Trendy American Tradition

The VIPs standing together with their masks on in Squid Game Season 3 — Picture by way of Netflix

They’re all ridiculously dangerous, however the one with the English accent not less than has a fiendish Bond-villain factor that I might work with. It’s primarily the loud, misogynistic, lewd, crass, and utterly obnoxious American VIP who wanted to be toned down, extra plausible, or eradicated, and as an alternative, the showrunners went the opposite method and made them far more concerned than they wanted to be. Each time I received to the sting of my seat throughout a squid sport, there can be a lower to the VIPs, and it utterly set me again as a viewer. Maybe it was an intentional dig or commentary on American tradition usually, but it surely comes throughout as dangerous appearing delivering cringeworthy traces. And apparently, showrunner Hwang Dong-hyuk had already lower lots of the VIP scenes from Season 3.

Regardless of the cuts, the scenes nonetheless really feel like a not-so-thinly veiled swipe on the unearned entitlement and hubris of the nepo-babies of the American 1%. However then I see how he goes out of his method to get an Oscar-caliber actress like Blanchett to painting the one different American within the present, and I’m perplexed by the selection. I understand that the entire level of getting Blanchett seem simply briefly on the finish is for a form of “Wow! It is Cate Blanchett!” twisty second, however Dong-hyuk and the Netflix cash individuals can be higher served utilizing that a part of the finances on bringing serviceable actors to play the VIPs in case you’re dead-set on having them as part of the present in any respect. The A-list cameo is a enjoyable second, however by hiring subpar actors to play recurring roles, the present is lessening the general high quality of the product. And the nice South Korean fundamental solid deserves higher than that.

Squid Recreation is at present obtainable to stream on Netflix within the U.S.