Netflix’s biggest show Squid Game has returned for its third and final season and it simply can’t stop breaking records.
The South Korean thriller is by far the most watched series on the streamer with season one securing 265,2m views after its release in 2021, easily taking the crown for number one show globally.
Season two, which came out at the end of last year, followed hot on its heels with a respectable 192.6m views.
Now, the third season is rounding off an impressive run by securing its own milestone as the biggest TV launch for Netflix ever after totting up an eye-watering 60.1 million views (368.4m hours) in just three days.
This means, just a few days after its release, it has already become the ninth biggest non-English language show, and will no doubt join the other seasons at the top of the chart sooner rather than later.
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For those not in the know, Squid Game follows Player 456, Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) who enters a competition with a prize of 45.6billion won (£24.9million).
The life-changing money comes with a deadly catch, however, as each task comes to a lethal conclusion with just one person left alive by the end of the games.
After winning in the first season, Gi-hun re-enters the game in second season with the sole purpose of enacting revenge.
In the final season we see the culmination of Gi-hun’s attempts to take the lethal games down from the inside as he goes face-to-face with the overseer, the Front Man (Lee Byung-hun).
Metro’s TV Editor Sabrina Barr shares her thoughts on season three
Somehow, after three seasons and a total of 22 episodes, Squid Game manages to pull even more shocks and unexpected twists out of the bag right up until the last minute on screen, including with new games that take the savagery that the contestants are capable of to the next level.
As for why season three is nearly perfect, and not a clear 10/10, the main qualm I have pertains to a group of characters shown in the trailer who are so distracting that they bring me back to real life with a sharp jolt – the VIPs.
Their presence is jarring and feels unnecessary, even if the intention is to demonstrate who the game is being held for.
Squid Game ends the way that it began – with audiences on the edges of their seat, questioning their morals, transfixed by the brutality of human beings but also hopeful that even in the darkest of times, goodness will prevail. A true TV masterpiece.
The highly-anticipated finale, which somehow gorier than ever, has received mixed reviews from critics.
‘The third season’s worldbuilding efforts remain frustratingly unimaginative for the most part, although the season’s final 10 minutes deliver some of its most glorious moments that take place outside the games,’ The Verge wrote in a review.
‘It brings me no pleasure to report that the third and thankfully last of Squid Game seasons only confirms that we, like Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), should’ve left that cursed island behind for good after his first victory,’ Hollywood Reporter said.
Meanwhile The Wrap argued: ‘The show proves it’s still more than capable of rendering a tragically compelling story that manages to entertain and have you emotionally invested in its characters.
Fans will have to tune in to decide whether creator Hwang Dong-hyuk has managed to pull a hattrick out the bag.
One thing is for sure, Lee has no qualms that this is a ‘career defining role’ for him.
‘When I was reading the scripts for seasons two and three, I knew that he would be put on another rollercoaster, and even more so. So I thought, wow, if I just play this character very well, it’s going to be a very amazing, career-defining role for me,’ he told Metro after the season three premiere.
And Hwang has already teased his ideas for a potential spin-off so this may not yet be the end of the Squid Game universe.
Squid Game season three is available to stream on Netflix.
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