Saram-eun...

I understand why people are rating this 1 star, because from a series like Squid Game, people were expecting a nice, heart-warming, happy ending where the protagonist survives and ends this violent and brutal game. But people forget, the world is not nice, is not ideal, is not peaceful, but is brutal, savage and nice people do not necessarily end up being happy. The reality of this world is shown in the series' finale and sadly not a lot of people understand it, or I should say, do not WANT to understand it. People choose to close their eyes so that they can keep thinking that good things happen with good people, and when it isn't shown in the end, they end up disappointed. The truth is, the world is feral, and will always be, reality is bitter, and people do not like bitterness.

They remind us about the sand snakes from GOT. Characters that are meant to add dimension but ultimately end up annoying and add nothing to the plot.

As for this season, since the concept isn't fresh it was dependent upon the pace and honestly it was slow. The concept of the games were nice but dragged on for so long that it lost steam. Out of all the games, Hide & Seek was the best one as it showed the main character being exposed to his dark side.

But bringing in a baby so the main character can show how noble he is was stretching it to a soap opera level and not needed.

But I am glad I watched it; though the freshness of the first season was lost.

This final season (supposedly) of Squid Game undoubtedly arrived on a far lower key than the last after the very poor reception of the second season (and I agree). Anyhow, this season is a pickup in form, but to be honest, it doesn't fully recover all the goodwill lost.

We're back on the island, and our remaining characters after the failed violent putsch are resigned to continue with the games. Everyone's favourite Korean cop is out there still sailing around in circles with his motley crew trying to find the island whilst the rest of the world remains oblivious of the games.

One major problem is that possibly there is little new that can be done any further here. So many plot points in this season had me thinking that this reminds me of this or that from season 1 and so on. The games are new but frighteningly violent as before. As before, we have the empathetic crew and a crass, selfish crew, it's much the same really.

Despite that, there's still much good too, in particular the acting and the emotive moments really are visceral. The settings & games are disturbingly immersive, and there's some neat twists too.

Yet overall it never reached the heights of the first season despite some very emotive moments. It's still worth a viewing, but probably they'd already hit a glass ceiling in the first season and will likely not come close to hitting it again.

Just be prepared for some follow-ups and spinoffs.

Honestly don't know what to say... I'm not sure if I loved the ending or not. You might think it was bad, but when you look at it realistically, I can't think of a better scenario than what actually happened. This is what was expected to happen - and once the girl and the protagonist were the only survivors, it felt like the only logical outcome.

I've seen a lot of people saying the season was trash... and yeah, it's definitely not better than the first season. But in my opinion, it was better than the second. Sure, it's full of flaws - weak writing, dragged-out pacing, and bad CGI - but honestly, I can't deny how much I enjoyed it. I was hooked at the end of every episode, always eager to see what would happen next.

The protagonist's death made sense to me. If he had survived, his character arc would've been meaningless. There was no hope left for him after everything - his role was finished.

The mother's arc, her attachment to her daughter, saving that guy - all of that was actually solid. Her search for her daughter and her emotional journey hit hard. As for the officer... man, I really don't know what his point was. He went all the way there, shouted at his brother a bit, and came back. Nothing useful came out of that whole storyline, and honestly, the journey to the island felt like a waste of time.

And the whole island explosion? That just felt rushed - like the writers were in a hurry to wrap things up fast, and that was the quickest way out.

Now about Cate Blanchett's scene at the end - what I got from that is they're working on an American version of the story. The Los Angeles setting, the way her scene was framed - it clearly hinted at something. My personal theory? It's a setup for David Fincher's upcoming film, I don't even know why, but that's the vibe I got.

Overall, the season wasn't perfect - not the best out of the three. But honestly, I really enjoyed it, despite all its flaws.

A good season, and a decent finale for the series in my opinion.

6.5/10.

They dragged the ending a bit to much to tie up the loose ends in the end. WAY to much time was wasted with that over 20 minutes what could have gone to explore more of the games and what happened to it when the police arrived. I do think that the last scenes in la were really good i still believe that most of the rest of the 6 months later part was a big waste of time and totally unnecessarily. Although a pretty good ending it just feels like it could have been way better so i think the episode deserves and a rating somewhere between 8-9/10 because it was not a perfect ending in my opinion. --