Pop Culture Happy Hour - Squid Game

Episode Date: July 2, 2025

Netflix's Korean drama Squid Game became a worldwide phenomenon, winning six Emmys and inspiring countless Halloween costumes. The series has now reached its bloody finale. As the current game concludes, more people die and we find out whether Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) and others can finally end the games for good.To access bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening for Pop Culture Happy Hour, subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour+ at plus.npr.org/happy.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Netflix's Korean drama Squid Game became a worldwide phenomenon, winning six Emmys and inspiring countless Halloween costumes. Now the series has reached its finale, and we've got thoughts. I'm Stephen Thompson. Today we are talking about Squid Game on Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. Joining me today is Jayhawk Kim. She's a syndicated columnist whose work runs in the Chicago Tribune. Welcome, Jayhawk. Hi, Stephen. I'm so happy to be here and talk about this.

I am so happy to have you. We have so much to get into. So when Squid Game dropped in 2021, it told what felt like a complete story. Li Zheng Jai plays Sung-Ghi-Hun, a gambling addict who's fallen deep into debt. Soon he's recruited to participate in a competition in which 456 desperate people play children's games with life and death stakes. As the losers die in violent and bloody fashion, we learn more about the players and about a system that exploits their desperation and death. In season two, Gihun attempts to use his winnings to put a stop to the games, only to get pulled back into another round.

We meet new players, many of whom are quickly slaughtered, and seek Gihun attempt an unsuccessful coup against those running the games. Now the story concludes with a third season in which many threads are woven together. The latest games conclude, more people die, and many plots are resolved involving the various forces working to end the games, including a detective, a rogue employee, and Gihun himself. Squid Game is streaming now on Netflix. Jay Ha Kim, what are your overall impressions of season three? I thought that season one was complete, as you said, and it didn't need any sequels.

But that said, I was looking forward to season two and season three. And I enjoyed it. I thought the ending could have ended with the penultimate scene instead of how they did do it. And that would have made it stronger overall. But I enjoyed it. I've seen what people said where they were like, oh, it's repetitive. The games, you know, they took too long on voting. It was just weird.

But I thought it was compelling. It's highly watchable. I actually found the voting stuff really compelling in season two because it's kind of, it introduces democracy as kind of this, the show of personal freedom, even though it is, it leads to the same end. Right. Like, I thought that stuff was really interesting. And they kind of abandoned it in part. I think because it's just so obvious how it's going to go.

Like eventually, you kind of commit yourself to then having to go through these dramatic votes. Well, they're not going to be like, all right, now we're all going to go home with $30,000. I found it highly watchable as well, but I also agree with a lot of those criticisms. I think any time this season kind of takes you away from the games, which it does quite a bit, it loses a little bit of momentum. We spend a lot of time with this North Korea. kind of rogue employee who is trying to bring the games down from the inside. We get quite a bit of the detective and the boat captain and all the intrigue around kind of

trying to get to the island from the outside. That stuff for me kind of ground the show to a halt a little bit. I found it the most compelling when it was focused on kind of the most immediately endangered players. And, you know, one of the icky subtexts of Squid Game is its most exciting when it's showing you this bloody violent kind of real-life reality TV show with these life and death stakes, that stuff is kind of the most naturally compelling in a way that is intended to make you feel uncomfortable. Each one of these games plays out like a pocket horror movie, and as such, they are very compelling. We're going to go ahead and spoil major plot points in the season. So consider yourself warned.

In the second episode of season three, Junhi, she's the pregnant woman playing alongside her ex-boyfriend. Junhi gives birth to a baby girl who becomes a major, major plot point. Junhi is played by Joe Uri. The baby becomes a player in the games after Junhi dies. Gihun becomes the baby's protector as the other players are conspiring against both of them. In the end, Gihun sacrifices his own life so that the baby can, win the money. And while the Korean game facility is destroyed in that final episode, there's a final scene, which Jayha has referenced, set in L.A. where we see an American version

of Squid Games starting to take shape, with a recruiter played by none other than Kate Blanchett. All right. Let's go again. As you wish. Jayha, let's start with the Kate Blanchet of it all. What did you make of that? First of all, I think we all love Kate Blanchett. I mean, she's a phenomenal actor. But in this series, it was just so out of place.

Everyone's going to be comparing her to the Gong Yu, the Korean recruiter. And for me, it just did not work out. I would have preferred if they would have brought her in as the surprise guest as like the Alpha VIP. I mean, how great could she have been in that? Like, she takes off the mask and there she is. And, you know, you would have just heard her voice and be like, I know who that is. That's Kate. That's Kate.

It's not through any fault of hers, but it's just sort of like it was tacked on, almost like it's an ad for a potential series, you know, because I guess the rumor is that David Fincher is going to be working on the American version of the series. And I don't know. It just seemed like a huge waste of talent to me. Yeah, it certainly feels like it's setting something up. Why would you bring in Kate Blanchett if you weren't going to, you know, make something of that in some future season or series? And you alluded to the fact, Jayhah, that we get a lot of the VIPs in this season. And really one of the very best things about season two was that it... They weren't there. In case you're listening to this and you haven't seen season one, these games are being played out for the benefit of these extremely wealthy patrons.

They're coded as Americans. Their accents are a little all over the place. They are generally speaking, not exclusively, but generally speaking white people. people, and they're clearly meant to portray kind of these vicious, immoral, massively wealthy people. They are written so badly. They are acted so badly. And they come back with a vengeance, and we see them kind of again and again.

So you would think maybe if you have access to a Kate Blanchett, you might cast, if not Kate Blanchett, known quantities. Right, right. To me, the VIPs tick me out of the universe more so than the lack of the games and the blood and the fights as you're talking about earlier. I don't know really why they're there. I think the series could have gone on without them, having them sort of implied but not seen or hearing from them. But, you know, on the other hand, I did see some stuff on social media where people are like, you know, they represent. Actually, I don't know what they represent, but they like the representation.

Well, yeah, they represent the deep, deep well of amorality slash immorality behind this stuff. When you think about it, in this season, I think they kind of set up that Myeongi, the father of the baby, he in many ways is more immoral than the VIPs. The VIPs are doing all this for their entertainment, and, you know, that's always been something that, you know, we've grown accustomed to. Myeonggi is willing to sacrifice his child. I mean, at first, I thought that his story arc would show that, oh, no, he would do everything to save his baby. But I don't think that was the case. I think it was between him and anyone. He would have been the survivor because he would have made it that way.

I don't know. When there's baby involved, I just can't wrap my arms around a character like that. Yeah, so Mungi is the crypto bro who's the father of the baby in question. If you didn't have an actor of the caliber of Imshua, playing that character who takes, who kind of is taking heel turns, seemingly has a redemption arc, and then another heel turn. It takes a really strong actor to pull that off. I found his character arc among the most interesting of this kind of second wave of players, in part because I found that performance very, very committed and intense. One of the best, if not the best,

on the show. I was personally thinking that, you know, oh, you know, it's MCH1, so of course I like him. And even when he was, you know, showing that he wasn't a good guy, I was, I literally, I had hope. I had hope that he would change. And that last, oh my God, when he had the baby and he knew that the baby was just a prop. He's literally dangling a baby over a precipice. And it's like I had no doubt that he would drop that baby so that he could live. That to me was one of the most compelling scenes. It was not what I expected. It was not what I had hoped for. And when he, you know, catapulted down and pretty much just fell and died, I was kind of like, oh, no, but okay, but the baby's alive. That was the more important thing for me, you know, because he was not a good father.

You and I are both parents. We are both very easily manipulated by babies. Totally. I'm glad you brought up the baby again, because that's kind of the last thing I wanted to talk about here, which is the way the baby is used as, a plot device in this season. We meet Juni in season two. We know she's pregnant. It's Chekhov's baby, right? It's Chekhov's pregnancy. You know she is at some point going to give birth and that a baby is going to be a factor in the show. But the baby winds up becoming kind of the driving narrative impulse of the third season. I just don't know that it entirely worked. Starting with the fact that She goes into labor and gives birth during the span of a 30-minute game. Anyone who has ever given birth or known somebody who has given birth,

you know, vaginally knows that that is not a process that takes 15 to 20 minutes. No. I found that so silly. And obviously, there's always going to be a certain amount of suspension of disbelief. But, man, that baby just never stops being a kind of. of a plot device. Well, and I think in this show, which is, you know, unbelievable in so many ways, and that's what we're meant to believe, a lot of us didn't believe that you could have a baby that quiet, that long, under duress. I mean, if I'd been dangling my son over a precipice,

he would be able to sense that danger, you know, and there would be crying and squawking and the will to survive. Yeah, not since a quiet place. Yes. Has a baby been kind of a more problematic presence when it comes to the plot of a show. But you would agree, I mean, Jayha, you kind of said at the top of this, like, this is still watchable. This is, you would say flawed, but extremely compelling. Right. I mean, I would say the first season is a must-see. The second and third season should be seen together. I think people would enjoy it more that way. But, you know, I can't forgive that ending. It just did not work. And that, unfortunately, that is a remainder of like what I will think of this year.

You know, what I will think of how it ended. I was like, it didn't have to end that way. It should have ended with the frontman after he gave the money and the bloodied 456 track suit to Gihon's daughter. I think that would have just been so much stronger. I think viewers would have reflected on that ending as sort of like, this is what his life came to. He died rich, you know, not poor like he started, but he still died.

He has no life. Yeah, I really, I'm remixing this show in my head. I'm moving that last scene to a post-credit scene. Well, we want to know what you think about Squid Game. Find us at Facebook.com slash PCH. That brings us to the end of our show. Jayhak Kim, thank you so much for being here. Thank you for having me on again.

I love this. Thank you, Stephen. And just a reminder that signing up for Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus is a great way to support our show and public radio. And you get to listen to all of our episodes sponsor-free. So please go find out more at plus.npr.npr.org slash Happy Hour or visit the link in our show notes. This episode was produced by Liz Metzker and Mike Katzif and edited by our showrunner Jessica

Reedy. Hello, Come In provides our theme music. Thank you for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. I'm Stephen Thompson and we will see you all next time.