After That Major ‘Squid Game’ Season 3 Cameo, the Worst Part of the Show Makes No Sense

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Squid Game Season 3.I have to admit, there is a lot to like about the third season of Netflix’s South Korean thriller Squid Game. The powerful storylines of characters like Player 456 Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), Player 149 Jang Geum-ja (Kang Ae-shim), and Player 222 Kim Jun-hee (Jo Yu-ri) are ultra-compelling as the group tries to survive following the failed coup attempt in the Season 2 finale. The new games are incredibly intense and gory, laced with fraught-filled tension. However, there was a glaring weakness in the final five episodes that carried over from Season 2 and could have been avoided if the showrunners had made the right decision. Having Cate Blanchett make a terrific cameo at the very end was a stroke of genius. They must have dug deep into Netflix’s pockets to get her to play the American recruiter that locks eyes with the mercurial master of ceremonies, Hwang In-ho (Lee Byung-hun), felt like the perfect way to go out. So my question is, if they can afford an A-list talent like Blanchett, why do we get stuck with the awful VIP actors who almost spoiled the entire season for me?

The VIPs Feel Like AI-Generated Cartoon Characters in ‘Squid Game’ Season 3

In Season 1, the idea of a Kubrickian Eyes Wide Shut kind of bougie and elitist group of wealthy VIP voyeurs added at least a little something to the show in the way of conveying a Bong Joon-ho type deep dive into the irony and cruelty of class divide and haves vs. have-nots. I could have done without them, and the actors were awful, but they didn’t ruin the show. But this time around, the special guests were a double-down mistake and added nothing to the proceedings. In fact, they nearly sabotaged what is a well-crafted and superbly acted (by the main cast) season. So why are they even in the show? Several alternatives regarding the VIP device and subplot would have made for a better conclusion.

Here’s an idea — either bring in better actors or get rid of the terrible “VIPs” entirely! Especially the yahoos that are supposed to be the Americans. They not only brought back these “bad actors” but they gave them even more lines in Season 3. In Episode 4, I’m supposed to be shocked as the faces of some of the murderous guards are revealed to be the VIPs. Not only was I not shocked, but what is the point of the masks if the audience has already seen their faces? And, my God, the dialogue and delivery are just so far below that of the main characters that it is hard to watch. Don’t even get me started on the American with the long hair and the beard. He was so over-the-top awful and oh so cringey. It feels like he is an AI-produced version of what the casting staff thinks a nouveau riche tech bro or finance bro looks like.

Maybe ‘Squid Game’ Creator Hwang Dong-hyuk Was Taking a Shot at Modern American Culture

The VIPs standing together with their masks on in Squid Game Season 3 — Image via Netflix

They’re all ridiculously bad, but the one with the English accent at least has a fiendish Bond-villain thing that I could work with. It is mainly the loud, misogynistic, lewd, crass, and completely obnoxious American VIP who needed to be toned down, more believable, or eliminated, and instead, the showrunners went the other way and made them way more involved than they needed to be. Every time I got to the edge of my seat during a squid game, there would be a cut to the VIPs, and it completely set me back as a viewer. Perhaps it was an intentional dig or commentary on American culture in general, but it comes across as bad acting delivering cringeworthy lines. And apparently, showrunner Hwang Dong-hyuk had already cut a lot of the VIP scenes from Season 3.

Despite the cuts, the scenes still feel like a not-so-thinly veiled swipe at the unearned entitlement and hubris of the nepo-babies of the American 1%. But then I see how he goes out of his way to get an Oscar-caliber actress like Blanchett to portray the only other American in the show, and I am perplexed by the choice. I realize that the whole point of having Blanchett appear just briefly at the end is for a kind of “Wow! It’s Cate Blanchett!” twisty moment, but Dong-hyuk and the Netflix money people would be better served using that part of the budget on bringing serviceable actors to play the VIPs if you’re dead-set on having them as a part of the show at all. The A-list cameo is a fun moment, but by hiring subpar actors to play recurring roles, the show is lessening the overall quality of the product. And the great South Korean main cast deserves better than that.

Squid Game is currently available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.