I’m So Glad ‘Squid Game’ Is Ending After Season 3, and Streamers Need To Take Note
Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk announced at the beginning of the year that Season 3 of the hit Netflix series would be its last. “The fierce clash between [Gi-hun and Front Man’s] two worlds will continue into the series finale with Season 3, which will be brought to you next year,” he wrote in a letter to fans following the end of Season 2. While many see their favorite show ending as a disappointment, I feel like this is a great announcement, as it allows Squid Game to go out on a high note. On top of that, it shows Netflix and other streamers that it’s perfectly fine to end a television series at a certain point in time. Yes, I understand that streamers, and especially Netflix have a reputation for canceling shows before they could fully take off — I still mourn Sense8 to this day. While I do get that some shows are so amazing that you’d want them to go on forever, shows never stay at the same quality level for an untold number of seasons. With the landscape of television changing and television production changing with it, having a set number of seasons from the beginning means that streamers can turn out some quality programming and avoid disappointing fans.
Having a Set Number of Seasons Means a More Focused Story — And Less Delays
The longer a television show goes on, the more chance it stands of losing the thing that makes it a must-watch series. As someone who’s watched The Simpsons or Supernatural, I can tell you where the peaks and valleys are in those shows’ runs, and I also know that streamers aren’t exempt from this. Netflix struck gold with 13 Reasons Why but decided to keep renewing it for three more seasons despite the fact that its premise was only suitable for a limited series. Netflix’s then vice president of content, Cindy Holland, unpacked this decision in an interview, saying, “When it’s good, people watch it and there is both an ongoing story to tell and the creators want to continue.” But 13 Reasons Why fell into the same trap as The Simpsons, Supernatural, and countless other shows where the plots either grew too outlandish or repeated themselves — not to mention the fact that future seasons failed to properly address the themes of suicide at the show’s center, which outright horrified me.
I think that if a show has a set number of seasons, a streamer can avoid running a show into the ground or production delays. Take Stranger Things as an example. While there was only a one-year gap between Seasons 1 and 2 and a two-year gap between Seasons 2 and 3, Season 4 took the bulk of three years to finish filming due to the COVID-19 pandemic, while Season 5 was delayed because of the WAG/SAG-AFTRA strikes. These sorts of delays are not only frustrating to the audience, who may lose interest if they wait too long, but cause problems for the production. In Stranger Things, in particular, they had the complication of the cast growing up. Many shows suffer from such delay, including Squid Game, as nearly three years passed before Season 2 dropped.
A lot of this is due to how production has changed due to streaming. In addition to events like COVID and strikes shaking up productions, there’s also been more money poured into shows, especially when there are heavy visual effects involved — not to mention actors’ schedules are in flux due to other projects. Journalist Rick Porter summed it up during a chat with The Ringer:
“If a show signs an A-list actor up for a season that has eight or 10 episodes, that person probably has other jobs lined up, too. So to get them back for the next season, the show has to work around or wait out the other commitments. That applies to working actors as well, who need more than a single eight-episode show a year to make a viable living.”
Rather than trying to wrangle actors for multiple seasons, it’s best if streamers just set a number of seasons for a show; that way, everyone has enough time to film said show and potentially work on other projects.
Related
I’m Starting To Think This ‘Squid Game’ Theory Is Going To Come True
Gi-hun’s future is not looking so bright.
Some of the Best TV Shows Have a Limited Number of Seasons
While a lot of people might argue that a long run of episodes is proof of a show’s success, I’d argue that some of the best series on television were the ones that ended on the creators’ terms. Breaking Bad is a prime example, as creator Vince Gilligan said that it was never meant to be an “open-ended show” and wrapped things up by Season 5. J. Michael Straczynski intended for Babylon 5 to be a five-season series. BoJack Horseman creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg even got a heads up when Netflix planned to close out the series, while Eric Kripke will be able to fulfill his five-season plan for The Boys. and didn’t try to extend it beyond that. What makes these series great for me is that they told the stories the creators wanted to tell and didn’t drag things out for the sake of popularity. Squid Game looks like it’ll follow in those footsteps, which is surprising because I recently learned that it was initially meant to be a movie. It took Hwang Dong-hyuk years to sell it, and the fact that he managed to turn the show into a global hit is amazing. But what’s even more impressive is that he’ll end the show the way he wants and in a genuinely natural way. Season 2 laid the groundwork for Gi-hun (Jung Jae-lee) and the Front Man (Lee Byung-hun) to have one final confrontation — especially since the Front Man executed Jung-bae (Lee Seo-hwan) in front of him.
Squid Game‘s ending probably won’t stop Netflix from attempting to cash in on its success, or even MrBeast continuing to misunderstand the show’s deeper themes in his bizarre attempts to replicate its success. But I think it’ll hopefully send a message to streamers that having a clear-defined ending in mind for a series beats milking a show for every last drop of content and money. Whether or not they choose to heed the lesson is up to them.
Squid Game is streaming on Netflix in the U.S.
- Release Date
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2021 – 2024
- Network
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Netflix
- Showrunner
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Hwang Dong-hyuk
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Lee Jung-jae
Seong Gi-hun / ‘No. 456’
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