REVIEW: ‘Newtopia’ Episode 3

Newtopia Episode 3 carries over the frenetic energy from the previous episode, starting things with high intensity. However, it becomes clear during this episode which storyline is the strongest, with some of the episode’s funniest, more entertaining moments taking place on the rooftop of the Eden Hotel. The imbalance of quality between the two storylines proves distracting and ultimately makes the episode all the weaker.

Much of the Eden Hotel storyline in Newtopia Episode 3 takes place on the rooftop of the military headquarters, but getting up there is a frantic journey. Despite Chef Jung’s (Park Kwang-jae) musclebound efforts, it takes fire to buy our remaining cohort some limited time—Lee Jae-yoon (Park Jeong-min), Ra In-ho (Im Sung-jae), and Oh Soo-jeong (Hong Seo-hui). That is, until the hotel’s sprinklers go off. It soon becomes a race against a clock and hilarious physicality for them to get to the rooftop.

The rooftop proves to be a temporary safe haven, with the zombies following aggressively behind. And, much like any zombie film or TV show, it’s not long before the infection penetrates the safety of the military unit. Despite his refusal to admit that zombies are, in fact, an actual thing, Sergeant Jung’s (Lee Joo-won) seriousness balances out the anxiety, panic, and physicality-heavy performances in the scene. Actor Lee Joo-won provides an excellent contrast, in particular, with Park Jeong-min and Im Sung-jae, who carry the task of comedic stumbling.

After the initial zombie threat is taken care of, the true weight of the situation comes crashing down on everyone’s shoulders, with Sergeant Jung allowing everyone to call their loved ones. It is a moment of brief calm and offers a different layer of emotion that the episode hasn’t provided yet. Each character’s calls to their loved ones give insight into who is at the forefront of everyone’s mind. Most depressing is Sergeant Jung, who makes little effort to reach out to any loved ones.

Newtopia Episode 3 is held up by the strength of its Eden Hotel storyline.

In Newtopia Episode 3, everyone in the Eden Hotel storyline fires on all cylinders, with the bulk of the supporting cast getting their moments to shine. Sung-jae’s In-ho has a funny moment where his voice is noticeably different when he’s on the phone with his wife versus when he interacts with anyone in the unit. Soo-jeong gets a moment to redeem her earlier sense of shock in a one-on-one encounter with a zombie, allowing her a brief chance to level up in the eyes of the all-male unit surrounding her.

If there’s anything to complain about in the Eden Hotel storyline, it is how quickly the zombie horde outside the rooftop doors goes silent once attention immediately pivots to a new kind of threat. It can possibly be theorized that maybe they could sense the infection on the rooftop and decided to back off, but that’s offering too much grace in the situation. Instead, it’s a noticeable plothole.

More headway is made on the state of the virus in the Eden Hotel and Young-joo storylines. No easy answers arrive, though, in Newtopia Episode 3. How the virus spends is confirmed at least to be via a bite, but how quickly a person becomes infected isn’t clear yet. Through Jae-yoon’s text exchange with his mother, it’s confirmed the virus hasn’t erupted yet in Africa, or at least the part she’s in.

While filling Young-joo and Jin-wook in, Alex explains that the virus first blew up in Europe and America before coming here. The information moves us closer to understanding, but the reality is, too much explanation isn’t necessary to enjoy the chaos.

Speaking of chaos, the series’ amount of action, blood, and gore continues to knock things out of the park. Whether ripping off chunks of flesh from a person’s chest or a close-up mouth shot of nomming someone’s cheek, the zombies are vicious. Despite the comedy that permeates throughout, the refusal to skimp on the more brutal elements of the violence is welcome. It’s just a shame there isn’t more of it when attention shifts to Young-joo and her crew.

Young-joo and co are the weakest, most boring links in this episode.

Unfortunately, Kang Young-joo’s (Blackpink’s Kim Jisoo) storyline is noticeably less exciting, with the character given not much to do.  Not helping is the less-than-dynamic male characters she’s paired with. As Alex, Lee Hak-joo is given little to work with outside of a general kind nature and his character’s purported celebrity status. That celebrity status does little to flesh out his character’s personality once the apocalypse is fully underway, and so Hak-joo is left struggling to uplift the character out of his general state of blandness.

Kang Young-seok‘s Seo Jin-wook fares a little better but gets put on the back burner in favor of Young-joo’s emotional dilemma. As the coworker who was originally trying to woo Young-joo away from the absentee Jae-yoon, the apocalypse has rendered him less than desirable. The comedic beats Young-seok is able to eke out in his scenes in Newtopia Episode 3 is a testament to his capabilities, so much so that I found myself yearning for more moments with him and less with Jisoo.

That’s not to say that Jisoo isn’t holding her own in her scenes. Her character takes center stage in the respective plotline. The inner turmoil Young-joo is feeling over Jae-yoon’s safety, her love for him, and the memories that assault her in moments when she needs to be on guard prove to be great moments of acting from the actress. But there’s a distinct lack of urgency in the plot that these three actors have been given this episode compared to what the Eden Hotel group has been given. Couple this with the uneven performances and the imbalance of focus between the characters, the plotline surrounding Young-joo, Alex, and Jin-wook runs out of steam quickly.

It’s a shame, considering Newtopia is barely halfway through, and the divide between plotlines is already so clear in terms of excitement and quality. The lack of balance in Newtopia Episode 3 is so stark that it ultimately distracts from what could be an entertaining experience overall. As it stands, there’s one set of characters still stirring excitement, and it is not the one fans originally were hyped for. Here’s hoping that things rectify themselves by the next episode.

Newtopia Episodes 1-3 are now streaming exclusively on Prime Video, with new episodes dropping every Friday.