The Devil’s Plan Season 3 opens with a five-episode drop that establishes the new twists and atmosphere of the returning reality competition show. With a cast of seasoned competition-show veterans and returning The Devil’s Plan champions, the group is primed to pull out all the stops in their quest to win up to 500 million won.
The biggest element of this season’s format that sets this entry apart early on is the decision to field only experienced players. This brings an extra level of strategy, as several multi-show winners quickly grasp the ropes of the handful of challenges thus far revealed. And that added strategy isn’t the only benefit for participants.
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Everyone participating in The Devil’s Plan Season 3 knows how the game is played when it comes to betrayals and backstabs. These are pros who take a realistic attitude toward such moments. When the most shocking twist of the early series hits, the victim, despite being disappointed, largely shrugs it off. During the obligatory exit interview, they acknowledge how they let their guard down, and the other player was just doing what they all would: look out for themselves.
The Devil’s Plan Season 3 features a cast that knows exactly what they are getting into.
If you’ve always had a hard time stomaching the more dastardly side of reality competitions, this one may be more to your liking. With everyone experienced and here for the game, it feels far less underhanded and just how the game is played. There is never a feeling of malice in the motivations.
Even as The Devil’s Plan Season 3‘s cast get all they can from the games set before them, those games are of a highly mixed quality from a viewing perspective. While all are complex and tactically nuanced, some are just unfun to watch. Discussions can drag on too long, as the nitty-gritty of each game and the alliances they make and break get repeated. And then, for non-Korean readers, one event has a major language barrier.
Nearly a full episode is dedicated to a virtual stock trading game with special rules written down for each stock that slowly get revealed over the course of the game. No translation is overlaid on the many signs used in this game, leaving foreign fans largely in the lurch when trying to fully understand what is going on. Combined with the camera rapidly bouncing between three different groups of contestants, the whole game quickly makes your eyes glaze over as you watch reactions play out as events go for or against contestants.
One game has a major language barrier, with minimal translation available to non-Korean viewers.
Despite some hiccups with the game choice, The Devil’s Plan Season 3 still trots out fantastically compelling challenges that can grip you. A Memory/poker matchup is a unique, fun watch that leaves you desperately trying to play along. A Russian Roulette-inspired game also brings some great tension to the proceedings.
But the best game so far brings together a pitch-perfect blend of pacing, tension, and twists as players try to outwit their opponents in a number-manipulation game. The series lets the viewer in on just enough information to understand what could happen, while still leaving the outcome tantalizingly out of reach.
The series also does a good job of handling the downtime between challenges. The time spent between games is almost exclusively dedicated to real planning and strategy. The cast avoids obnoxious pettiness or melodrama, instead focusing on who they see as threats and where they need to improve to stay in the games.
While some games struggle to hold interest, the cast really helps keep viewers glued.
As has been the custom with the series, The Devil’s Plan Season 3 also has some surprises waiting for players between challenges. These side puzzles are cleverly set up and lead to some of the biggest beats of the first five episodes, including an excellently executed cliffhanger.
The Devil’s Plan Season 3 is an up-and-down journey through its first five episodes. It has some great games and a strong cast of competitors, but a sizable chunk of the season so far is spent on challenges that quickly become boring to wade through.
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The Devil's Plan Season 3 is an up-and-down journey through its first five episodes. It has some great games and a strong cast of competitors, but so far, a sizable chunk of the season has been spent on challenges that quickly become boring to wade through.
