Snowpiercer Season 3 Episode 1 Review: Netflix’s Post-Apocalyptic Series Returns

Director: James Hawes

Starring: Jennifer Connelly, Daveed Diggs, Mickey Sumner

Streaming Platform: Netflix (click to watch)

Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3/5 (three and half star) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

There was a distinct gap between the Snowpiercer review and the Snowpiercer 2 review. This is because the second season of the TNT prequel show to Bong Joon-ho’s film, itself based on the comic book Le Transperceneige by Jean-Marc Rochette and Benjamin Legrand, had worked well on the dynamics between the characters, introducing a villain worthy of the name. , Mr. Wilford played by the beloved Sean Bean , a second train with characters and events that intersect between clashes and reconciliations, changes of barricade and revelations about the fate of the world.

Jennifer Connelly’s Melanie played a key role in all of this, who had risked everything to recover data on the planet’s climate that would have allowed Layton (Daveed Diggs) and his companions to reach a New Eden, a place not constrained by the grip of frost, to revive civilization and break the vicious circle imposed. by Wilford and its globe-spanning rail system. One year later, Netflix releases the nine episodes of the third season of Snowpiercer on a weekly basis, effectively closing the roundup of the Netflix series of January 2022.

Snowpiercer Season 3 Episode 1: The Story

After the failed attempt to recover Melanie and the results of her research due to the Wilford boycott, Layton and Alex, the woman’s daughter, had managed to separate the Snowpiercer from the Big Alice with the invaluable help of a frost-hardened Jodie, thus allowing to the train of ten carriages to return to the point of randez-vous to help the character of Jennifer Connelly and thus be able to steal the secrets of the planetary climate. Of Mel, however, no trace. So now the Snowpiercer analyzes the meteorological data saved from his shelter to leave behind that freezing apocalypse caused by man’s unconsciousness.

The Layton pirate train, however, is chased by Wilford’s Big Alice which, albeit slower, with its 1023 wagons welcomes on board many of the friends and affections of the Snowpiercer members, who have constituted an internal resistance that escapes from day to day. Wilford’s attempts to track her down and finally condemn her. Their hope is that Layton, forced to abandon them in the previous season by the urgent need to save Melanie – and with it potentially humanity -, will return to put an end to the Wilford project to re-establish that itinerant world divided into classes of which he has never managed to be the actual undisputed master. But something seems to survive out there under the ice sheet, as we learned from Layton’s discovery. We just have to wait to understand what role it will play in the war between the two trains.

In fact, the first episode of the third season of Snowpiercer does not offer big surprises, if not the introduction of an element other than the existing narrative. A dramaturgical graft still in progress, which we will certainly face starting from the next episode to understand its risks and potential. For the rest, the show starts a new chapter by introducing the new dynamics at six months from the forced division of the two trains and it is interesting to note how many problems these two realities have in common, despite the difference of views. Not as strong an impact as the beginning of the second season, which had a lot of meat in the fire, with the inclusion of Wilford and the mystery of the Big Alice. You feel a bit ‘the limit of conflict at a distance, with the internal one that does not appear too convincing.

Snowpiercer Season 3 Episode 1 Review

Snowpiercer for now redraws the boundaries of its eternal revolution that changes from season to season. On the train driven by Wilford it was in fact necessary to reduce the divisions to a single class, the working class, which allows the carriages to survive, but which in turn struggles to face the days studded with various technical problems that have in fact mutilated the Big Alice, forcing to close entire sectors (first class in the lead) and to revive that subversive undergrowth experienced during the first round of episodes. A movement from below that is now content to survive by stealing food and corrupting in exchange for valuable information on the Snowpiercer or to gain new strategic allies.

Confidence in Layton’s return may not last, despite spirits being strong and Ruth leading the Resistance. On the other hand, Audrey and she don’t seem to be overly convincing antagonists in intent and action, but we’re only at the beginning. Also, after Josie’s experiments, Wilford now seems focused on gene therapy involving Zarah and her pregnancy, in a plan that doesn’t bode well for Layton’s future child. Beyond these speculations, which at the moment cannot be confirmed, the first episode of this new seasonalternates more staid moments in which the exposure risks loosening its grip on the viewer too much, with (few) more dynamic situations that bring us back to the previous season.

A Sean Bean a little too overacting in some scenes (also due to the writing that would like him as a grotesque Captain Ahab in search of his white whale), but we hope that these remain isolated episodes. We miss Jennifer Connelly, along with Bean the most convincing pillar of the entire cast – able to literally save the show in the first season – but we understand the script reasons that will keep her away from us for a while longer.

The staging appears convincing, with a return to dark photography and decadent sets that return the discomfort of the working class, except for the quality of the special effects relating to the exteriors, in particular the representation of trains in motion (a constant denial on rare occasions). For all the rest we just have to wait for the next episode of Snowpiercer to understand if Layton’s visions really represent the New Eden or if he will have to be satisfied with places where it is at least still possible to live.

Snowpiercer Season 3 Episode 1 Review: The Last Words

The first episode of Snowpiercer 3 unfolds in all its obvious introductory nature and we obviously can’t blame him for that. The bar of the conflict between Wilford and Layton is lowered, given the geography that divides the two and the different speeds of travel of the two trains. This involves a focus on internal dynamics that do not give big surprises or joys, disappointing in some cases. Certainly a new window opens on the future; we will see on which scenarios it will overlook and, above all, if Melanie’s apparent sacrifice has been worth it.