Episode Guide
Chapter 01: Moon -| Review Score – 3.5/5 Chapter 02: Shock -| Review Score – 5/5 Chapter 03: Fire -| Review Score – 3.5/5 Chapter 04: Submarine -| Review Score – 4/5 Chapter 05: Painting -| Review Score – 4/5 Chapter 06: Buttons -| Review Score – 3.5/5 Chapter 07: Sun -| Review Score – 3/5 Back for its fourth and final season, The 3% returns for 7 more episodes of dystopian action. Picking up right where it left off, The 3% wastes little time throwing you head-first into this final conflict. With a couple of big action set pieces and an ending that’s sure to polarize viewers, this Brazilian sci-fi finishes things off as best it can but it’s far from a smooth ride. The story this time begins not long after the events of the previous season. Marcela is captured and with Michele and the others at the Shell. The Process is being run with an iron fist by Andre, whose usurped the Offshore council members and seized control for himself. Joana, Rafael, Marco and a few others, decide to take the fight to the Process and head there with one mission in mind – blow up the Offshore. This forms the crux of the narrative across the episodes and all of this comes to a head during the middle of the season. From there, the story moves into wrapping up loose ends and leveling out this conflict in as satisfying way as possible. With a 75 minute finale, The 3% certainly throws everything it can at this to please fans. While there are redeeming features, it’s also mired by some questionable character motivations and a lacklustre end for some players. I won’t spoil anything here but it is worth noting that Michele steps aside as the main character this time around. Instead, Joana is the central focus for much of the show. While this in itself is good, one of her sub-plots involves finding out who her Mother is but this is never resolved. Even worse, other characters have wavering motivations and the ending – while good on paper – feels slightly contrived in the way it’s delivered. Stylistically though, The 3% continues to use flashbacks for each of the different characters and this is easily one of the big positives this year. These work beautifully to add context and weight to each episode, along with learning more about the different characters. Marcela, Andre, Marco and Joana all receive this treatment and while the latter only comes in fleeting glimpses, it’s enough to serve up some history and intrigue to what’s happened in the past. Overall then The 3% does well to round out its four season run but the finale is likely to be subject of much debate. The ideas this year are certainly good and a few of the individual episodes are really well written. There’s an urgency with this that makes it a very easy show to binge through. If you’ve made it this far then you’ll obviously see this one through to its conclusion. It’s not perfect, and it is a bit of a rocky ride to see those final scenes, but there’s enough here to enjoy nonetheless.
