Pachinko is one of the many great hidden gems on Apple TV, which is full of such shows. Based on the 2017 novel of the same name by Min Jin Lee, it follows four generations of the Baek family, who emigrate from Korea to Japan in the 1930s. It’s also one of the best-reviewed TV shows of the past decade.
And yet, we may never get a promised third season. It’s an outrage everyone needs to hear about.
Pachinko is a once-in-a-generation epic
It’s a complex tale that’s easy to understand
Pachinko was created by Soo Hugh, who previously served as co-showrunner on the first season of the excellent AMC show The Terror, which also has a historical bent to it.
But Pachinko goes far further. The main character is Sunja (Kim Min-ha), who is born in Japanese-occupied Korea. Over the course of the first season, we watch her grow into a bright, capable young girl. She meets a businessman named Hansu (Lee Min-ho) and begins a romance, but a horrible lie makes it impossible for them to be together. Instead, she marries a Christian missionary named Baek Isak (Steve Sang-Hyun Noh) and emigrates to Japan with him, where they raise a family. But her troubles are just beginning.
The first season takes us towards the end of the 1930s, with the second picking up with Sunja and her family in 1945, right before the end of World War II. And while all this is happening, we often flash forward to 1989, where an elderly Sunja is now played by Oscar winner Youn Yuh-jung and we follow her grandson Solomon (Jin Ha) as he tries to make it in the corporate world. There’s also a trip back to Yokohama, Japan in 1923 where we see some of the effects of the Great Kanto Earthquake, engagement with the Korean War, and more things of historical interest.
When adapting a sprawling, multi-generational story like this, there’s always a danger of it spinning out of control, of it becoming more confusing than compelling. That’s never even remotely a danger for Pachinko. Soo Hugh, the production team, and the cast keep everything well in hand. We never have to wonder what year it is or who these people are; they’re instantly memorable.
If Pachinko is so great, why isn’t it renewed?
You have the power
Pacinko was a hit with critics and audiences alike, with both seasons having extremely impressive 97% fresh scores on Rotten Tomatoes. So why, then, has there been no news about a third season since the second wrapped up in Oct. 2024?
Obviously, Apple TV hasn’t renewed the show, although we can only speculate as to why. “This is really, now, one of those things that’s so out of my hands, and I think Apple’s also waiting to see how the show does,” Soo Hugh told The Hollywood Reporter not long after the Season 2 finale. “I think we’re really trying to fight for a third season — and it really comes down to viewership.”
This rankles, because Soo Hugh initially came to Apple with an idea to make three or four seasons, meaning she may only need one more to finish the story. Apple has a history of renewing good TV shows even if they haven’t broken out and become big hits, like Platonic and Loot. Pachinko is almost certainly more expensive to make than either of those shows, but it would Apple to invest in it anyway as a quality play. With rave reviews from critics and fans, Pachinko has the potential to bring home a lot of awards gold, especially if Soo Hugh and her team are near the end of the story and ramp up to some big dramatic climaxes.
More reasons to watch Pachinko
We have a long list
Ultimately, it will be the viewers who decide whether Pachinko gets another season. And despite the fact that its fate hangs in limbo, the show is still very much worth watching. We haven’t mentioned the show’s brilliant use of subtitles; it color-codes them depending on whether the characters are speaking English, Korean, or Japanese. The fact that it’s bold enough to feature three languages at all is enough to recommend it.
The show also makes brilliant use of symbolism. There’s a pocket watch that gets passed from character to character over the years, and by the end of the second season it’s been imbued with untold levels of thematic importance. Naturally, the show also features a pachinko parlor; actually, there’s a whole network of them operated by Sanja’s son Mozasu, and the unpredictable nature of the game becomes a metaphor for life itself.
Hope springs eternal
At the end of the day, not every show can make it to the finish line. TV series get canceled all the time, and while Pachinko hasn’t been officially tossed on the refuse pile, the odds of a renewal are looking pretty long two years after the second season.
The best thing people can do is tune in. And if you don’t want to start up a new series that may never be finished, there are lots of completed shows out there to peruse instead.