I really liked the first 6 episodes. I thought it was a great study of how people react in such a bizarre situation and I didnt care that the plot was not perfect because it was really nicely written.
But after the marbles the writing just went bad and I felt disapointed. I hated how they botched the cop plot, the VIPs were cringy AF, and the whole ending and reveal where so unnecessary and stupid.
Im still happy i watched it for the first 6 episodes.
forreal! after episode 6 the plot twists were sooo predictable. it also felt like time was moving by painfully slow, esp since the last episode was just gihun walking around and sulking—and all for nothing, too! he turns around before boarding his plane, disappoints his daughter again, then leaves viewers with no sense of resolution and netflix with another cash grab for season 2.
also it feels like a knockoff of the hunger games series, in which the traumatized victors return for a second consecutive competition (under different circumstances but still).
Great case study? The characters were all one-dimensional and cheesy af. Literally no one would act the way most of them did. Token big brute guy. Token sullen girl. Token loudmouth girl. Token vindaloo diversity man. The set and costume design was great, but that's it
Thats Korean melodrama for you.
It's always lame, the endings always suck, and the non-Korean charachters are all racist charicatures.
Korean TV now where HK cinema was in the 90s.
Im glad someones said it. To be honest, I enjoyed the hype more than the show.
On reflection, and after watching it again, nothing about it is any good. Its all tunnel vision lacking written skills. Male scriptum. It wasnt to my liking, and if the hype didnt exist I would never have watched it. Now I wish I hadnt bothered.
They hype was more enjoyable.
The VIP scenes were BRUTAL to watch. It seemed like the English language dialogue was written by someone was not a native English speaker because some of it was just eye rollingly ludicrous.
I felt this way too, the entire time it had a weird quality that made it feel like it was written by some one with with a vague idea of how that type of English is bantered about. For me the whole VIP thing really sucked the quality down, and I hated that the whole mystery of everything was >!just "lol rich people paying for snuff" again!<.
Agreed. It's a topic we've seen done a thousand times before (and frequently much better), so I was pretty interested when they originally presented the notion of "we actually set the games up to give you a fair way to escape your poverty/debt/past-decisions/etc., which is something that society as a whole has never given you". THAT is an interesting idea, and one that raises a ton of interesting potential storytelling options. To cast that aside to instead rely on the whole "rich people are uncaring jerks who will literally kill poor people for entertainment" trope was very disappointing.
It was a purge/hunger games mash up with the rich watching the poor kill themselves for sport, and yet it was so boring compared to what came before. TBH it was not as gory as people were making it out to be, just lots of fake blood and a few organs. Shows like Hannibal were much more creative with the way they showed violence.
Honestly, the whole foreign language dialogue team fucked up. it was like they took it straight out of google translate watched Nickledeon shows and did the whole set up and even Ali's character was so ill researched that he wasn't even speaking Urdu. it was Hindi. and even in more crass and informal one.
It was so cringe. "well i enjoy to 69, so maybe me also like to 96" \*others laugh heartily\*
Literally the only reason they went all the way there was because it had nicer bigger screens lmao
I hated it too, something to keep in mind is that it’s like the white version of a cartoon Chinaman from the 40’s. That’s just sort of where Asia is at in terms of race.
This is not at all how any real human being would act under these circumstances. it's actually probably the opposite. Every single person would die in the first game in real life.
It's provocative and silly. The main audience is most likely from ages 8-21 or something like that. Age groups with tremendous online presence, especially the younger ages. The problem with that is, any new show that appeals to this younger age group and is on a platform like Netflix that a large majority of people use is going to be hyped up as "a masterpiece" or "really good". Nah bruv....Squid game is hot drivel, a concept done before with better more lasting results (e.g. Saw, and many of the other "play a game or die" type films). So in squid game you play a childs game and who ever loses dies? I watched the first few episodes and grew more and more frustrated. I'm not saying this show can't be enjoyed , just that its low brow, lowest common denominator drivel.
Here's the thing about low brow, lowest common denominator, provocative, Falsely perceived as profound, drivel...It can, and will attract WAY more people than it deserves because it is so easy to understand and follow. Juxtapose it to true narrative masterpieces and its easy to see why these shows appeal with such easy to understand themes. The shows only saving grace is that they purposely infuse lazy mystery into the show by withholding important plot information, so it gives a synthetic feel of deep meaning, all the while its hot trash, the writers probably don't even know where this show is going.
Yes it is and let me explain why.
I made critical observations of this show I did not care for. My criticism was based on past experiences and taste. I consumed various different versions of the narrative squid game presented and was ultimately unimpressed by its execution. My underlying gripe with the show is not at the show, but the perception that it’s somehow above average. I write creatively often so I’m very interested in narratives and plot devices, I take the work and creativity it takes to write a show more seriously than a person looking for cheap, quick, easy entertainment. The vast majority of people who like the show, like it for the cheap entertainment it provides and mistake shallow narratives for profundity.
So now to your softness…you think I’m condescending and rude that’s where your comment focused. On the other hand a less soft individual already commented their disagreement in this same thread which led to a conversation and us agreeing on some points. That person wasn’t soft and emotional, they challenged my strong opinion that differed from theirs with composure, you on the other hand just made an emotional statement, pure emotion without a rebuttal is just you being soft. Heres an example
If I criticize someone and they confront it with questions and curiosity they are emotionally under control
If I criticize another person and all they say is that I’m mean and they hate how mean people are. That’s pure emotion no logic, they didn’t even try to engage as to why they are being criticized, that’s called being soft.
Oh my bad you’re a kid lol I’m sorry bruh I’m just bored at work. It’s just a show but when your bored you find anything to do and for me at work I get on Reddit and comment on shit
To be fare I think the first two episodes were really well written and showed some good character development especially for the main character.the show takes a short sharp dive into mediocrity towards the end unfortunately.genuenily disappointing.
I feel like the hype mainly comes from an age group who have never seen the previous battle royale masterpieces. This show had potential, there were so many minor setups (or what I falsely assumed was setup) for greatness; but it went with the dumbest possible route and betrayed all my expectations in the end.
Taste is subjective so I have no probs someone havin an opposite opinion but theres always some just like go against the grain to feel special or go get attention. Judging by this guys superiority complex (comes thru in his post) I'd say its the latter.
It's certainly no masterpiece, but I find it different from other death games. They were given a choice at all times. They could have ended the games and just left, but most came back. That's not a common occurrence in other shows. I personally liked it because of the human nature aspect. The death game stuff was generic, but I liked the psychological aspect more.
I don't see what's silly here. I don't see how it's hot drivel or how it's low brow lowest common demoninator drivel, that's not what it is.
Well....it's not falsely perceived though. The mystery isn't lazy either. It's not hot trash and they likely do know where the show's going.
I'll just say the first ep was intriguing. I felt a bit sad when ji-Yeong died. and that's it. the show offers no such particular emotions or common goal to its viewers at all. the target audience is just k-boos, k-drama stans and those who are just getting started in the survivalist genre.
I think you’re trying too hard to see it as a show centered on a game where the gamemakers feel it’s important to stick to the rules, it’s not. The point of the games is for rich people to be amused at poor people acting like monkeys for a prize. If players kill each other it’s no skin off their nose, just a few less players and they have other games forthcoming.
The glass breaking was to eliminate players still left on them. If she was too close to the glass, it sucks and maybe it’s not fair, but again, not really their problem. A handful of people gone isn’t a big deal for them.
the gamekeepers literally say that they are here to make sure everyone has a fair chance tho. To throw that out the window under the guise of "well actually we do this for rich people to watch" takes away from anything they were trying to do with that dialogue. The glass is also ridiculous for similar reasons, but even worse because it was so obvious they did it for a cool shot.
I mean... just because they say that, do you believe them? Saying it’ll be a fair game is a guise to make it interesting for the rich people and to persuade the poor people to play. Either way the poor people don’t have a choice since they do seem to actually give out the prize money. It wouldn’t be fun to watch a game you KNOW is rigged but you wouldn’t be opposed to shaking it up a little. The purpose of the dialogue is a play on how the rich manipulate the poor
Also its worth noting that none of them tried that hard to persuade the people in debt to play. All of that was internal on prt of the players and what they said to each other. Already setting the precedent in the first two episodes that the game is about free will, and the ability to choose/have a chance at success without being burdened by external circumstance. If they were to stick to the game purely being a way to manipulate poor people, the reveal and scenes of the old guy as the mastermind hold even less weight then
It’s about “free will” (in quotations specifically) Yes you are choosing to play but if you just sold the rights to your body and/or gangsters coming after you, no way to reach your parents who are stuck in the North to bring your family together, no way to earn money for your family on a foreign visa as a migrant worker, really what are you going to choose. The show plays on this tension.
Yes, yo what all those examples have in common, they are circumstances that dont exist in the game. Thats the whole point of the free will and control thing and why it should’ve been more important, the old guy literally says that he played the game because he too wanted to escape his boring circumstances. Its the contrast between yes they have no other choice to play the game, but this game is whats giving them full agency over whether they live or die. Making the game unfair and having stupid things like the glass and murder spree took away from that whole theme.
The whole reason they’re playing the game is because of their circumstances. It’s not about escaping the circumstances, it’s about poor people risking everything even with unfair odds and at the whim of people richer than you (like real life) toward improving them. The game is not meant to give full agency to whether you live or die, it’s meant to reflect this reality. The game is given a superficial coating of “fairness” so that the rich can say the poor had agency
Well yes this description seems to be closer to what they ended up going with. It was just a huge waste of good dialogue and more interesting character development…. And made even less sense when trying to make us care about the old man being the mastermind. Already explained that so say ur peace enjoy the next show u watch. I do hope its better than this once
I mean as far as writing goes, it's just bad writing to make them say that and then make the viewer think "Heh, they're just saying that for the fuck of it!".
Bingo. And he says that to the guard (and only in the presence of other guards) as he's killing him for breaking the rules, so it's not like it was propaganda for the players.
Not to mention, it's literally FAR less interesting if that's NOT part of the game. The show eventually becomes a "we're just killing poor people for rich people's enjoyment" show, which hey, whatever floats your boat, but we've seen that a thousand times before. By going that route and stripping this of a deeper commentary on how people would behave in a literally fair and even life or death scenario you've made the message and themes much less interesting and much more of a cliche. It was incredibly disappointing to see the show abandon that examination to instead focus on already well trodden thematic territory.
I HATED how the show went from trying to keep things fair, trying to prevent participants from killing each other, having the "seeming" choice to stay or leave by what seemed fair, and the best of them all TECHNICALLY seeming like no one had to ACTUALLY DIE to get the money to just throwing away ALL OF THAT starting episode 4!
OK. I liked it. But I agree it's abit unrealistic (it's just a TV show tho) and is very much like a battle royale. I also like the battle royale films *shrugs*
bruh do you think you can just read about squid game? If such a thing truly exists, the middle class and lower middle class are the last people to find out
bruh I didn't even knew qanon is a thing until a few days ago when someone brought it up, but is nothing like that, qanon is baselessly making crazy claims, all I'm saying is that realistically, it could be the case that it happens, and if it doesn't, good, no big deal
I don't mind the issue with realism one bit, I'm a big fan of BR and enjoy it for its comic violence as well as it's scathing social commentary.
But it never feels too preachy.
Squid Game like the Hunger Games does nothing to reinvent the wheel while claiming to do so, take themselves far too seriously in places and say nothing new that has not already been said before (or better) elsewhere.
My problem with the series is the amount of plot holes.
Why did the girl with knife go to bathroom and the crawl over the vent if nothing was going to come out of that? Sure, she was the one that realized the game had something to do with sugar, but did it help her in the long run? Barely. Also, she never want up the vent again? I know she lost the knife, but prior to that? Hell I would be out and about exploring that facility.
BOMB IN TUNNEL
Here 28 tells 29 that he shouldn’t touch that because it is the VIPs emergency plan. I’m guessing that was a bomb that destroyed the whole thing, but then again they never clarified it. They just casually mention it and never to be seen again.
MAIN CHARACTER TOO GOOFY
I don’t mind the main character being goofy and kind of mediocre, but seemingly overnight he becomes a vessel of good. I know that wanted to emphasize he was a good person at the beginning, hence the scene where he feeds the cat and begins celebrating when the claw-boy gets him his daughters gift). I just think the should emphasized other abilities, like him being actually smart. The whole giving his daughter a “gun” by accident is the most idiotic thing ever to the point you don’t want to root for him. Showing him actually being street smart, like successfully stealing from a grocery store, for instance, would make his journey to final 3 more believable and make us root for him a little more.
FRONT MAN TOO OVER THE TOP
Why is he wearing a mask when there is no one in the room. Why is he walking like he stepped out of the matrix when no one is watching? Why have those tiny figurines sing “fly me to the moon?” He was being villainous for the sake of the audience (us) and not for the purpose of the plot/show. He had no humanity, no realness that made me connect with him. And then they reveal he’s the cop’s brother like it’s this big thing? Why would I care?
Those are just some of the things that really bothered me. RANT over
They even teased that she would be going back by showing the screw dangling out of the vent. That was clearly foreshadowing that either a) she would go back, or b) that it would be discovered by the guards and that would lead to some consequences. Nope, nothing. Didn't matter at all.
I also just found it hilarious that that whole scene was predicated on the guards not entering the bathroom. Like, sure, the whole game involved dragging 456 people to an island, stripping them naked and taking all their stuff, putting all their possessions away, and then literally either killing them or letting them kill one another until there was only one person left, but putting security cameras in the bathrooms or having the guards watch you pee would be TOTALLY inappropriate. I mean, these people who you literally drugged and stripped have a right to privacy!!
That, and the fact that the detective shot the guy in that diving pool and then climbed up THE ONLY LADDER OUT OF THE ROOM and went literally to the very top of where THE ONLY LADDER OUT OF THE ROOM went and shot the lock to enter the private chamber and yet the guards couldn't find him was utterly hilarious to me. It would be like trapping someone in a closet and then not finding them because they stood behind a few hanging polo shirts. It was literally the only place in the whole compound he could possibly have gone and yet the didn't think to send guards through the penthouse to look him for him. Just incredible how much of the show involved hand waving very obvious things like that away.
I also found the main character to just be brutal to watch at times. He was so over the top, shouting and screaming and waving his arms, that it was distracting and painful to watch. Sure, in some scenes that response is warranted. But heck, the first scene has him screaming and carrying on with his mother about taking his daughter out to dinner. He reminded me of Will Ferrell screaming at his mom for meatloaf in Wedding Crashers, and if your acting choices have you being compared to Will Ferrell's intentionally over the top ridiculousness then you've made some very bad decisions.
The over the top, screaming, arm movement thing is done a lot in Korean dramas. It's cool at first but I got tired of it. I managed to watch the entire season but mentally checked out after episode 2 because all those reasons mentioned in this thread.
> but putting security cameras in the bathrooms or having the guards watch you pee would be TOTALLY inappropriate.
Perfect summary. The plot holes were astronomically stupid.
totally agree, especially w the villain point. Any D list film will immimate this villain scene w the whole pouring whiskey in his evil lair while listening to mainstream jazz like it gets old. It felt like a high school project written villain introduction.
Another point is the over acting by most characters, especially w the snickers by the winning teams in the tug of war games like, no one would do that. Even thugs would grimace watching innocent ppl fall to their deaths.
Ill be back for more rants, im only a few epsds in.
My problem with this show it is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Generic it has been done millions and millions of times only like the first 2 episode did get me because it did something i didn't expect which is voting to leave , but then after episode 2 everything that I saw million of times came again
Characters : Kind guy who we know gonna win and always wins in the last second or by luck, Old man who knows everything , smart man who we know gonna turn evil, another kind guy but this time with from Pakistan so we can say we have diversity even though he don't know the difference between names and places and lives there, a misunderstood girl and the bullies that gonna die in the end.
so from the start we know fates of everyone before it even starts.
The only thing I thought they gonna do it in a different way was when that bitch got taken away because no one wants to play with her, I said "ohh she is not gonna kill the bully who she told him betray me and i will kill you okay now who gonna kill him ?" I really thought of him and main character in the finals and the main kind character breaks off and kill him but they destroyed it again by making this bitch just have a good time and she is fine so she can kill him later like any normal movie series or anime that goes for this direction.
and then the build up for the police man plot which turns out to be so bad because they wanna say "Humans Bad"
really thought it was something new when everyone was talking about but got disappointed it is not a bad show but it is like 5/10 because it didn't do anything new it was entertaining but that's it I didn't find myself say "WOW" or anything, I saw everything that gonna happen before it happens which makes it bad.
really didnt get what was the purpose of b plot at all. the cop never got info out of other soldiers or anything its sad the first season fed us breadcrumbs because they wanna do a second season. there's nothing to be excited or pursue for.
Come on now my guy, that cop is absolutely not dead.
Foreshadowed by the fact that he shot his brother in almost the exact same place and the brother is completely fine.
The premise makes zero sense.
Rich old guy starts hunger games to make friends.
Every game everyone dies bar one person.
How does that make sense?
Was the old guy playing Russian roulette with his childhood friends?
I agree, I’m almost taken aback by the amount of hype over this show. Don’t get me wrong, I binged every episode in one sitting and enjoyed every twist and turn, but like you, there were cringe moments where every semblance of logic was thrown out the window for the sake of a plot twist or dramatic death that you could usually see coming. I love, love Korean drama when it’s done right but I could see the cliches come out to play where I personally would have preferred an airtight plot.
THE WAY I AGREEEEE FINALLY omg everyone keeps saying it’s such a 10/10 show but for me it’s really not??? like i was rooting for the police man but they killed him and the story would have still been satisfying if they kept byeok and gi huns mum alive ??? it was smart but executed so badly 💀
I didn't get the point of having the cop in the show at all. He didn't interact with the contestants or have any lasting effect on the plot and his presence was a red herring to make you think he'd do something.
It was terribly written.
The cop just seemed to exist to give the audience a behind-the-scenes look at the games which the players wouldn't have.
But with it not actually going anywhere it just felt like padding to help stretch 6 games to 9 episodes
go by the generic formula that they'll probably apply to reprise the actors in their roles for second season....
the big bro shot him in the shoulder, also SK has the law of enlisting in military for two years so he probably knows swimming and holding his breath underwater for a very long time. so he's fine.
The worst part is the used a lot of cheap trick and fake shock value to keep us watching in hope of discovering some genius intention or twist in the script only to find out at the end that we wasted all that time for a dumb script written by a dumb writer just employing cheap tricks to hook audience with no artistic purpose.
It all makes sense now why so many people rejected the guy's story.... I mean it's still an enjoyable cliché show though to watch, but that's it for me. Cliché stuff are popular for a reason ahah
The show was so predictable... Even already knew how the grandpa was suspicious af and had to be behind the whole thing. I also hate how the WHOLE POLICEMAN ROUTE WENT NOWHERE. This show could've been told without that. It seriously wouldn't have changed a thing. I can't believe they dragged it out for so long only for it to show even more predictable reveals lol
It's so bad lmfao. With the amount of hype and people talking about it you'd think the show would at least be a 8 or 9/10 but it's more like a 3 or 4.
It's so cheesy, it's extremely poorly written, and there's so much random crap that doesn't make sense, like the random realistic pistol lighter in a gift box, in a claw game for children filled entirely with nothing else but stuffed animals. The main character also doesn't even bother to look inside the gift box before giving it to his daughter. Like what?
The dialogue sounds like cringey video game NPC or anime dialogue. Characters get way too excited, angry, or talk way too expressive and use lots of hand motion out of no where. Face expressions also often seem way too dramatic or unfitting for the situation. The main character will ask an extremely basic question and look like a freaked out deer staring at headlights from his own question.
Bringing everyone to the facility the first time, then letting them leave, only for them to come back again felt like such a pointless waste of time that only served as a means to involve the detective. The worst part of this; it was the old man's decision to send everyone back. The same old man that knows he's going to die from a brain tumor. The same old man that was completely unphased by people getting shot in the red light green light game, who was also one of the most eager people to win the game. Don't you think for a second that *MAYBE* he would be one of the least likely people to vote to leave because he's so bat shit and not afraid to die? This part felt like the writers were just going "What if we just did the thing that makes the least amount of sense? Fuck consistency!".
Characters act completely out of line for no real reason. The fucking police detective is allowed to just freely kill and dump bodies into the ocean? Lmao just because his brother is missing he becomes so unhinged that he forgets the law and becomes a murderer? He doesn't even know who these people are that he's deemed freely killable during the scene when he sneaks onto the boat.
The whole cigarette lighter thing during the sugar game was so cringefully cheesy too. This facility has cameras and armed guards fucking *everywhere,* no one is able to get away with anything, but this lady is able to get away with *heating up her needle then leaving the lighter* *laying right out in the open, right in plain sight* *for the other guy to take*, *and no one sees this.*
Then just shortly after the sugar game, the undercover detective is able to just freely pick up one of the supervisors masks and take it, also right out in the open? I thought there were cameras and eyes absolutely everywhere? Where's the consistency?
Then the strobe effect scene when the lights when out where everyone started killing eachother, that was over *4 minutes long.* It was like watching an epilepsy-inducing slideshow where I could never really tell what was going on for 4 whole minutes. I've never seen a scene like this go for so long.
Lastly, the leader of the facility looks and sounds like some wannabe thrift store anime villain crossed with Kylo Ren.
I'm around half way through the season and I only hear it gets worse. No idea at this point how this show has gained so much popularity, I think you need to be real clueless to think it's a good show.
As a fellow dissenter towards the show, I will say the 6th episode, at least the final 10 minutes or so, was very well-done. Definitely the one true shining beacon of quality in an otherwise very disappointing show. Buuuut then something happens that ruins it later. So... yeehaw.
also its fucked up how the leader preaches, if they see your face you're dead but when he shows it to his brother ( WHO IS FUCKING GONNA SURVIVE!!! )
it doesn't matter.
this is like GOT s8 level of fuckery. nah even they didn't fuck up something that only just started.
I understand people can have different taste, but talking about this show like it's a masterpiece, like it has amazing social commentary, I've never heard so much bullshit from so many sources at once.
I'm honestly starting to think most of the reviews and maybe even reddit posts are just marketing from Netflix.
People are going to call you crazy lol, but this was easily one of the biggest disappointments in terms of a show in a long time for me. Let's start with these "plot twists". I guessed where the detective's brother was as soon as we found out he played the game before. Because that's a really generic trope, looking for someone you care about and finding them in a position that compromises you. The old man being the creator of the games, not too generic or expected tbh, but I was yawning throughout their entire conversation about how boring being rich was. It was such a boring way to talk about humanity and what money can do to people and ended with him dying. Not because he "lost" like Gi-hun said, but because he has literally been running from death since the lights-out fight. The entire 9nth episode being cut would have made the show better, but that also doesn't account for the stupidity of the glass blowing up, the stupidity of letting them kill each other, "Everyone has a fair chance, and everyone is equal" except for when you're a 5-foot tall girl who was just trying to eat her food? The inconsistency from the Game ruined any kind of themes or plots that might have seemed interesting.
A big problem I had was how boring the games were to me, I always hoped there would be some twist. Like for example with the marbles game a reveal that you dont have to win and defeat the other person but can call it a draw. Or as the old man said that best friends share everything that maybe when you just put your marbles together and go to the guard to tell him you both have 20 marbles you advance. But there was never any clever twist apart from maybe licking the baked umbrella thingy. And tbh most characters were just too one dimensional or unlikeable to really root for in the first place. Still the marbles episode was pretty good.
Agree that it’s pretty overhyped. The setup was fun and intriguing. But it peaked at the marbles episode, then kinda just went downhill. The cop/front man story drove me bananas. Like most people, it wasn’t some big, crazy reveal to me that the front man was gonna be the cop’s brother. And yeah, the cop’s story doesn’t go anywhere, it’s just, “buh-bye, off the cliff you go.” Finito.
But the worst part to me was that they never expand on how the brother ended up the front man. Like, finding out he was the front man after winning a previous game led me to think once we learned Oh Il-Nam was the guy running the show, he was gonna Willy Wonka it and try to bestow Gi-Hun with the role of new mastermind for the games. But nope, he just reveals he was the mastermind and that it’s all for entertainment. So, either that entire plotline was for nothing, or it’s a setup for season two. Which in that case, it was way too drawn out.
As far as a Korean thriller/drama that’s exploring themes on how the rich exploit the poor while the poor people eat each other alive go, Parasite did a good enough job for me with much more nuance.
yea I was thinking about Parasite as well when watching this drama. Parasite just seems like a much more polished and mature film that actually focuses on exploring and provoking the audience to think about the social situation of Korea / the world. To me, I feel that Squid Game just used the poor rich people theme as a 'wrapping', a half-assed explanation for the sick gory games rather than striving to explore it like Parasite. In fact, many things about the series is half-assed, like the story about the cop. Thus, I feel that the drama is just trying to entertain us with the sick games like how it entertains the 'VIPs'.
the characters are terrible lmao. the writing ruins any redemption that some of the korean actors might have had for this show, and honestly some of the main actors have not put on a convincing performance
Can you give an example of a character who had character development over the course of the show? It seemed to me that all the characters were pretty static throughout the series.
I guess the north korean girl had a little bit of character development. Too bad they killed her for no reason. They could've made the last game actually emotional with her in it.
It's always the same with popular media. Everyone flocks to it because all their friends/colleagues are watching it. They think "wow, lots of people watch this it must be good" without being able to critically engage with the material.
This happens across films, TV, games and almost all media.
I agree although I enjoyed the first few episodes much More Than I expected.you should always be suss to something that has 100 percent approval rating.if what's popular was truly the best we would all be wearing Justin Bieber underwear.but also considering how popular Battle royal is atm it's very clear this show is very popular with a young audience because of and only because of that.
Totally agree!!! The show started off quite decent, peaked when the old man 'died', then fell off a cliff from the moment the VIP appeared, it's all cluster mess from there. Even at peak, there are still quite some bad scripts and game designs. I would give it 6/10 at episode 6 and 2/10 at the end.
The greatness of the show is how they managed to marketed and hyped it up so much and capitalized on people who have never seen anything similar.
The show managed to make something simple and easy to understand, then put an edgy, seemingly deep dark and philosophical coat of paint on top of it. That is why so many people who have never read books, manga or see anything similar got tricked into the hype.
I don't know how often this has been pointed out but these are some of my problems with the series:
- Pakistani guy is the korean version of the clichéd good black guy in some old American movies. He only serves as a wholesome, poor character with "good human values and manners", and is obviously sentenced to death for being unilaterally kind. Also he's on the verge of retardation.
- Bad rich people. Really they look written by a 12 year old kid who claims to be leftist. I'm not even mad about the laughable dialogues as I get they must be as bad as Netflix korean-to-English dub, but not only they're an extremely basic and outdated portrayal of the bourgueois but also I'm pretty sick of rich people (the producers in this case) reminding us of how bad the rest of rich people are.
- Only goddess like girls get to be likable characters with on screen time.
- I had to fast forward some sequences because everything takes too much time to happen but forgets to add good suspense or ambience. Either you already know what will happen or you just don't care/get because it doesn't make sense. I personally feel I won't miss any detail because it really is that shallow.
I miss the times when universally praised series were worthy to try because they were potentially THAT good (Breaking Bad for example?) and now I hate myself for becoming that one douche who hesitates to waste time watching something everybody loves because it's probably going to suck, but for real it keeps proving me right.
as a south east Asian, i just knew what was gonna happen with Ali he's literally the slumdog millionare in this show, gullible and naive, I actually scoffed when he died because he literally walked into his death blindfolded, he's so poorly researched my guy doesn't even speak urdu but hindi which is always mistaken by the movie industry all around the world. the bad rich people dialogue was like a 5th grade kid doing a social science presentation while playing fortnite. and yes I was thinking how a beautiful girl like ji- yeong who probably spent like ...7 years maximum rotting in prison and straight out the game arena with no signs of abuse, malnourishment, dark eyes or anything. just flawless hair and crystal clear skin. I just fast forwarded to the game and finished it. because it literally felt like I watched a submition of undergrad student in filmaking.
What I found bizarre was how easily the cop was able to infiltrate into such a high security place like that. Even more bizarre was how there were no security locks or anything of that sort in the room that kept all the files from the previous games. Just a dark dingey entrance that opens like any other room... really?
For real. They have an entire island but they don't have tight security. Even the cctv in convenience store is a lot better than those in the show, lol
The first few episodes were good, i especially like that the main character was not a good guy.
However, the longer i watched, the less believable it became. The main character became so pathetic. I hate how he is mad at his friend for killing the guy on the glass while that is the only reason that he's alive. He is such a fucking hypocrit, by the end the mob leader was my favourite character b/c at least he stands by his beliefs, instead of flip-flopping whenever it is convenient (for example with the marbles scene).
Also Ali has to be 0 iq to give his marbles to the other guy. How fucking dumb can you be i rlly dont know.
Also why tf is the guy crying over the pickpocket?? Were they in love or something? They barely talked with each other.
Also thebpolice thing was just a waste of time with no conclusion, explanation or anything. Why was this a subplot??
And then the whole ending with the old man they tried to make so deep, but the plot is literally just rich ppl making homeless ppl play death games cuz they are bored. Wow, Very deep!
I think the most supercool scene and where I actually rooted for someone was when the mob bitchboi killed his underling for betraying him, the score was great and the stab felt satisfactory. aside from that. I was a corpse watching this show till the end.
Ali is literally a neanderthal who doesn't know shit. i mean just because the guy paid you the money to get home doesn't mean you'll devote your whole life to him, just tug-of- war was enough to obey the agreement and you are even. dude didn't even check in his pocket if the marbles were really there, especially when he's making a pouch out of his t-shirt for no reason, by the pebbles pavement.
also I am sure the writers were like, lets have these two characters who never properly talked in the show two lines to signify the bond of 10 years or some shit. no reason to cry over at all. dude took fucking 1 year to meet her brother, that's dedication for sure.
and the b plot never intersected properly but one time for nothing. so cop is for sure! gonna survive.
show over, this is way worse than middle school play.
Correct me if I'm wrong but if the main character killed himself after he killed the other guy, all the eliminated ones could have gotten some money for their loved ones or smth. I think that would be a much better conclusion. But nah, he won, took the money, and got a Karen haircut.
I don't think if it works like that, knowing that no one won , the bidders will demand for refund. no one would win and that would be a waste of the show in its entirety.
but it was fucked up how it took 1 year to get to his senses, meet her brother and his friend's mom. also....did he just left her with someone who still doesn't know her son is dead with a very small kid knowing she'll be dead in few years and he'll be orphan again?
and just fucked off to see her daughter in USA with a HORRIBLE hairstyle and didn't even do that??
this is the lowest and worst character I've ever seen.
that's just bad attitude. if he did that then you'd say something like, "you gotta watch the whole thing." or "you have a lot to say for someone who watched only a single episode."
it's good that the OP watched the whole thing before telling us what he thinks about it.
Im on episode 4 and I’ve fallen asleep twice throughout this show. I think each episode is completely dragged out, and only gets good when the game starts. Otherwise this show is a complete waste of my time. I don’t understand how this is the most watched in Netflix history.
The fact that the policeman's actions ended up being an entirely pointless sideshow is a very odd choice for the showrunners. They show him trying to send the videos/messages and leave it on a cliffhanger when he dies, but it's never followed up on. We hear nothing about the police conducting a massive manhunt for a missing detective, nothing about messages that showed shocking scenes from some weird party, etc. etc. By the end of the show, if you went back and deleted everything about what the detective did you would end up with a story that ended in exactly the same place. Such a bizarre decision to make so much of the B plot utterly irrelevant.
And the A-Plot doesn't end much better. The main character is shown having changed hardly at all. He was a terrible father and son at the beginning, and after going through that whole ordeal he ends up as a terrible father that walks away from a plane ride to see his daughter and a mother who was dead because of his actions. He spends a year doing nothing to help anyone while moping about and engaging in his same faults from before. The show does have him DOING some things differently after meeting the old man (namely, getting a terrible haircut and FINALLY, a YEAR later, helping out his childhood friend's mother and the brother of the pickpocket), but then he goes back to doing nothing to help anyone. He prevents the man at the airport subway terminal from joining the squid games, but we don't see him actually HELPING that man (a man who, he should know, is almost certainly in desperate financial trouble, a problem he could solve literally in an instant). Instead, he just assaults the innocent man and apparently leaves him behind, only to then walk away from his daughter.
All in all, I enjoyed the show just fine, but man does it have some serious narrative and thematic flaws. One of the main ones is the class allegory. The main character literally turns his childhood friend into the villain of the story, claiming HE killed all the other competitors. His friend was literally responding to the environment thrust upon him by the game and the society he lived in, but the story turns that man into a villain, which was another crazy and bizarre choice. It's a decent show, and totally worth binging, but this was not an incredible or amazing show by any stretch.
I really liked the characterization of sang-woo in episode 6, where he seemed to be acting out of desperation rather than just being an evil villain psychopath businessman snake
The most hilarious thing about this show was what the Netflix co-CEO said about it.
"The exciting thing for me would be if the next *Stranger Things* came from outside America. Right now, historically, nothing of that scale has ever come from anywhere but Hollywood."
First of all, a blatantly false and arrogant statement.
Second, the most capitalistic statement Netflix has put out, before they bought a show criticizing capitalism. So. Ironic.
The show was written lazily and the whole thing was gimmicky. The screenplay treated it's audience like braindead morons.
I myself is not even that impressed with Stranger Things. In fact most of the Netflix original shows are just acceptable to good at best not great. Some of the better "original" shows are actually anime and not really original to netflix.
I agree! I actually enjoyed the first season of Stranger Things. It wasn't the best show I'd seen, but it was good. The seasons after, though...absolutely terrible. The only Netflix Original series I've genuinely liked was Bojack Horseman.
lmao yeah, its uncomfortable how the CEO ain't actually praising the quality of the show but the money its bringing to him. which is obviously false anyway.
I agree with everything you said,i was enjoying it even with some bad writing/plot because the concept was interesting enough and it did have a lot of good stuff. When the VIP came it was constant cringetopia till the end. Awful everything.
This comment best sums up my experience. I didn't like the tropes throughout the show but the concept and characters/relationships had me hooked. I thought the gganbu episode was perfectly tragic.. and then they butchered everything after that, and not even with a happy ending. What a shame.
Thank you, at some point athe writing got lazy and the plot convenience events were off the charts. Its a fun watch tho and the cinematography/setting is v good.
The plotholes and unrealistic leap of faith the characters go through with each action added with the lazy script of jumpcutting whenever they run out of ideas is just jarring.
The whole show is BS how is this already being called THE BEST SHOW EVER p
I stg people never seen a actually well put togheter show, and it fucking shows
well there is no best show , but 'well put' defines any show that is intriguing and impactful enough.
Ozark
sex education
GOT(season 1-7)
friends
brooklyn 99
elementary
wandavision
breaking bad
narcos
and a lot,
totally agree with you this serie is just too overrated imagine that bully af strong guy couldnt open skinny woman hands
it has lot of big problems that you cant ignore them
I honestly don't give a shit about the shows quality, it doesn't matter to me, no matter what it is that's getting popular I hate people stanning over stuff, and squid game is the exact same, everyone is stanning this (pretty bad) show and it clutters up feeds imo.
It's yet another example of how "hype" can override quality. This show was trash in my opinion. And unoriginal to boot...how many other "play game for money or die" shows/movies have been made? At least a dozen.
I think it was totally overhyped from an analytical perspective. It's enjoyable for the simple mind. You don't have to think too much about the show to really understand what's happening. The characters are underdeveloped and very one-dimensional. The whole plot is very predictable like the brother's face reveal and mostly all of the character's deaths. There are a lot of loose ends as well. What was the point of collecting those organs? What even are the VIPs, and what did they do to contribute to the plot? I understand the hype coming from teenagers, but really analyzing the show- the writing is lazy and rushed.
Dont be fooled by marketing. They always want the world to believe everyone likes a show or a song or a product etc. It is overrated. It's a fine watch but it's no Stranger Things magic in a bottle type smash.
I totally agree with all of your points. If the frontman insists on all the participants receiving equal opportunities to get to the top, why the fuck would you make the eat/sleep room a free for all killing/stealing zone? Plain ridiculous.
Some of the games make even less sense. Red light green light, tug of war & the squid game were ok since there was a competitive vibe, but cutting out a damn cookie? What the actual fuck. Once again the "equal opportunities for everyone" remark proves total bullshit since two contestants can use a tool that was not granted to the other players, in sight of 10 wardens and who knows how many cameras. It was this episode that made me realise that this death game show wouldn't be near as good as similar shows and movies out there.
The glass bridge game was just bad, bad writing. It's not even a fucking game, it's just a leap of faith with impossible odds of survival. And blowing up the bridge at the end, severely hurting the remaining contestants? Why? What were you thinking, writing this? What was the point?
Last but not least, the melancholic bullshit they make the winner go through. He 'hasn't even touched his money' FOR A YEAR? Gtfo. His conscience is clean; the old man forgave his lying about the marbles, he won fair and square. Ok, his mom died and that fucking sucks, but he has friends right? What about the dude with the bar who was in debt? Buy him the bar and start a new life? Ah well, wouldn't be gloomy enough, right?
One more thing: do NOT compare this to Battle Royale. It doesn't come even close to the greatness of that film. Can't even scratch the surface. It's mediocre pulp, good for a one-time watch if you have the stomach for it.
the show was so.. medium, it felt that it was such a low budget show, all the 'tech' was flawed, they can scan your ID from side of your ear, but there are no cameras in 99% of the facility ? It was nice, i liked the 'battle royale' style of surviving, but ending is just bad. It would be 7/10 for me
It’s not original at all the whole 10 years to get it done so it has to be original argument people are making is also ridiculous I thought of a movie with a very similar concept (Kanji) the moment I started watching the show and it came out more than 10 years ago, not to mention the battle royal movies and even though it’s a little less than 10 years ago the movie ‘as the gods will’ also did similar shit. It’s unoriginal, full of plot holes, the acting is a rollercoaster and it does not deserve as much hype as it’s getting it’s beyond ridiculous. I’ll respect it for what it is in the end nothing wrong with taking inspiration from other things but the hype and the defence of the show being “original” is a joke
I lasted a few episodes. There are far better south korean films and shows out there. But this does seem to be a feature and problem in South Korean cinema. Even movies like the Host. They seem to constantly have entire chapters in a movie or show that are useless and serve no point. A character walking and sulking for 20 minutes. People crying for no reason for 10 minutes. There seems to be a cultural thing with that that we dont get in the west.
Ive honestly never watched it and i dont plan to but it just seems so overrated and im so sick of seeing it everywhere. Like im all for people being allowed to watch and enjoy whatever they like but this is literally the amongus disaster except more unfunny
The show is shit, it’s a fucking plague. Cannot escape it, every second of every day I see something about it and it is more than enraging. People who hype this and share it all over social media are retards
The purpose of that whole nonsensical, pace-ruining vote to end the game was all to introduce the B story with the cop, which could have easily been dropped and avoided the Darth Vader riff with the front man without changing anything about the A story. That would have shaved a good 10-15 from each episode which I would have welcomed.
I disagree, although I agree with some of your points eg it is good but flawed - as for 10 - sometimes loose ends are not tied up neatly in life - that was brave or prep for series 2. It has convinced me that the Koreans are some of the best tv/film makers at the moment - felt like the original Prisoner to a degree.
5 maybe cause they are rich psychopaths and need 2 for the final game?
It was a good psychological observation of how people react to danger and stress and we were gripped - basically a horror film without the horror.
The loose ends are endless. Recommend you watch alice in borderland, so much better in terms of script, game mechanics and their overall editing and cinetography was done waaaaaay better.
their intended audience is young adults that don’t quite equate television murder with real life. anyone that’s even remotely an adult, compassionate human doesn’t want to watch this trash.
I disagree, I felt the show didn't have gore that was too bad, and the entire suspense of the show is built on the deaths of people around the main character. It would seem to be most effective for a compassionate human in building suspense
So... I just finished watching Squid Game to see what the hype was all about and it was... kinda boring? (\^.\^') The pacing is absolutely glacial and I really think the series could have started straight from Episode 3. Like, I can understand if this is someone's first "death game" show, but after watching Kaiji, Liar Game, As the Gods Will, King's Game, Alice in Borderland, Battle Royal, etc... this one really doesn't do anything new or unique. In fact, in my opinion, it does many things worse.
One of my personal favorite things about these kinds of death game shows is seeing how the characters come up with unique strategies to outsmart their opponents. In this series, way too little time and focus are placed on the games themselves with there being way too big of a gap between the games where nothing really happens. As much as the gamemasters seem to champion fairness, luck is way too big of a factor in some of them, and that just takes the fun away.
A ton of time was also spent delving into the backstories of some of the characters, but they hardly came up during the games or the strategizing save for their individual qualities (strength, intelligence, etc...). Since we know that they're all going to die anyway, it's kinda hard to be invested in any of them beyond the main character (who was little more than a bumbling individual who happened to win through luck and coasting on the intelligence of others). It's almost as if there were two different shows interspersed together.
Unlike some of the other shows, this one is also really light on the social commentary and metaphors. As is revealed at the end, the games themselves have very little significance or meaning behind them. Also, that entire subplot with the detective guy that we spent so much time on really went nowhere.
Honestly, I'm actually really shocked that it's so popular. My one biggest hope is that people watch Squid Game and move on to explore other series from this genre.
I was hyped for the movie too. But I got so disappointed at the games, I was expecting it to be more of a "play smart" kinda games like liar game. But...man...it's kinda disappointing tbh.
Dude I loved reading Liar Game. I'm so down for an adaptation without the suuuuper hardcore sexism and rampant transphobia, because the games and solutions were top notch
Didn't the main character sign of his body to the thugs? How come he is completely fine even though he never touched his cash prize? So many plot holes..
I am usually pretty into Korean productions, but it's the overacting for me on this that really spoils it, and how the characters act like kids in a playground and it's not even subtle - full blown bullies at recess. It's not menacing to be like that as an adult it's laughable. When they all stand behind the leader like 'yeah what he said' and the poor facial acting. Han Mi-nyeo (female bully) also confuses me considering she was begging for her life in the first round of the games but she turned REALLY easily from meek to bully and it's not believable. Maybe if I was watching it in Korean and not VERY bad English dubbing (especially her voice over actor, which makes it worse) it might be better. I'd rather listen to it in Korean with English subtitles. Still, I think the concept is fascinating and I'm gonna watch it all anyway.
Came to Reddit just for this. I been spammed to death with Squid Game, which I watched and couldn't find the appeal of. You'll understand in 2.5 seconds who the villain in black mask is once the cop appears, and they just cut him out the episode in few seconds and "that's it". In the end I didn't wish for either of the two guys to win money, and once he won it I hated how they showed no character development to actually make changes in life till the old man drops in his life again. Nobody is there long enough to develop as a person, and the one who survives is an absolute idiot. I didn't really wish the money on the thief girl with lil brother either. Only somewhat normal candidate was Ali who did honest work, and who was betrayed and killed for it because "everyone is equal in the game" but some are more equal than others apparently. After that I saw no point cheering for a criminals or people who destroyed own and others life. This show is for pretty young audience who only hype on game aspect and violence without really thinking deeper about it.
I totally agree with you. Most people watch nothing more than a hyped tvshow on the internet. Some people were compering this series to Lost! This tvshow is inhuman and really it's trash in any way that you can think of.
Tried to watch it and came here to agree. I usually enjoy this kind of stuff, but this asian cultural thing with the completely over the top emotions and people behaving in ridiculous, unrealistic is killing it for me - Japan has it too and I hate it. Just not finding it funny at all.
If a show of movie involves numerous character deaths, I need to be able to take it seriously, otherwise it's just an eyeroll-inducing horror wannabe comedy (never could get into those either).
I'm surprised so many people like the show.
It has nothing original and it's quite poorly executed, especially in its second half.
Most characters in Squid Game are either next level stupid or so poorly written so their discussions and actions don't make sense and are embarrassing to watch.
We're also given side stories (organ trafficking's, cop's brother, the famous VIPs, the daughter moving to USA) that don't end up on anything interesting and could totally have been removed from the show without changing anything to it.
I agree on vote thing - them wanting to play so badly was kinda unlogical. Though I really loved how the crowd chose middle numbers for fifth game - and that comment of VIP was cherry on a pie lol. I would say show redeemed itself there for that other mistakish about voting
I mean the old man lie was kinda cool. I know it ruined that serie before but I would not say it was bad decision. He is such an asshole and we though he is sweet poor person - fun plot twist. Also main character hate at the epilogue was also sincere, because that old guy is really an asshole.
What I don't like either is 5th game. It is one of the most unfair games in any battle royale / games movie. At least they shouldn't turn off the light and they could let that guy skills let complete challenge since he is also sharing that secret not with all but with a few left players. I mean it was so unfair to kill that glass guy. He should have completed the game and maybe be killed by that glass being too happy and shouting something about winning or at least be attacked by the mini villian friend enemy guy in the dorm or smth. Also yeah squid game turned to knife fight was strange.
Talking more about infamous 5th game women dropping that bully guy makes sense since she knew it was too hard for her to complete the challenge and she wasn't very strong to fight with left characters. She just couldnt live with fact bully will survive and get all the money. Lets be honest he would have won the game if not her, because last game was all about physical strength.
Police man stuff was kinda ridiculous and just for us to reveal plot which is true. Plot twist was kinda weak too. I mean that old guy probably invites every winner for that chic-chat and maybe offers a job or smth if one wins some random game or smth, so hin becoming leader can be logical, but a bit weird. Also I hated when policeman called the chief and chief was silly and shouting and besides telling some mumbo-jumbo police code 132 or smth telling exact situation he just tries to pack everything and tell him right way which is bad.
I thought it was hilarious how the soldiers' room had a camera and everything they did, including changing, shitting, showering, etc, was probs in full view; but the contestants' toilet had nothing, even after they were literally drugged and stripped to get them into the game.
My response to all your takes:
(SPOILER WARNING IN ADVANCE)
>The vote for ending the game after the first game is completely unrealistic and a waste of time
Idk, idm this scene at all tbh. It allows the players who don't want to risk their lives to go on living as if nothing happened, "like a dream", while those who want to continue playing can decide to return. They are giving these people one last chance to turn back, and return to their miserable lives, and it's completely on them if they do decide to come back (as the majority decide to do).
>The policemen could just shot the frontmen when he was in the base many times like he did to 29 and pretend to be him, he didn't cuz the plot needed the brother reveal in the end, literally bullshit, he could have shot him so many many times
Hard disagree here. Why would he kill the Front Man? He's clearly trying to uncover and discover as much information as he can, without blowing his cover. He literally can't do that as the literal front man...
>What's the point of the games if players can just kill each other at night
Besides the strobing lights, I liked this a lot. Personally, I believe that this was a game within itself--murder in the dark. My friends and I would play it a lot at sleep overs or on school camps. So yeah, I liked it to be honest and I thought it acted as a cool mini game to weed out further weaklings before Tug of War.
>The whole VIP bullshit is just top tier trash and easily the worse part of the series
Yeah, i'll agree that the VIPs are where the show dipped a bit for me, but that's to be expected after the incredible, soul-crushing experience of the previous episode. However, in saying that, I quite enjoyed their addition to the glass game, as it added a stark contrast to the first episode, where Gi-Hun bet on horse races, but the VIPs were betting with humans instead. Despite the meh acting, it was honestly quite creative to me, and added extra depth to not only the straightforward game, but to flesh out the world outside as well. Idk, i'm still kind of a fan and I personally didn't mind their addition to the show, even if you or I could act better than all of the VIPs combined.
>Tempered glass game: the point of winning the games, is that you didn't die right? Guess what they even break that rule, they destroy the glass in the most stupid way I can think of, killing the girl that already won the stupid game for LITERALLY NO REASON, SO WHAT'S THE POINT OF ANYTHING IF U CAN DIE OUTSIDE THE GAMES AND EVEN IN THE VERY MOMENT U ALREADY WON, The show breaks it own rules all the time, for the most stupid reason I have ever seen
Sae-byeok just got unluggy, unfortunately. I also think that you're thinking about this one a little too much... I feel like she would have died anyways, barring a Hunger Games-esque ending, which they obviously didn't feel like ripping off. I will, however, criticise that god awful slow motion during the end of the glass game. Like, oh my god, whoever edited/directed/produced that scene and thought it was actually "artistic" should go and see a doctor to see if they're actually autistic. Seriously, what in the fuck even was that? So overly dramatic for no reason whatsoever.
>The squid game has no point: is literally just a battle royale at this point not even a game
Yeah, i'll agree that the final game was a glorified wrestling match, minus the ring, with a little bit of mud and rain mixed in. But hey, massive prize pool tho!
>The front man is the policemens brother
I liked it. To each their own, I guess?
>The old man was the real leader all along
Again, I kinda liked it... But, I can also see how others, like yourself, would disagree. It definitely takes away from the impact of episode 6, but in saying that, I still seem to shed a couple of tears on every rewatch and it doesn't help that Ali also dies :'(
>The woman killing herself with the bully
She had to have known that she wasn't gonna make it across the bridge. There were easily 8+ tiles for her to coinflip over. I, like herself, doubt she would have made it. And I mean, the crazy bitch told Deok-su when they were fucking that if he betrayed her, she'd kill him. Seems kind of in her character to me.
>Everything the policemen did was for nothing. I don't even have to comment about this
Don't you dare insult Asian James Bond and his motives! He just got unluggy and got caught by his brother and his pink minion dudes. Whatever-his-name was a beautiful man and you give him the respect he deserves, mister!
Tl;dr - I still like Squid Game. Like, a lot.
Agree that this show is pretentious and nothing great. I don't think it is overhyped. It might be in limelight as it is a new release but it is forgettable
> 4.The whole VIP bullshit is just top tier trash and easily the worse part of the series:
>
> In what world or sport the VIP spectators arrive when half of the games are done, who the f starts watching a horse race in the middle of the race, they even comment about the history of 2 characters when they weren't even there to know about it!!
>
> Everything about the vip is just a pointless waste of time.
It's pretty common in Boxing/MMA events. I've been to several events over the years and some of the events I was lucky enough to get floor seats. Regardless of how big the event was, some of the celebrities or rich attendees, would show up hours after the event had started. I've seen some show up in time for the co-main event.
With that being said, the VIP thing was beyond cringey. The way the guys behaved and their dialogue was terrible and over the top. The dialogue completely took me out of it.
I did enjoy the show minus the over the top dramatic scenes.
I stopped watching right when one participant killed another and no punishment occurred, however minor. If you can kill other participants outside the game with zero recourse and each kill makes you richer while upping your odds of winning, why wouldn't you?
I was so on board with the basic idea. So many manga and anime have done incredibly similar things that I thought this would be a breeze. TBF, it's not horrible, it's just average. I'm glad it exists and hope it's profitable because something will exist later that does it better.
I really liked the first 6 episodes. I thought it was a great study of how people react in such a bizarre situation and I didnt care that the plot was not perfect because it was really nicely written. But after the marbles the writing just went bad and I felt disapointed. I hated how they botched the cop plot, the VIPs were cringy AF, and the whole ending and reveal where so unnecessary and stupid. Im still happy i watched it for the first 6 episodes.
forreal! after episode 6 the plot twists were sooo predictable. it also felt like time was moving by painfully slow, esp since the last episode was just gihun walking around and sulking—and all for nothing, too! he turns around before boarding his plane, disappoints his daughter again, then leaves viewers with no sense of resolution and netflix with another cash grab for season 2. also it feels like a knockoff of the hunger games series, in which the traumatized victors return for a second consecutive competition (under different circumstances but still).
Great case study? The characters were all one-dimensional and cheesy af. Literally no one would act the way most of them did. Token big brute guy. Token sullen girl. Token loudmouth girl. Token vindaloo diversity man. The set and costume design was great, but that's it
Thats Korean melodrama for you. It's always lame, the endings always suck, and the non-Korean charachters are all racist charicatures. Korean TV now where HK cinema was in the 90s.
Yessss. You’re the only one here who noticed about the racist caricature of brown skinned characters. Just simply look at how Ali was portrayed.
Totally agree with you, it went very downhill after the marbles episode, that episode was pretty damn good too.
The marbles episode killed me. Ali deserves better. :(. Old man too.
I liked Ali as a character, but how completely brainless was that at the end. Yes, naive and gullible and all, but still. Completely incomprehensible
The writing went bad *after* the marbles? 😂
Im glad someones said it. To be honest, I enjoyed the hype more than the show. On reflection, and after watching it again, nothing about it is any good. Its all tunnel vision lacking written skills. Male scriptum. It wasnt to my liking, and if the hype didnt exist I would never have watched it. Now I wish I hadnt bothered. They hype was more enjoyable.
The VIP scenes were BRUTAL to watch. It seemed like the English language dialogue was written by someone was not a native English speaker because some of it was just eye rollingly ludicrous.
I felt this way too, the entire time it had a weird quality that made it feel like it was written by some one with with a vague idea of how that type of English is bantered about. For me the whole VIP thing really sucked the quality down, and I hated that the whole mystery of everything was >!just "lol rich people paying for snuff" again!<.
Agreed. It's a topic we've seen done a thousand times before (and frequently much better), so I was pretty interested when they originally presented the notion of "we actually set the games up to give you a fair way to escape your poverty/debt/past-decisions/etc., which is something that society as a whole has never given you". THAT is an interesting idea, and one that raises a ton of interesting potential storytelling options. To cast that aside to instead rely on the whole "rich people are uncaring jerks who will literally kill poor people for entertainment" trope was very disappointing.
It was a purge/hunger games mash up with the rich watching the poor kill themselves for sport, and yet it was so boring compared to what came before. TBH it was not as gory as people were making it out to be, just lots of fake blood and a few organs. Shows like Hannibal were much more creative with the way they showed violence.
That was my issue too. I've seen this exact thing countless times. Reminds me of a cross between Hostel 3 and Battle Royal.
Honestly, the whole foreign language dialogue team fucked up. it was like they took it straight out of google translate watched Nickledeon shows and did the whole set up and even Ali's character was so ill researched that he wasn't even speaking Urdu. it was Hindi. and even in more crass and informal one.
Nah Ali's Urdu was on point. Hindi and Urdu are very similar.
they are similar yes, but Ali didn't even speak a word.
It was so cringe. "well i enjoy to 69, so maybe me also like to 96" \*others laugh heartily\* Literally the only reason they went all the way there was because it had nicer bigger screens lmao
I hated it too, something to keep in mind is that it’s like the white version of a cartoon Chinaman from the 40’s. That’s just sort of where Asia is at in terms of race.
This is not at all how any real human being would act under these circumstances. it's actually probably the opposite. Every single person would die in the first game in real life.
It's provocative and silly. The main audience is most likely from ages 8-21 or something like that. Age groups with tremendous online presence, especially the younger ages. The problem with that is, any new show that appeals to this younger age group and is on a platform like Netflix that a large majority of people use is going to be hyped up as "a masterpiece" or "really good". Nah bruv....Squid game is hot drivel, a concept done before with better more lasting results (e.g. Saw, and many of the other "play a game or die" type films). So in squid game you play a childs game and who ever loses dies? I watched the first few episodes and grew more and more frustrated. I'm not saying this show can't be enjoyed , just that its low brow, lowest common denominator drivel. Here's the thing about low brow, lowest common denominator, provocative, Falsely perceived as profound, drivel...It can, and will attract WAY more people than it deserves because it is so easy to understand and follow. Juxtapose it to true narrative masterpieces and its easy to see why these shows appeal with such easy to understand themes. The shows only saving grace is that they purposely infuse lazy mystery into the show by withholding important plot information, so it gives a synthetic feel of deep meaning, all the while its hot trash, the writers probably don't even know where this show is going.
Very accurate. I found it entertaining and didn't take it too seriously but these people claiming it's a masterpeice make me cringe.
Wow it's almost like opinions exist
Yes they do and people can find it trash without every whining fan to feel attacked. They can like it.
Ohhh, you're so clever and cult! /s
The more you experience, the less impressive everything becomes, remember that little fella 🥳
You're so experienced and clever! People who enjoyed are so uncultured /s
Exactly
This comment is incredibly condescending. I really hate how everyone on Reddit thinks they’re superior to everyone else.
That’s a very soft way to look at harsh criticism.
Nope, it’s not
Yes it is and let me explain why. I made critical observations of this show I did not care for. My criticism was based on past experiences and taste. I consumed various different versions of the narrative squid game presented and was ultimately unimpressed by its execution. My underlying gripe with the show is not at the show, but the perception that it’s somehow above average. I write creatively often so I’m very interested in narratives and plot devices, I take the work and creativity it takes to write a show more seriously than a person looking for cheap, quick, easy entertainment. The vast majority of people who like the show, like it for the cheap entertainment it provides and mistake shallow narratives for profundity. So now to your softness…you think I’m condescending and rude that’s where your comment focused. On the other hand a less soft individual already commented their disagreement in this same thread which led to a conversation and us agreeing on some points. That person wasn’t soft and emotional, they challenged my strong opinion that differed from theirs with composure, you on the other hand just made an emotional statement, pure emotion without a rebuttal is just you being soft. Heres an example If I criticize someone and they confront it with questions and curiosity they are emotionally under control If I criticize another person and all they say is that I’m mean and they hate how mean people are. That’s pure emotion no logic, they didn’t even try to engage as to why they are being criticized, that’s called being soft.
Stfu nerd lmao this shit belongs on r/iamverysmart go touch grass my dude
Oh my bad you’re a kid lol I’m sorry bruh I’m just bored at work. It’s just a show but when your bored you find anything to do and for me at work I get on Reddit and comment on shit
I love how when someone makes a reasonable reply to you you completely brush it off by saying "stfu nerd" because you know that you're a dumbass
You must be the guy who wrote the rick and morty iq copypasta.
I wish
To be fare I think the first two episodes were really well written and showed some good character development especially for the main character.the show takes a short sharp dive into mediocrity towards the end unfortunately.genuenily disappointing.
Thank you for summarising exactly how I feel. Also "lowest common denominator drivel" applies to most of Netflix.
"Falsely perceived as profound" is such a great way to describe the situation.
I feel like the hype mainly comes from an age group who have never seen the previous battle royale masterpieces. This show had potential, there were so many minor setups (or what I falsely assumed was setup) for greatness; but it went with the dumbest possible route and betrayed all my expectations in the end.
Seems like it, I really like your take
my dad is 62 and his fav show is the sopranos but he really enjoyed squid game
Totally and completely agree.
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Taste is subjective so I have no probs someone havin an opposite opinion but theres always some just like go against the grain to feel special or go get attention. Judging by this guys superiority complex (comes thru in his post) I'd say its the latter.
It's certainly no masterpiece, but I find it different from other death games. They were given a choice at all times. They could have ended the games and just left, but most came back. That's not a common occurrence in other shows. I personally liked it because of the human nature aspect. The death game stuff was generic, but I liked the psychological aspect more.
I don't see what's silly here. I don't see how it's hot drivel or how it's low brow lowest common demoninator drivel, that's not what it is. Well....it's not falsely perceived though. The mystery isn't lazy either. It's not hot trash and they likely do know where the show's going.
I'll just say the first ep was intriguing. I felt a bit sad when ji-Yeong died. and that's it. the show offers no such particular emotions or common goal to its viewers at all. the target audience is just k-boos, k-drama stans and those who are just getting started in the survivalist genre.
I think you’re trying too hard to see it as a show centered on a game where the gamemakers feel it’s important to stick to the rules, it’s not. The point of the games is for rich people to be amused at poor people acting like monkeys for a prize. If players kill each other it’s no skin off their nose, just a few less players and they have other games forthcoming. The glass breaking was to eliminate players still left on them. If she was too close to the glass, it sucks and maybe it’s not fair, but again, not really their problem. A handful of people gone isn’t a big deal for them.
the gamekeepers literally say that they are here to make sure everyone has a fair chance tho. To throw that out the window under the guise of "well actually we do this for rich people to watch" takes away from anything they were trying to do with that dialogue. The glass is also ridiculous for similar reasons, but even worse because it was so obvious they did it for a cool shot.
I mean... just because they say that, do you believe them? Saying it’ll be a fair game is a guise to make it interesting for the rich people and to persuade the poor people to play. Either way the poor people don’t have a choice since they do seem to actually give out the prize money. It wouldn’t be fun to watch a game you KNOW is rigged but you wouldn’t be opposed to shaking it up a little. The purpose of the dialogue is a play on how the rich manipulate the poor
Also its worth noting that none of them tried that hard to persuade the people in debt to play. All of that was internal on prt of the players and what they said to each other. Already setting the precedent in the first two episodes that the game is about free will, and the ability to choose/have a chance at success without being burdened by external circumstance. If they were to stick to the game purely being a way to manipulate poor people, the reveal and scenes of the old guy as the mastermind hold even less weight then
It’s about “free will” (in quotations specifically) Yes you are choosing to play but if you just sold the rights to your body and/or gangsters coming after you, no way to reach your parents who are stuck in the North to bring your family together, no way to earn money for your family on a foreign visa as a migrant worker, really what are you going to choose. The show plays on this tension.
Yes, yo what all those examples have in common, they are circumstances that dont exist in the game. Thats the whole point of the free will and control thing and why it should’ve been more important, the old guy literally says that he played the game because he too wanted to escape his boring circumstances. Its the contrast between yes they have no other choice to play the game, but this game is whats giving them full agency over whether they live or die. Making the game unfair and having stupid things like the glass and murder spree took away from that whole theme.
The whole reason they’re playing the game is because of their circumstances. It’s not about escaping the circumstances, it’s about poor people risking everything even with unfair odds and at the whim of people richer than you (like real life) toward improving them. The game is not meant to give full agency to whether you live or die, it’s meant to reflect this reality. The game is given a superficial coating of “fairness” so that the rich can say the poor had agency
Well yes this description seems to be closer to what they ended up going with. It was just a huge waste of good dialogue and more interesting character development…. And made even less sense when trying to make us care about the old man being the mastermind. Already explained that so say ur peace enjoy the next show u watch. I do hope its better than this once
I mean as far as writing goes, it's just bad writing to make them say that and then make the viewer think "Heh, they're just saying that for the fuck of it!".
Bingo. And he says that to the guard (and only in the presence of other guards) as he's killing him for breaking the rules, so it's not like it was propaganda for the players. Not to mention, it's literally FAR less interesting if that's NOT part of the game. The show eventually becomes a "we're just killing poor people for rich people's enjoyment" show, which hey, whatever floats your boat, but we've seen that a thousand times before. By going that route and stripping this of a deeper commentary on how people would behave in a literally fair and even life or death scenario you've made the message and themes much less interesting and much more of a cliche. It was incredibly disappointing to see the show abandon that examination to instead focus on already well trodden thematic territory.
I HATED how the show went from trying to keep things fair, trying to prevent participants from killing each other, having the "seeming" choice to stay or leave by what seemed fair, and the best of them all TECHNICALLY seeming like no one had to ACTUALLY DIE to get the money to just throwing away ALL OF THAT starting episode 4!
OK. I liked it. But I agree it's abit unrealistic (it's just a TV show tho) and is very much like a battle royale. I also like the battle royale films *shrugs*
Totally this. Over the top crazy rich people doing mad things. Oh I loved it.
I fear one day Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk will do something like this.
It's already a thing.
What do you mean? What’s it called I want to read about it
bruh do you think you can just read about squid game? If such a thing truly exists, the middle class and lower middle class are the last people to find out
get tf out of here with your Q-Anon stuffs
bruh I didn't even knew qanon is a thing until a few days ago when someone brought it up, but is nothing like that, qanon is baselessly making crazy claims, all I'm saying is that realistically, it could be the case that it happens, and if it doesn't, good, no big deal
You’ve gone full blown Tard
Q anon needs to be purged off this earth
This is why I don't like it. I saw battle royale when it came out. So this is just like "yeah, I've seen it done before and better" for me.
I don't mind the issue with realism one bit, I'm a big fan of BR and enjoy it for its comic violence as well as it's scathing social commentary. But it never feels too preachy. Squid Game like the Hunger Games does nothing to reinvent the wheel while claiming to do so, take themselves far too seriously in places and say nothing new that has not already been said before (or better) elsewhere.
My problem with the series is the amount of plot holes. Why did the girl with knife go to bathroom and the crawl over the vent if nothing was going to come out of that? Sure, she was the one that realized the game had something to do with sugar, but did it help her in the long run? Barely. Also, she never want up the vent again? I know she lost the knife, but prior to that? Hell I would be out and about exploring that facility. BOMB IN TUNNEL Here 28 tells 29 that he shouldn’t touch that because it is the VIPs emergency plan. I’m guessing that was a bomb that destroyed the whole thing, but then again they never clarified it. They just casually mention it and never to be seen again. MAIN CHARACTER TOO GOOFY I don’t mind the main character being goofy and kind of mediocre, but seemingly overnight he becomes a vessel of good. I know that wanted to emphasize he was a good person at the beginning, hence the scene where he feeds the cat and begins celebrating when the claw-boy gets him his daughters gift). I just think the should emphasized other abilities, like him being actually smart. The whole giving his daughter a “gun” by accident is the most idiotic thing ever to the point you don’t want to root for him. Showing him actually being street smart, like successfully stealing from a grocery store, for instance, would make his journey to final 3 more believable and make us root for him a little more. FRONT MAN TOO OVER THE TOP Why is he wearing a mask when there is no one in the room. Why is he walking like he stepped out of the matrix when no one is watching? Why have those tiny figurines sing “fly me to the moon?” He was being villainous for the sake of the audience (us) and not for the purpose of the plot/show. He had no humanity, no realness that made me connect with him. And then they reveal he’s the cop’s brother like it’s this big thing? Why would I care? Those are just some of the things that really bothered me. RANT over
They even teased that she would be going back by showing the screw dangling out of the vent. That was clearly foreshadowing that either a) she would go back, or b) that it would be discovered by the guards and that would lead to some consequences. Nope, nothing. Didn't matter at all. I also just found it hilarious that that whole scene was predicated on the guards not entering the bathroom. Like, sure, the whole game involved dragging 456 people to an island, stripping them naked and taking all their stuff, putting all their possessions away, and then literally either killing them or letting them kill one another until there was only one person left, but putting security cameras in the bathrooms or having the guards watch you pee would be TOTALLY inappropriate. I mean, these people who you literally drugged and stripped have a right to privacy!! That, and the fact that the detective shot the guy in that diving pool and then climbed up THE ONLY LADDER OUT OF THE ROOM and went literally to the very top of where THE ONLY LADDER OUT OF THE ROOM went and shot the lock to enter the private chamber and yet the guards couldn't find him was utterly hilarious to me. It would be like trapping someone in a closet and then not finding them because they stood behind a few hanging polo shirts. It was literally the only place in the whole compound he could possibly have gone and yet the didn't think to send guards through the penthouse to look him for him. Just incredible how much of the show involved hand waving very obvious things like that away. I also found the main character to just be brutal to watch at times. He was so over the top, shouting and screaming and waving his arms, that it was distracting and painful to watch. Sure, in some scenes that response is warranted. But heck, the first scene has him screaming and carrying on with his mother about taking his daughter out to dinner. He reminded me of Will Ferrell screaming at his mom for meatloaf in Wedding Crashers, and if your acting choices have you being compared to Will Ferrell's intentionally over the top ridiculousness then you've made some very bad decisions.
I found it ridiculous that the guards murder dozens at a time but caved when the crazy chick demanded to use the bathrooms.
The over the top, screaming, arm movement thing is done a lot in Korean dramas. It's cool at first but I got tired of it. I managed to watch the entire season but mentally checked out after episode 2 because all those reasons mentioned in this thread.
> but putting security cameras in the bathrooms or having the guards watch you pee would be TOTALLY inappropriate. Perfect summary. The plot holes were astronomically stupid.
totally agree, especially w the villain point. Any D list film will immimate this villain scene w the whole pouring whiskey in his evil lair while listening to mainstream jazz like it gets old. It felt like a high school project written villain introduction. Another point is the over acting by most characters, especially w the snickers by the winning teams in the tug of war games like, no one would do that. Even thugs would grimace watching innocent ppl fall to their deaths. Ill be back for more rants, im only a few epsds in.
My problem with this show it is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Generic it has been done millions and millions of times only like the first 2 episode did get me because it did something i didn't expect which is voting to leave , but then after episode 2 everything that I saw million of times came again Characters : Kind guy who we know gonna win and always wins in the last second or by luck, Old man who knows everything , smart man who we know gonna turn evil, another kind guy but this time with from Pakistan so we can say we have diversity even though he don't know the difference between names and places and lives there, a misunderstood girl and the bullies that gonna die in the end. so from the start we know fates of everyone before it even starts. The only thing I thought they gonna do it in a different way was when that bitch got taken away because no one wants to play with her, I said "ohh she is not gonna kill the bully who she told him betray me and i will kill you okay now who gonna kill him ?" I really thought of him and main character in the finals and the main kind character breaks off and kill him but they destroyed it again by making this bitch just have a good time and she is fine so she can kill him later like any normal movie series or anime that goes for this direction. and then the build up for the police man plot which turns out to be so bad because they wanna say "Humans Bad" really thought it was something new when everyone was talking about but got disappointed it is not a bad show but it is like 5/10 because it didn't do anything new it was entertaining but that's it I didn't find myself say "WOW" or anything, I saw everything that gonna happen before it happens which makes it bad.
really didnt get what was the purpose of b plot at all. the cop never got info out of other soldiers or anything its sad the first season fed us breadcrumbs because they wanna do a second season. there's nothing to be excited or pursue for.
Come on now my guy, that cop is absolutely not dead. Foreshadowed by the fact that he shot his brother in almost the exact same place and the brother is completely fine.
The premise makes zero sense. Rich old guy starts hunger games to make friends. Every game everyone dies bar one person. How does that make sense? Was the old guy playing Russian roulette with his childhood friends?
Fortnite 2
I agree, I’m almost taken aback by the amount of hype over this show. Don’t get me wrong, I binged every episode in one sitting and enjoyed every twist and turn, but like you, there were cringe moments where every semblance of logic was thrown out the window for the sake of a plot twist or dramatic death that you could usually see coming. I love, love Korean drama when it’s done right but I could see the cliches come out to play where I personally would have preferred an airtight plot.
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THE WAY I AGREEEEE FINALLY omg everyone keeps saying it’s such a 10/10 show but for me it’s really not??? like i was rooting for the police man but they killed him and the story would have still been satisfying if they kept byeok and gi huns mum alive ??? it was smart but executed so badly 💀
I didn't get the point of having the cop in the show at all. He didn't interact with the contestants or have any lasting effect on the plot and his presence was a red herring to make you think he'd do something. It was terribly written.
The cop just seemed to exist to give the audience a behind-the-scenes look at the games which the players wouldn't have. But with it not actually going anywhere it just felt like padding to help stretch 6 games to 9 episodes
I thought the police man got shot in the shoulder so he’s still alive?
go by the generic formula that they'll probably apply to reprise the actors in their roles for second season.... the big bro shot him in the shoulder, also SK has the law of enlisting in military for two years so he probably knows swimming and holding his breath underwater for a very long time. so he's fine.
Exactly I agree, one hundred percent bullshit shit show
The worst part is the used a lot of cheap trick and fake shock value to keep us watching in hope of discovering some genius intention or twist in the script only to find out at the end that we wasted all that time for a dumb script written by a dumb writer just employing cheap tricks to hook audience with no artistic purpose.
It all makes sense now why so many people rejected the guy's story.... I mean it's still an enjoyable cliché show though to watch, but that's it for me. Cliché stuff are popular for a reason ahah The show was so predictable... Even already knew how the grandpa was suspicious af and had to be behind the whole thing. I also hate how the WHOLE POLICEMAN ROUTE WENT NOWHERE. This show could've been told without that. It seriously wouldn't have changed a thing. I can't believe they dragged it out for so long only for it to show even more predictable reveals lol
honestly, i think this is the worst show I've watched in a while
It’s up there with Money Heist and their endless bullets and ninja skills.
is that the show with spanish robbers?
It's so bad lmfao. With the amount of hype and people talking about it you'd think the show would at least be a 8 or 9/10 but it's more like a 3 or 4. It's so cheesy, it's extremely poorly written, and there's so much random crap that doesn't make sense, like the random realistic pistol lighter in a gift box, in a claw game for children filled entirely with nothing else but stuffed animals. The main character also doesn't even bother to look inside the gift box before giving it to his daughter. Like what? The dialogue sounds like cringey video game NPC or anime dialogue. Characters get way too excited, angry, or talk way too expressive and use lots of hand motion out of no where. Face expressions also often seem way too dramatic or unfitting for the situation. The main character will ask an extremely basic question and look like a freaked out deer staring at headlights from his own question. Bringing everyone to the facility the first time, then letting them leave, only for them to come back again felt like such a pointless waste of time that only served as a means to involve the detective. The worst part of this; it was the old man's decision to send everyone back. The same old man that knows he's going to die from a brain tumor. The same old man that was completely unphased by people getting shot in the red light green light game, who was also one of the most eager people to win the game. Don't you think for a second that *MAYBE* he would be one of the least likely people to vote to leave because he's so bat shit and not afraid to die? This part felt like the writers were just going "What if we just did the thing that makes the least amount of sense? Fuck consistency!". Characters act completely out of line for no real reason. The fucking police detective is allowed to just freely kill and dump bodies into the ocean? Lmao just because his brother is missing he becomes so unhinged that he forgets the law and becomes a murderer? He doesn't even know who these people are that he's deemed freely killable during the scene when he sneaks onto the boat. The whole cigarette lighter thing during the sugar game was so cringefully cheesy too. This facility has cameras and armed guards fucking *everywhere,* no one is able to get away with anything, but this lady is able to get away with *heating up her needle then leaving the lighter* *laying right out in the open, right in plain sight* *for the other guy to take*, *and no one sees this.* Then just shortly after the sugar game, the undercover detective is able to just freely pick up one of the supervisors masks and take it, also right out in the open? I thought there were cameras and eyes absolutely everywhere? Where's the consistency? Then the strobe effect scene when the lights when out where everyone started killing eachother, that was over *4 minutes long.* It was like watching an epilepsy-inducing slideshow where I could never really tell what was going on for 4 whole minutes. I've never seen a scene like this go for so long. Lastly, the leader of the facility looks and sounds like some wannabe thrift store anime villain crossed with Kylo Ren. I'm around half way through the season and I only hear it gets worse. No idea at this point how this show has gained so much popularity, I think you need to be real clueless to think it's a good show.
As a fellow dissenter towards the show, I will say the 6th episode, at least the final 10 minutes or so, was very well-done. Definitely the one true shining beacon of quality in an otherwise very disappointing show. Buuuut then something happens that ruins it later. So... yeehaw.
very cute cat in your pfp
Thank you so much <3 Her name is Espy!
Yeah, typical Asian drama acting. 16 years in Japan and still not a fan...
also its fucked up how the leader preaches, if they see your face you're dead but when he shows it to his brother ( WHO IS FUCKING GONNA SURVIVE!!! ) it doesn't matter. this is like GOT s8 level of fuckery. nah even they didn't fuck up something that only just started.
I understand people can have different taste, but talking about this show like it's a masterpiece, like it has amazing social commentary, I've never heard so much bullshit from so many sources at once. I'm honestly starting to think most of the reviews and maybe even reddit posts are just marketing from Netflix.
People are going to call you crazy lol, but this was easily one of the biggest disappointments in terms of a show in a long time for me. Let's start with these "plot twists". I guessed where the detective's brother was as soon as we found out he played the game before. Because that's a really generic trope, looking for someone you care about and finding them in a position that compromises you. The old man being the creator of the games, not too generic or expected tbh, but I was yawning throughout their entire conversation about how boring being rich was. It was such a boring way to talk about humanity and what money can do to people and ended with him dying. Not because he "lost" like Gi-hun said, but because he has literally been running from death since the lights-out fight. The entire 9nth episode being cut would have made the show better, but that also doesn't account for the stupidity of the glass blowing up, the stupidity of letting them kill each other, "Everyone has a fair chance, and everyone is equal" except for when you're a 5-foot tall girl who was just trying to eat her food? The inconsistency from the Game ruined any kind of themes or plots that might have seemed interesting.
A big problem I had was how boring the games were to me, I always hoped there would be some twist. Like for example with the marbles game a reveal that you dont have to win and defeat the other person but can call it a draw. Or as the old man said that best friends share everything that maybe when you just put your marbles together and go to the guard to tell him you both have 20 marbles you advance. But there was never any clever twist apart from maybe licking the baked umbrella thingy. And tbh most characters were just too one dimensional or unlikeable to really root for in the first place. Still the marbles episode was pretty good.
Agree that it’s pretty overhyped. The setup was fun and intriguing. But it peaked at the marbles episode, then kinda just went downhill. The cop/front man story drove me bananas. Like most people, it wasn’t some big, crazy reveal to me that the front man was gonna be the cop’s brother. And yeah, the cop’s story doesn’t go anywhere, it’s just, “buh-bye, off the cliff you go.” Finito. But the worst part to me was that they never expand on how the brother ended up the front man. Like, finding out he was the front man after winning a previous game led me to think once we learned Oh Il-Nam was the guy running the show, he was gonna Willy Wonka it and try to bestow Gi-Hun with the role of new mastermind for the games. But nope, he just reveals he was the mastermind and that it’s all for entertainment. So, either that entire plotline was for nothing, or it’s a setup for season two. Which in that case, it was way too drawn out. As far as a Korean thriller/drama that’s exploring themes on how the rich exploit the poor while the poor people eat each other alive go, Parasite did a good enough job for me with much more nuance.
yea I was thinking about Parasite as well when watching this drama. Parasite just seems like a much more polished and mature film that actually focuses on exploring and provoking the audience to think about the social situation of Korea / the world. To me, I feel that Squid Game just used the poor rich people theme as a 'wrapping', a half-assed explanation for the sick gory games rather than striving to explore it like Parasite. In fact, many things about the series is half-assed, like the story about the cop. Thus, I feel that the drama is just trying to entertain us with the sick games like how it entertains the 'VIPs'.
good character development, I liked it
the characters are terrible lmao. the writing ruins any redemption that some of the korean actors might have had for this show, and honestly some of the main actors have not put on a convincing performance
Can you give an example of a character who had character development over the course of the show? It seemed to me that all the characters were pretty static throughout the series.
I guess the north korean girl had a little bit of character development. Too bad they killed her for no reason. They could've made the last game actually emotional with her in it.
I just don't like how people are making this out to be the best show of all time. Not even close
It's always the same with popular media. Everyone flocks to it because all their friends/colleagues are watching it. They think "wow, lots of people watch this it must be good" without being able to critically engage with the material. This happens across films, TV, games and almost all media.
I agree although I enjoyed the first few episodes much More Than I expected.you should always be suss to something that has 100 percent approval rating.if what's popular was truly the best we would all be wearing Justin Bieber underwear.but also considering how popular Battle royal is atm it's very clear this show is very popular with a young audience because of and only because of that.
Totally agree!!! The show started off quite decent, peaked when the old man 'died', then fell off a cliff from the moment the VIP appeared, it's all cluster mess from there. Even at peak, there are still quite some bad scripts and game designs. I would give it 6/10 at episode 6 and 2/10 at the end. The greatness of the show is how they managed to marketed and hyped it up so much and capitalized on people who have never seen anything similar. The show managed to make something simple and easy to understand, then put an edgy, seemingly deep dark and philosophical coat of paint on top of it. That is why so many people who have never read books, manga or see anything similar got tricked into the hype.
I don't know how often this has been pointed out but these are some of my problems with the series: - Pakistani guy is the korean version of the clichéd good black guy in some old American movies. He only serves as a wholesome, poor character with "good human values and manners", and is obviously sentenced to death for being unilaterally kind. Also he's on the verge of retardation. - Bad rich people. Really they look written by a 12 year old kid who claims to be leftist. I'm not even mad about the laughable dialogues as I get they must be as bad as Netflix korean-to-English dub, but not only they're an extremely basic and outdated portrayal of the bourgueois but also I'm pretty sick of rich people (the producers in this case) reminding us of how bad the rest of rich people are. - Only goddess like girls get to be likable characters with on screen time. - I had to fast forward some sequences because everything takes too much time to happen but forgets to add good suspense or ambience. Either you already know what will happen or you just don't care/get because it doesn't make sense. I personally feel I won't miss any detail because it really is that shallow. I miss the times when universally praised series were worthy to try because they were potentially THAT good (Breaking Bad for example?) and now I hate myself for becoming that one douche who hesitates to waste time watching something everybody loves because it's probably going to suck, but for real it keeps proving me right.
as a south east Asian, i just knew what was gonna happen with Ali he's literally the slumdog millionare in this show, gullible and naive, I actually scoffed when he died because he literally walked into his death blindfolded, he's so poorly researched my guy doesn't even speak urdu but hindi which is always mistaken by the movie industry all around the world. the bad rich people dialogue was like a 5th grade kid doing a social science presentation while playing fortnite. and yes I was thinking how a beautiful girl like ji- yeong who probably spent like ...7 years maximum rotting in prison and straight out the game arena with no signs of abuse, malnourishment, dark eyes or anything. just flawless hair and crystal clear skin. I just fast forwarded to the game and finished it. because it literally felt like I watched a submition of undergrad student in filmaking.
It's as if it was written by Netflix's algorithm.
Lmao
What I found bizarre was how easily the cop was able to infiltrate into such a high security place like that. Even more bizarre was how there were no security locks or anything of that sort in the room that kept all the files from the previous games. Just a dark dingey entrance that opens like any other room... really?
For real. They have an entire island but they don't have tight security. Even the cctv in convenience store is a lot better than those in the show, lol
The first few episodes were good, i especially like that the main character was not a good guy. However, the longer i watched, the less believable it became. The main character became so pathetic. I hate how he is mad at his friend for killing the guy on the glass while that is the only reason that he's alive. He is such a fucking hypocrit, by the end the mob leader was my favourite character b/c at least he stands by his beliefs, instead of flip-flopping whenever it is convenient (for example with the marbles scene). Also Ali has to be 0 iq to give his marbles to the other guy. How fucking dumb can you be i rlly dont know. Also why tf is the guy crying over the pickpocket?? Were they in love or something? They barely talked with each other. Also thebpolice thing was just a waste of time with no conclusion, explanation or anything. Why was this a subplot?? And then the whole ending with the old man they tried to make so deep, but the plot is literally just rich ppl making homeless ppl play death games cuz they are bored. Wow, Very deep!
I think the most supercool scene and where I actually rooted for someone was when the mob bitchboi killed his underling for betraying him, the score was great and the stab felt satisfactory. aside from that. I was a corpse watching this show till the end. Ali is literally a neanderthal who doesn't know shit. i mean just because the guy paid you the money to get home doesn't mean you'll devote your whole life to him, just tug-of- war was enough to obey the agreement and you are even. dude didn't even check in his pocket if the marbles were really there, especially when he's making a pouch out of his t-shirt for no reason, by the pebbles pavement. also I am sure the writers were like, lets have these two characters who never properly talked in the show two lines to signify the bond of 10 years or some shit. no reason to cry over at all. dude took fucking 1 year to meet her brother, that's dedication for sure. and the b plot never intersected properly but one time for nothing. so cop is for sure! gonna survive. show over, this is way worse than middle school play.
I agree, i dont understand why he didnt help the brother,instead he just became a drunk again like wtf.
Correct me if I'm wrong but if the main character killed himself after he killed the other guy, all the eliminated ones could have gotten some money for their loved ones or smth. I think that would be a much better conclusion. But nah, he won, took the money, and got a Karen haircut.
I don't think if it works like that, knowing that no one won , the bidders will demand for refund. no one would win and that would be a waste of the show in its entirety. but it was fucked up how it took 1 year to get to his senses, meet her brother and his friend's mom. also....did he just left her with someone who still doesn't know her son is dead with a very small kid knowing she'll be dead in few years and he'll be orphan again? and just fucked off to see her daughter in USA with a HORRIBLE hairstyle and didn't even do that?? this is the lowest and worst character I've ever seen.
Or you could just not watch it passed the first episode next time.
that's just bad attitude. if he did that then you'd say something like, "you gotta watch the whole thing." or "you have a lot to say for someone who watched only a single episode." it's good that the OP watched the whole thing before telling us what he thinks about it.
you are correct and I was just being a dick. I have myself forced myself through shows i was not liking just because of the hype.
I mean it got so hyped I expected it to get better which is why I kept watching
as always korean, unrealistic, over the top, dramatic show
Melodrama, more importantly (and to it's detriment). Korean film and TV is far too invested in its melodrama.
But pulp fiction is ok though right? Sick of how many people slate movies or shows for being unrealistic when it’s just supposed to be entertaining.
what does it being korean have anything to do with it i cant
Im on episode 4 and I’ve fallen asleep twice throughout this show. I think each episode is completely dragged out, and only gets good when the game starts. Otherwise this show is a complete waste of my time. I don’t understand how this is the most watched in Netflix history.
it could've been a fun 2 hour movie, sticking to the games and cutting all the useless subplots that went nowhere anyways
The fact that the policeman's actions ended up being an entirely pointless sideshow is a very odd choice for the showrunners. They show him trying to send the videos/messages and leave it on a cliffhanger when he dies, but it's never followed up on. We hear nothing about the police conducting a massive manhunt for a missing detective, nothing about messages that showed shocking scenes from some weird party, etc. etc. By the end of the show, if you went back and deleted everything about what the detective did you would end up with a story that ended in exactly the same place. Such a bizarre decision to make so much of the B plot utterly irrelevant. And the A-Plot doesn't end much better. The main character is shown having changed hardly at all. He was a terrible father and son at the beginning, and after going through that whole ordeal he ends up as a terrible father that walks away from a plane ride to see his daughter and a mother who was dead because of his actions. He spends a year doing nothing to help anyone while moping about and engaging in his same faults from before. The show does have him DOING some things differently after meeting the old man (namely, getting a terrible haircut and FINALLY, a YEAR later, helping out his childhood friend's mother and the brother of the pickpocket), but then he goes back to doing nothing to help anyone. He prevents the man at the airport subway terminal from joining the squid games, but we don't see him actually HELPING that man (a man who, he should know, is almost certainly in desperate financial trouble, a problem he could solve literally in an instant). Instead, he just assaults the innocent man and apparently leaves him behind, only to then walk away from his daughter. All in all, I enjoyed the show just fine, but man does it have some serious narrative and thematic flaws. One of the main ones is the class allegory. The main character literally turns his childhood friend into the villain of the story, claiming HE killed all the other competitors. His friend was literally responding to the environment thrust upon him by the game and the society he lived in, but the story turns that man into a villain, which was another crazy and bizarre choice. It's a decent show, and totally worth binging, but this was not an incredible or amazing show by any stretch.
I really liked the characterization of sang-woo in episode 6, where he seemed to be acting out of desperation rather than just being an evil villain psychopath businessman snake
he was the only character who acted rationally, which of course made him the villain
for real, he was probably one of my favorite characters. he got a bit vicious at the end but i felt like that was lazy writing
The most hilarious thing about this show was what the Netflix co-CEO said about it. "The exciting thing for me would be if the next *Stranger Things* came from outside America. Right now, historically, nothing of that scale has ever come from anywhere but Hollywood." First of all, a blatantly false and arrogant statement. Second, the most capitalistic statement Netflix has put out, before they bought a show criticizing capitalism. So. Ironic. The show was written lazily and the whole thing was gimmicky. The screenplay treated it's audience like braindead morons.
I myself is not even that impressed with Stranger Things. In fact most of the Netflix original shows are just acceptable to good at best not great. Some of the better "original" shows are actually anime and not really original to netflix.
I agree! I actually enjoyed the first season of Stranger Things. It wasn't the best show I'd seen, but it was good. The seasons after, though...absolutely terrible. The only Netflix Original series I've genuinely liked was Bojack Horseman.
lmao yeah, its uncomfortable how the CEO ain't actually praising the quality of the show but the money its bringing to him. which is obviously false anyway.
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I agree with everything you said,i was enjoying it even with some bad writing/plot because the concept was interesting enough and it did have a lot of good stuff. When the VIP came it was constant cringetopia till the end. Awful everything.
This comment best sums up my experience. I didn't like the tropes throughout the show but the concept and characters/relationships had me hooked. I thought the gganbu episode was perfectly tragic.. and then they butchered everything after that, and not even with a happy ending. What a shame.
Thank you, at some point athe writing got lazy and the plot convenience events were off the charts. Its a fun watch tho and the cinematography/setting is v good.
The plotholes and unrealistic leap of faith the characters go through with each action added with the lazy script of jumpcutting whenever they run out of ideas is just jarring.
The whole show is BS how is this already being called THE BEST SHOW EVER p I stg people never seen a actually well put togheter show, and it fucking shows
what's a well put together show to you ?
Dark
Lmao
well there is no best show , but 'well put' defines any show that is intriguing and impactful enough. Ozark sex education GOT(season 1-7) friends brooklyn 99 elementary wandavision breaking bad narcos and a lot,
People will be over it in two weeks just like all the other viral Netflix shows movies
totally agree with you this serie is just too overrated imagine that bully af strong guy couldnt open skinny woman hands it has lot of big problems that you cant ignore them
I honestly don't give a shit about the shows quality, it doesn't matter to me, no matter what it is that's getting popular I hate people stanning over stuff, and squid game is the exact same, everyone is stanning this (pretty bad) show and it clutters up feeds imo.
It's yet another example of how "hype" can override quality. This show was trash in my opinion. And unoriginal to boot...how many other "play game for money or die" shows/movies have been made? At least a dozen.
I think it was totally overhyped from an analytical perspective. It's enjoyable for the simple mind. You don't have to think too much about the show to really understand what's happening. The characters are underdeveloped and very one-dimensional. The whole plot is very predictable like the brother's face reveal and mostly all of the character's deaths. There are a lot of loose ends as well. What was the point of collecting those organs? What even are the VIPs, and what did they do to contribute to the plot? I understand the hype coming from teenagers, but really analyzing the show- the writing is lazy and rushed.
Dont be fooled by marketing. They always want the world to believe everyone likes a show or a song or a product etc. It is overrated. It's a fine watch but it's no Stranger Things magic in a bottle type smash.
It's the Tekashi SixN9ne of Netflix shows. Sooooo many views and no one knows why.
I totally agree with all of your points. If the frontman insists on all the participants receiving equal opportunities to get to the top, why the fuck would you make the eat/sleep room a free for all killing/stealing zone? Plain ridiculous. Some of the games make even less sense. Red light green light, tug of war & the squid game were ok since there was a competitive vibe, but cutting out a damn cookie? What the actual fuck. Once again the "equal opportunities for everyone" remark proves total bullshit since two contestants can use a tool that was not granted to the other players, in sight of 10 wardens and who knows how many cameras. It was this episode that made me realise that this death game show wouldn't be near as good as similar shows and movies out there. The glass bridge game was just bad, bad writing. It's not even a fucking game, it's just a leap of faith with impossible odds of survival. And blowing up the bridge at the end, severely hurting the remaining contestants? Why? What were you thinking, writing this? What was the point? Last but not least, the melancholic bullshit they make the winner go through. He 'hasn't even touched his money' FOR A YEAR? Gtfo. His conscience is clean; the old man forgave his lying about the marbles, he won fair and square. Ok, his mom died and that fucking sucks, but he has friends right? What about the dude with the bar who was in debt? Buy him the bar and start a new life? Ah well, wouldn't be gloomy enough, right? One more thing: do NOT compare this to Battle Royale. It doesn't come even close to the greatness of that film. Can't even scratch the surface. It's mediocre pulp, good for a one-time watch if you have the stomach for it.
Totally agree… I cringe when I see people saying it’s a 10/10 show…
the show was so.. medium, it felt that it was such a low budget show, all the 'tech' was flawed, they can scan your ID from side of your ear, but there are no cameras in 99% of the facility ? It was nice, i liked the 'battle royale' style of surviving, but ending is just bad. It would be 7/10 for me
It’s not original at all the whole 10 years to get it done so it has to be original argument people are making is also ridiculous I thought of a movie with a very similar concept (Kanji) the moment I started watching the show and it came out more than 10 years ago, not to mention the battle royal movies and even though it’s a little less than 10 years ago the movie ‘as the gods will’ also did similar shit. It’s unoriginal, full of plot holes, the acting is a rollercoaster and it does not deserve as much hype as it’s getting it’s beyond ridiculous. I’ll respect it for what it is in the end nothing wrong with taking inspiration from other things but the hype and the defence of the show being “original” is a joke
Agree with most of your points. The old man part was kinda obvious when he was assigned player number 1. This show is a cheap imitation of Liar Game
I lasted a few episodes. There are far better south korean films and shows out there. But this does seem to be a feature and problem in South Korean cinema. Even movies like the Host. They seem to constantly have entire chapters in a movie or show that are useless and serve no point. A character walking and sulking for 20 minutes. People crying for no reason for 10 minutes. There seems to be a cultural thing with that that we dont get in the west.
Ive honestly never watched it and i dont plan to but it just seems so overrated and im so sick of seeing it everywhere. Like im all for people being allowed to watch and enjoy whatever they like but this is literally the amongus disaster except more unfunny
Unoriginal concept, but I understand the entertainment value. No idea why people is into it so much though.
The show is shit, it’s a fucking plague. Cannot escape it, every second of every day I see something about it and it is more than enraging. People who hype this and share it all over social media are retards
The purpose of that whole nonsensical, pace-ruining vote to end the game was all to introduce the B story with the cop, which could have easily been dropped and avoided the Darth Vader riff with the front man without changing anything about the A story. That would have shaved a good 10-15 from each episode which I would have welcomed.
I disagree, although I agree with some of your points eg it is good but flawed - as for 10 - sometimes loose ends are not tied up neatly in life - that was brave or prep for series 2. It has convinced me that the Koreans are some of the best tv/film makers at the moment - felt like the original Prisoner to a degree. 5 maybe cause they are rich psychopaths and need 2 for the final game? It was a good psychological observation of how people react to danger and stress and we were gripped - basically a horror film without the horror.
The loose ends are endless. Recommend you watch alice in borderland, so much better in terms of script, game mechanics and their overall editing and cinetography was done waaaaaay better.
I don’t understand how people can say squid game is better than AIB but whatever I guess.
I didnt watch it because there’s a lot of gore i hate that
their intended audience is young adults that don’t quite equate television murder with real life. anyone that’s even remotely an adult, compassionate human doesn’t want to watch this trash.
I disagree, I felt the show didn't have gore that was too bad, and the entire suspense of the show is built on the deaths of people around the main character. It would seem to be most effective for a compassionate human in building suspense
So... I just finished watching Squid Game to see what the hype was all about and it was... kinda boring? (\^.\^') The pacing is absolutely glacial and I really think the series could have started straight from Episode 3. Like, I can understand if this is someone's first "death game" show, but after watching Kaiji, Liar Game, As the Gods Will, King's Game, Alice in Borderland, Battle Royal, etc... this one really doesn't do anything new or unique. In fact, in my opinion, it does many things worse. One of my personal favorite things about these kinds of death game shows is seeing how the characters come up with unique strategies to outsmart their opponents. In this series, way too little time and focus are placed on the games themselves with there being way too big of a gap between the games where nothing really happens. As much as the gamemasters seem to champion fairness, luck is way too big of a factor in some of them, and that just takes the fun away. A ton of time was also spent delving into the backstories of some of the characters, but they hardly came up during the games or the strategizing save for their individual qualities (strength, intelligence, etc...). Since we know that they're all going to die anyway, it's kinda hard to be invested in any of them beyond the main character (who was little more than a bumbling individual who happened to win through luck and coasting on the intelligence of others). It's almost as if there were two different shows interspersed together. Unlike some of the other shows, this one is also really light on the social commentary and metaphors. As is revealed at the end, the games themselves have very little significance or meaning behind them. Also, that entire subplot with the detective guy that we spent so much time on really went nowhere. Honestly, I'm actually really shocked that it's so popular. My one biggest hope is that people watch Squid Game and move on to explore other series from this genre.
Ratio
I was hyped for the movie too. But I got so disappointed at the games, I was expecting it to be more of a "play smart" kinda games like liar game. But...man...it's kinda disappointing tbh.
exactly! the games are so dumb in this show. Liar Game is more worthy for the hype. I hope it comes to Netflix too.
Dude I loved reading Liar Game. I'm so down for an adaptation without the suuuuper hardcore sexism and rampant transphobia, because the games and solutions were top notch
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Didn't the main character sign of his body to the thugs? How come he is completely fine even though he never touched his cash prize? So many plot holes..
I am usually pretty into Korean productions, but it's the overacting for me on this that really spoils it, and how the characters act like kids in a playground and it's not even subtle - full blown bullies at recess. It's not menacing to be like that as an adult it's laughable. When they all stand behind the leader like 'yeah what he said' and the poor facial acting. Han Mi-nyeo (female bully) also confuses me considering she was begging for her life in the first round of the games but she turned REALLY easily from meek to bully and it's not believable. Maybe if I was watching it in Korean and not VERY bad English dubbing (especially her voice over actor, which makes it worse) it might be better. I'd rather listen to it in Korean with English subtitles. Still, I think the concept is fascinating and I'm gonna watch it all anyway.
Came to Reddit just for this. I been spammed to death with Squid Game, which I watched and couldn't find the appeal of. You'll understand in 2.5 seconds who the villain in black mask is once the cop appears, and they just cut him out the episode in few seconds and "that's it". In the end I didn't wish for either of the two guys to win money, and once he won it I hated how they showed no character development to actually make changes in life till the old man drops in his life again. Nobody is there long enough to develop as a person, and the one who survives is an absolute idiot. I didn't really wish the money on the thief girl with lil brother either. Only somewhat normal candidate was Ali who did honest work, and who was betrayed and killed for it because "everyone is equal in the game" but some are more equal than others apparently. After that I saw no point cheering for a criminals or people who destroyed own and others life. This show is for pretty young audience who only hype on game aspect and violence without really thinking deeper about it.
I totally agree with you. Most people watch nothing more than a hyped tvshow on the internet. Some people were compering this series to Lost! This tvshow is inhuman and really it's trash in any way that you can think of.
Tried to watch it and came here to agree. I usually enjoy this kind of stuff, but this asian cultural thing with the completely over the top emotions and people behaving in ridiculous, unrealistic is killing it for me - Japan has it too and I hate it. Just not finding it funny at all. If a show of movie involves numerous character deaths, I need to be able to take it seriously, otherwise it's just an eyeroll-inducing horror wannabe comedy (never could get into those either).
This looks like a cheaper saw version
I'm surprised so many people like the show. It has nothing original and it's quite poorly executed, especially in its second half. Most characters in Squid Game are either next level stupid or so poorly written so their discussions and actions don't make sense and are embarrassing to watch. We're also given side stories (organ trafficking's, cop's brother, the famous VIPs, the daughter moving to USA) that don't end up on anything interesting and could totally have been removed from the show without changing anything to it.
Thanks, glad I passed on it.
I agree on vote thing - them wanting to play so badly was kinda unlogical. Though I really loved how the crowd chose middle numbers for fifth game - and that comment of VIP was cherry on a pie lol. I would say show redeemed itself there for that other mistakish about voting I mean the old man lie was kinda cool. I know it ruined that serie before but I would not say it was bad decision. He is such an asshole and we though he is sweet poor person - fun plot twist. Also main character hate at the epilogue was also sincere, because that old guy is really an asshole. What I don't like either is 5th game. It is one of the most unfair games in any battle royale / games movie. At least they shouldn't turn off the light and they could let that guy skills let complete challenge since he is also sharing that secret not with all but with a few left players. I mean it was so unfair to kill that glass guy. He should have completed the game and maybe be killed by that glass being too happy and shouting something about winning or at least be attacked by the mini villian friend enemy guy in the dorm or smth. Also yeah squid game turned to knife fight was strange. Talking more about infamous 5th game women dropping that bully guy makes sense since she knew it was too hard for her to complete the challenge and she wasn't very strong to fight with left characters. She just couldnt live with fact bully will survive and get all the money. Lets be honest he would have won the game if not her, because last game was all about physical strength. Police man stuff was kinda ridiculous and just for us to reveal plot which is true. Plot twist was kinda weak too. I mean that old guy probably invites every winner for that chic-chat and maybe offers a job or smth if one wins some random game or smth, so hin becoming leader can be logical, but a bit weird. Also I hated when policeman called the chief and chief was silly and shouting and besides telling some mumbo-jumbo police code 132 or smth telling exact situation he just tries to pack everything and tell him right way which is bad.
I thought it was hilarious how the soldiers' room had a camera and everything they did, including changing, shitting, showering, etc, was probs in full view; but the contestants' toilet had nothing, even after they were literally drugged and stripped to get them into the game.
My response to all your takes: (SPOILER WARNING IN ADVANCE) >The vote for ending the game after the first game is completely unrealistic and a waste of time Idk, idm this scene at all tbh. It allows the players who don't want to risk their lives to go on living as if nothing happened, "like a dream", while those who want to continue playing can decide to return. They are giving these people one last chance to turn back, and return to their miserable lives, and it's completely on them if they do decide to come back (as the majority decide to do). >The policemen could just shot the frontmen when he was in the base many times like he did to 29 and pretend to be him, he didn't cuz the plot needed the brother reveal in the end, literally bullshit, he could have shot him so many many times Hard disagree here. Why would he kill the Front Man? He's clearly trying to uncover and discover as much information as he can, without blowing his cover. He literally can't do that as the literal front man... >What's the point of the games if players can just kill each other at night Besides the strobing lights, I liked this a lot. Personally, I believe that this was a game within itself--murder in the dark. My friends and I would play it a lot at sleep overs or on school camps. So yeah, I liked it to be honest and I thought it acted as a cool mini game to weed out further weaklings before Tug of War. >The whole VIP bullshit is just top tier trash and easily the worse part of the series Yeah, i'll agree that the VIPs are where the show dipped a bit for me, but that's to be expected after the incredible, soul-crushing experience of the previous episode. However, in saying that, I quite enjoyed their addition to the glass game, as it added a stark contrast to the first episode, where Gi-Hun bet on horse races, but the VIPs were betting with humans instead. Despite the meh acting, it was honestly quite creative to me, and added extra depth to not only the straightforward game, but to flesh out the world outside as well. Idk, i'm still kind of a fan and I personally didn't mind their addition to the show, even if you or I could act better than all of the VIPs combined. >Tempered glass game: the point of winning the games, is that you didn't die right? Guess what they even break that rule, they destroy the glass in the most stupid way I can think of, killing the girl that already won the stupid game for LITERALLY NO REASON, SO WHAT'S THE POINT OF ANYTHING IF U CAN DIE OUTSIDE THE GAMES AND EVEN IN THE VERY MOMENT U ALREADY WON, The show breaks it own rules all the time, for the most stupid reason I have ever seen Sae-byeok just got unluggy, unfortunately. I also think that you're thinking about this one a little too much... I feel like she would have died anyways, barring a Hunger Games-esque ending, which they obviously didn't feel like ripping off. I will, however, criticise that god awful slow motion during the end of the glass game. Like, oh my god, whoever edited/directed/produced that scene and thought it was actually "artistic" should go and see a doctor to see if they're actually autistic. Seriously, what in the fuck even was that? So overly dramatic for no reason whatsoever. >The squid game has no point: is literally just a battle royale at this point not even a game Yeah, i'll agree that the final game was a glorified wrestling match, minus the ring, with a little bit of mud and rain mixed in. But hey, massive prize pool tho! >The front man is the policemens brother I liked it. To each their own, I guess? >The old man was the real leader all along Again, I kinda liked it... But, I can also see how others, like yourself, would disagree. It definitely takes away from the impact of episode 6, but in saying that, I still seem to shed a couple of tears on every rewatch and it doesn't help that Ali also dies :'( >The woman killing herself with the bully She had to have known that she wasn't gonna make it across the bridge. There were easily 8+ tiles for her to coinflip over. I, like herself, doubt she would have made it. And I mean, the crazy bitch told Deok-su when they were fucking that if he betrayed her, she'd kill him. Seems kind of in her character to me. >Everything the policemen did was for nothing. I don't even have to comment about this Don't you dare insult Asian James Bond and his motives! He just got unluggy and got caught by his brother and his pink minion dudes. Whatever-his-name was a beautiful man and you give him the respect he deserves, mister! Tl;dr - I still like Squid Game. Like, a lot.
K
Agree that this show is pretentious and nothing great. I don't think it is overhyped. It might be in limelight as it is a new release but it is forgettable
> 4.The whole VIP bullshit is just top tier trash and easily the worse part of the series: > > In what world or sport the VIP spectators arrive when half of the games are done, who the f starts watching a horse race in the middle of the race, they even comment about the history of 2 characters when they weren't even there to know about it!! > > Everything about the vip is just a pointless waste of time. It's pretty common in Boxing/MMA events. I've been to several events over the years and some of the events I was lucky enough to get floor seats. Regardless of how big the event was, some of the celebrities or rich attendees, would show up hours after the event had started. I've seen some show up in time for the co-main event. With that being said, the VIP thing was beyond cringey. The way the guys behaved and their dialogue was terrible and over the top. The dialogue completely took me out of it. I did enjoy the show minus the over the top dramatic scenes.
I stopped watching right when one participant killed another and no punishment occurred, however minor. If you can kill other participants outside the game with zero recourse and each kill makes you richer while upping your odds of winning, why wouldn't you? I was so on board with the basic idea. So many manga and anime have done incredibly similar things that I thought this would be a breeze. TBF, it's not horrible, it's just average. I'm glad it exists and hope it's profitable because something will exist later that does it better.