Board 8 > Did I miss the Squid Game topic? *Spoilers maybe after first post*

(+) Yeah! (+)

Because it was real good

---

It was good.

Finale spoilers:I wish the ending didnt undercut episode 6 so hard

---

I, a grown ass man, cried a little at ep 6.

So yeah I'm with you.

---

I thought it was pretty overrated until I got to the late night fight scene cinematography which was pretty impressive.

Still only on episode 5, but it perked my interest.

---

If you did then so did I. I'm about to rewatch it with the hubby tonight! Coincidentally I was about to make a similar topic once we start. We had a hilarious dialog the other day that I will summarize as follows:

"Hey are you interested in Squid Game? It's one of those Battle Royale elimination games."

"Eh, you've seen one Battle Royale you've seen 'em all."

"... Wait have you seen any of them!?"

"NOPE!"

And then we both burst out laughing because having thought about it I knew he hadn't seen The Hunger Games movies, and he didn't watch BTOOOM!! or Mirai Nikki with me so he's not gonna miss out on this craze! It's gonna be rewarding for me too going in knowing what I already know and spotting all the little Easter eggs and clues.
---

All rise from there plum, trust me.

I definitely want to watch it again with current knowledge, but I'm going to give it a while to settle. I watched subbed because I heard the dub was hot garbage but I may give it a shot the second time around just to see.

---

Just finished watching the finale. Episode 6 was tough to watch.

---

I've been watching the dub because I'm not a big drama fan so I've been doing other stuff at the same time.

I can confirm the dub is very bad. The one lady who sleeps with the mob boss guy is especially horrendous. Everyone else ranges between meh and poor.

---

ah yes, everyone is talking about this show. and for good reason. It's really good! Note that I did watch the dub and I was okay with it, but as always, the subtitled viewing is better. I, too, like to multitask while viewing shows and having to read subtitles makes that impossible.

---

Finished it this morning

I'd watch more of that

---

It was really great and also really emotional. Definitely hits pretty hard in some episodes

the dub was so bad i turned it off within like 15 minutes of episode 1, then looked up all the games
---

I switched to the korean + subs 5 minutes into episode 1 and never looked back

---

Oh

Episode 6 sucked

---

it's alright

super overrated compared to other shows released around the same time, but i get the appeal

---

I liked it. The characters and the interactions were the highlight. The games themselves felt janky and definitely not well-planned as VIP entertainment/betting material.

---

Yeah, I have one episode left and the glass game feels extremely ill conceived in terms of variability of outcomes. Just a terrible idea if there was actually stakes involved

---

i do think it's overrated but still enjoyable and it's easy to see the appeal

got to say though that episode 7 killed any chance this had of being a personal favorite because of the "VIPs"

Overall loved it, but some of the plot stuff doesn't stand up to scrutiny.

But episode 6 is legitimately amazing.

---

The dub is awful, the story is good tho

---

apparently this show is kang sae-byeok's first time acting

WTF

---

The high scores/reviews for this series has confused me. I enjoyed it, but I'm also a fan of this sub-genre. There are so many deathmatch/deathgame films out there, and they almost always get shit scores. Yes, they are a guilty pleasure for me, so I don't care, but seeing Squid Game suddenly be super praised just confuses me. And it's not like Squid Game has some kind of high art or quality to propel it over other good ones in the genre...it really plays out like alot of others. Is it really just that most mainstream watchers have only seen Hunger Games and nothing else?

---

ChaosTonyV4 posted...

It was good.

Finale spoilers:I wish the ending didnt undercut episode 6 so hard

I mean there was a ton of hints about something being amiss with 001. He wasn't picked up by the red light, green light motion detector. His yelling stopped the riots which was the only time he was at risk of death. He wasn't cuffed to the tug of war rope like everyone else. He wasn't in the contestants book that started at 002. They never showed his body after his death and after the gunshot it asked if he enjoyed playing.

The only time he seemed genuinely scared was when the intruder alarm went off to show something was wrong with the games themselves. I guess maybe the riots too, I'd have to rewatch to see if there was a sign of him always being safe

I personally didn't pick up on all of them but noticed quite a few and then rest came up in discussions with friends.

I do agree that him being dead would also have been fine for the story too but we always had the mystery of who the host was since the front man made a point to say he was preoccupied with something else. So I was fine with either result.

I think this being a series instead of a movie is a decent part of why it took off. It being a series meant there was a lot more time to get attached and interested in the characters lives where a movie wouldve left nearly everyone feeling like background nobodies with almost no personality.

I did dubs for 2 episodes, I'm a bit more tolerant than most people on bad VA. I read slowly and I tend to visualize what I'm reading, even if I have the imagery right in front of me. But yeah for sure I had to bail on the dubs, and re-watched in Korean with subs.

I almost made this topic but I don't really have much to say! I enjoyed it a good bit, though I have some minor quibbles. I felt like a lot of the show was predictable yet still managed to deliver terrific tension and drama.

Aecioo posted...

it's alright

super overrated compared to other shows released around the same time, but i get the appeal

what shows came out at the same time?

---

I enjoyed it a lot, I thought the acting was pretty great and episode 6 was pretty intense.

I did think that the whole side-story with the cop seemed a bit forced and meaningless though. It feels a bit sequel-baity and doesn't actually achieve that much other than introduce some of the "behind the scenes" stuff, which I felt could have been done differently.

---

TomNook posted...

The high scores/reviews for this series has confused me. I enjoyed it, but I'm also a fan of this sub-genre. There are so many deathmatch/deathgame films out there, and they almost always get shit scores. Yes, they are a guilty pleasure for me, so I don't care, but seeing Squid Game suddenly be super praised just confuses me. And it's not like Squid Game has some kind of high art or quality to propel it over other good ones in the genre...it really plays out like alot of others. Is it really just that most mainstream watchers have only seen Hunger Games and nothing else?

yeah i don't really get why it succeeded where alice in borderland's netflix series last year "failed"

... i guess its focus on the "human" element of "having a choice" and still participating because lottery (wow relatable) is the key difference

i also don't like being that guy but in retrospect it's really got some issues with gender

these issues may not be viewed as such everywhere and i guess that's why?

Did Alice in Borderland fail? I really liked that show but don't keep up on what Netflix considers did well

neonreaper posted...

I did dubs for 2 episodes, I'm a bit more tolerant than most people on bad VA. I read slowly and I tend to visualize what I'm reading, even if I have the imagery right in front of me. But yeah for sure I had to bail on the dubs, and re-watched in Korean with subs.

I almost made this topic but I don't really have much to say! I enjoyed it a good bit, though I have some minor quibbles. I felt like a lot of the show was predictable yet still managed to deliver terrific tension and drama.

what shows came out at the same time?

Midnight Mass released a week later and should be the show everyone is talking about

---

What people watch is probably heavily driven by the Netflix algorithm. I haven't seen Midnight Mass on my Netflix page at all which is surprising because Google says it's horror and my wife watches a lot of horror on our account

More like Midnight Ass

---

More like Midnight Monologue

---

Hubby's random thought #1: the entry of the masked staff with the weird music made them seem like Oompa Loompas
---

I liked it all except for the glass bridge game, as blind rng is stupid

---

GenesisSaga posted...

Hubby's random thought #1: the entry of the masked staff with the weird music made them seem like Oompa Loompas

I said the same thing to my wife when watching it

PrinceKaro posted...

I liked it all except for the glass bridge game, as blind rng is stupid

I thought it was worse than that Where in other games when people found bends in the rules it was A-Ok but for some reason in the glass bridge game a person finds a bend and its cheating for some random ass reason.

Felt extremely arbitrary especially considering the stated theme that everyone was equal

---

masterplum posted...

The one lady who sleeps with the mob boss guy is especially horrendous.

Who cares she is the best character

---

I think that one of the central themes was them saying everyone was equal but then arbitrarily following through on it on their whims.

---

UF8 posted...

yeah i don't really get why it succeeded where alice in borderland's netflix series last year "failed"

As someone who watched a few episodes of this after Squid Game (and squid game is decent but indeed overrated - mostly because the ending is too long), Alice in Borderland simply isn't as good.

---

masterplum posted...

I thought it was worse than that Where in other games when people found bends in the rules it was A-Ok but for some reason in the glass bridge game a person finds a bend and its cheating for some random ass reason.

Felt extremely arbitrary especially considering the stated theme that everyone was equal

Im pretty sure they only intervened there because it removed all entertainment from the game. Sure it was careless on their part to have such a game and not even pay attention to that guys background, but oh well. Theyre fine with people bending the games otherwise because there was no rule against cheating and plenty of people would still die. In that particular one the one player couldve prevented any other deaths and thats just no fun to the spectators. Thats how I viewed it anyways.

I'm a little perplexed why people seem to love it so much. I originally wrote the reaction off as being a lot of peoples first asian death game and they are stunned and engrossed in the violence, which is fine. Red Light Green Light is pretty brutal if you aren't expecting it and that can get you pretty invested in watching through to the end. The tenseness of people trying to complete a mundane task and having people brutally murdered next to you can be very impactful, which the first two games delivered on.

But its getting SO many positive reviews everywhere, it's way more than I'd expect. IMO, as someone whos seen a lot of these types of games, the games mostly weren't very interesting themselves - it was only the fact that people are dying and the impact that's having that makes it gripping. So obviously that makes this show look weak compared to something that accomplishes that tenseness while also having interesting games.

But mostly importantly.... the characters and writing were really bad. There's a couple characters that are aight, but the main character in particular is so unbelievably unlikeable - which is fine as a character trait, but he never grows or changes or even really understands anything about the nature of the situation he's in. He just alternates from acting pathetically selfish to pathetically incompetent but optimistic about teamwork. The ending was particularly bad - he fails as a character in so many ways I can't even keep count. Spitting on the memory and wishes of everyone else by going into a catatonic state and not using they money and therefore not helping anybody, completely being unable to have any sort of rational discussion with the old man, not at all stepping up to be a dad to his daughter or to whatshernames brother, then actually deciding to do something with his life... and just dumping the brother on another person to deal with, AND bailing on his daughter again right after getting her hopes up that he's coming to see her, and then finally thinking he's going to do something "badass" by coming after the organization after being clueless and helpless the entire games and completely flopping his opportunity to talk with the person who literally organized the games. What is he going to accomplish? He's the most proven worthless player in the games, but somehow the show wants us to believe other wise. All of these things I just complained about arent' necessarily bad endings for a character like this - a pathetic character can continue to be pathetic. But the show doesn't seem to want us to think he's pathetic - we are supposed to root for this guy and think that he does have genuinely good merits, and that he did the right thing in the end, and that he's actually going to do something about that organization in the sequel bait. Ugh. This is all just a nightmare.

---

neonreaper posted...

More like Midnight Ass

:D

guffguy89 posted...

More like Midnight Monologue

This is true

---

The glass game is some bullshit.

---

I think episode 2, 4 and 6 really sold it. I found the show in general a little too gruesome so it definitely was not the Asian death game genre that made me like it.

For instance in 2 when They actually voted to leave I was very surprised. I expected it to be an eye roll inducing last second vote to continue the game

And the cinematography in 4 was gorgeous. It really captured the mass panic of the scene

6 of course was just extremely well written.

None of those highlights have anything to do with the genre, in fact I think most of the games are some of the weaker parts of the show


---

I'm only a few episodes in, but I'm getting some strong Kaiji vibes from the series. Deadbeat loser of a guy with gambling addiction falls prey to nebulous underground organization running crazy gambles modeled after simple games? That's both the series in a nutshell.

Though, Squid Game seems to be going for more shock value and emotional punch than the psychological desperation that permeates Kaiji.

I bet if you like one, you'll like the other, so if you want to scratch more high-stakes gambling iches, I can heartily recommend Kaiji.

---

TomNook posted...

The high scores/reviews for this series has confused me. I enjoyed it, but I'm also a fan of this sub-genre. There are so many deathmatch/deathgame films out there, and they almost always get shit scores. Yes, they are a guilty pleasure for me, so I don't care, but seeing Squid Game suddenly be super praised just confuses me. And it's not like Squid Game has some kind of high art or quality to propel it over other good ones in the genre...it really plays out like alot of others. Is it really just that most mainstream watchers have only seen Hunger Games and nothing else?

I'd wager that's a big part of it.

---

Also having the glass bridge explode and unfairly wound the winning players because they were still in the vicinity was stupid as hell and should be grounds for cancellation of the games.

---

Raka_Putra posted...

Also having the glass bridge explode and unfairly wound the winning players because they were still in the vicinity was stupid as hell and should be grounds for cancellation of the games.

This was the part that got you huh

---

I actually wrote a lot about Squid Games in an FB post but looking back that was still the stupidest thing to me, yes. The show itself made comparisons to horse racing but the horses are actually well-fed and taken care of in-between races to make sure they can actually compete well during the races.

---

Raka_Putra posted...

Also having the glass bridge explode and unfairly wound the winning players because they were still in the vicinity was stupid as hell and should be grounds for cancellation of the games.

The glass exploded because time ran out. If they had completed the game faster it would not have been a problem.

---