Printable version of thread

Posted by: Brett-Butler 23rd September 2021, 07:47 PM

Just finished watching "Squid Game" on Netflix, a drama set in Korea which follows a group of 456 people with crippling debts who take part in a competition to win a multi-million dollar prize, which involves playing deadly versions of playground games, like Red Light Green Light, marbles, and the titular Squid Game (which was a popular Korean children's game which is a somewhat more physical and oppositional version of hopscotch). It's a fairly violent and shocking series, and it does have its antecedents in things like "Saw", "Escape Room" and last year's popular Japanese Netflix series "Alice in Borderland", but it is an absolutely thrilling & twisting series. It's interesting that it's one of the few "death game" shows that actually shows you how the games themselves are put together, looking into how they are constructed and the lives of those in the background who help to make them so.

It's become something of a hit in the US, and also has been in the top 10 shows in the UK, so it could get a 2nd series.

Posted by: Rooney 23rd September 2021, 08:37 PM

I was going to make a topic on this, so I am glad you did Brett! I am on episode 5 (watched the first 2 mins after the mini cliffhanger). I am lazy and watch with English dubbing and sometimes with the dubbing offering the content can be hit and miss.. but this is fantastic. I was a huge fan of Battle Royale when I was younger and while this is nowhere near the same take, it's in the similar vein. There's some great build-up with the characters, that is the most impressive bit for me. It's certainly way more than just the violence.

I have read the show ends on somewhat of a cliffhanger.. (no spoilers please) but I cannot see a way this does not get a 2nd series. I think there is a relative big budget for the show, but it is hard for foreign language shows to make an impact outside of the home country, especially in the US.

Posted by: Chez Wombat 23rd September 2021, 09:55 PM

This instantly caught my eye and I'm two episodes in and really hooked, there are probably so many comparison points, but it's reminded me so far of Battle Royale meets Black Mirror. It's grimly brilliant to watch, unsure in what direction it will go now, but I'm intrigued to see.

The second episode was hard hitting, it's refreshing seeing a dystopian prison which the characters aren't totally forced to be in yet continue cos their own lives are that terrible. You would never get this kind of thing from Hollywood.

Posted by: Bdelita 24th September 2021, 06:10 AM

It’s instantly become one of my favourite shows of the year.

Posted by: Rooney 26th September 2021, 11:51 PM

Finished this now- it's an absolutely fantastic show. I unfortunately had the twist ruined for me by a YouTube video screencap of all things, so I guessed what was coming.

Episode 6 is genuinely one of the best singluar episodes I've ever seen, the show itself peaks there imo. The latter 3rd is still good, but it loses the heart and warmth from here in and turns more in to everyone losing their minds.

Posted by: Oliver 27th September 2021, 08:16 PM

Going to start this tonight, completely missed the blood on the image card that pops up on Netflix when you’ve left it too long and thought it was a new game show!

Posted by: dandy* 27th September 2021, 08:20 PM

I don’t usually care for shows like this but I think I’m going to watch it for the stylisation of it alone.

Posted by: -Jay- 28th September 2021, 03:56 AM

I watched this the other day and enjoyed it immensely, one of the best shows I've seen this year! Incredibly tense, bleak and brutal, but so thrilling. A clever way to portray the themes of social hierarchy and modern capitalism. It's not without some plot holes (some of the things that crossed my mind are mentioned in https://gamerant.com/squid-game-series-plot-inconsistencies/), but it was so entertaining overall that I went along for the ride without dwelling too much about them.

I watched the English dub too. I actually tend to prefer watching foreign language shows in the language the actors are speaking in (with English subtitles, of course!). However I started watching Episode 1 quite late at night and felt tired, so opted for the English dub for the ease of not having to read. I think they did a great job with the dub actually, it was very passionately acted by all of them and a lot of the time it felt believable that they could have all been talking in English!

Posted by: Rooney 28th September 2021, 11:05 AM

That plot holes article is interesting. I think a few of them can be filed under 'Expand more in Season 2' e.g. The Host, as I suspect with any Season 2 this is where I would expect the narrative to go. I get some of the other points, but with the conversation at the end between 456 and 001 I think some of the points make sense and it was more about trying to prove people don't look after each other given the opportunity, the knives were deliberately left as The Host expected them to be used because people are greedy. Much like in the final game he expected the winner to emerge through murdering the contestant, not through winning the game.

Posted by: Iz 💀 4th October 2021, 05:02 AM

Just finished this, I love death game narratives - Battle Royale, Danganronpa, etc. and it seems literally everyone I follow has watched it. Plus great acting from particularly Sang-woo and Gi-hun, very believable set of leads.

Overall great show, they nailed the tense parts of it. Certain ways of winning the games particularly the tug-of-war strategy stood out. Lots of that plot-hole article didn't bother me as it's quite clear that the game's principles are meant to be contradictory, while it seems a little basic to compare it to Parasite as if that's the only other Korean thing one has seen they're both critiquing certain aspects of Korea's hyper-capitalist economic system which is what makes me compare them. So particularly this one, there is that 'free choice' (here to participate in the game) is not realistically free choice if one's other options are to die destitute, hence why all the contestants "willingly" participate, and that while they claim the game is equal, in practice, it's a representation of society according to true Darwinian capitalists (i.e. helping each other is weak (we'll follow a game about teamwork with a game that requires betrayal), rules only matter in so far as they are enforced, honour and a sense of morality does not, only trust other people so far as it helps you, those who make savage choices early on are rewarded, 'rich get richer' etc.), and that I believe was part of the show's aims with Gi-Hun working against that philosophy and eventually resolving to defeat those who'd set this game up.

Death games are often quite campy and this... wasn't, which is fine because the bits that were campy (the VIPs) didn't really work that well - if I were so bored out of my mind as a rich person to need death games to spice it up I would be way past laughing at 69 jokes and making dull exposition commentary and even if they were so infantile then those scenes were trite to watch anyway. The whole subplot following the policeman around felt like it undermined the power of the villains and ended up coming to nothing except to hap-hazardly reveal that a past winning contestant is now involved in its production, perhaps indeed something for season 2.

normally the revolt against the makers of the death game starts way earlier, not after it's literally finished, and the big characters tend to start working together - and perhaps that would have resulted in a stronger finish with only one season, I was sorta disappointed after episode 7, that 101 & 212 got a death scene that was a little underwhelming while still in the death game (followed by Sae-byeok/Sang-woo) because it meant that they are setting up for season 2 rather than use the set of characters they spent time on here to finish it perhaps stronger and tighter in one sitting. Different last 3 episodes and the death game makers to not be so absurdly powerful so that there's avenues to revolt and it could have been an all-time great.

But I did very much enjoy it, so good on them.

Posted by: Doctor Blind 12th October 2021, 08:06 PM

"it's easier to imagine the end of the world than to imagine the end of capitalism"

I really enjoyed this, the whole production of the series is of a very high quality and beautifully made, and although the tension in some of the games is palpable (that penultimate game in particular!) and maybe some of the overiding themes are amplified to the point of extreme hyperbole, I was completely hooked throughout. I'm just trying to imagine some of the games that would have been played if it was set in the UK, probably British Bulldog or Musical Chairs

Anyway, yeah - loved it.

Posted by: dandy* 12th October 2021, 08:09 PM

Buzzjack Musical Squid Chairs: All members prance around the chairs and each time Dua Lipa stops singing one member will be shot if they don't get a chair.

I bet Kath would be out first after getting too irate that the host made Dua stop singing before it counted as a full stream.

Posted by: Doctor Blind 12th October 2021, 08:18 PM

If it was an Ed Sheeran song playing instead I think there'd be quite a few empty chairs..

Posted by: dandy* 12th October 2021, 08:22 PM

Oh no, we can't have Ed as that would mean Joseph would progress to episode two

Posted by: LMFan 13th October 2021, 04:18 PM

The most disturbing show I’ve ever seen I think but I couldn’t stop watchjnf

Posted by: Klumzee 13th October 2021, 04:25 PM

Watched it all the way through and loved! I think it is very good but not perfect, quite a lot of things I'd like to be cleared up or explained, and preferrably I think this would've worked better in one season rather than two. But thoroughly entertaining and particularly gripping between the characters in the game and the games themselves, not so keen on everything else surrounding the games, they went there but I wanted to see more and have more explained about how and why it came about.

Crazy coverage of social media though, can't think of another Netflix show that's taken the rest of the social media world this much!

Posted by: Cameron 13th October 2021, 04:46 PM

Loved this from the first 10 minutes.I did find the last episode a bit meh, but I really enjoyed every other part!

Posted by: Iz 💀 14th October 2021, 09:00 AM

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/10/13/north-south-korea-netflix-squid-game/

Hmm. For once, the juche have a point. If NK is extreme communism, SK is extreme capitalism and even the show points it out, Sae-byeok talks about escaping the North to try and find a better life, only that it was all a lie.

I'm still seeing commentary on this series regularly, it's insane. I think part of the reason of the continued coverage is because it's such a prominent, unsubtle anti-capitalism piece that's gotten everyone at least on Twitter (and probably on real-life talk idk I don't do real life) a chance to take baby steps into media analysis.

The other part I think is that people are coming up with reasons to try the games out, which like, casual discussion, cool stuff, I've had some fun thoughts about how British Bulldog would work under these conditions, but then you see Arab countries or influencers talk about making 'real-life Squid Game' and it's not hard to despair at people missing the point*.

*alternatively, these very rich people trying to distract the series fans with flashy spinoff entertainment which is v. ironic.

Posted by: LiamSime 14th October 2021, 03:49 PM

Just finished this yesterday, I absolutely loved it! My favourite show so far this year, gripped me from the start and I really hope it’s renewed for a second season!

Posted by: dandy* 14th October 2021, 04:08 PM

It definitely will be, the success has been insane. As long as the producers want to make another season then there will definitely be no chance of it being cancelled.

Posted by: Chez Wombat 17th October 2021, 10:23 PM

Finished this at last so can finally read this thread! Really loved it overall, it was a quieter ending than I expected but I liked that it tied up a lot of plotlines that were hanging and it was refreshing seeing a high concept sci-fi have a more subtle, human-focused ending I did always think there was something a bit weird about 001, and it was nice to see Sae Byeok's wishes fulfilled, she was really the heart of the show for me and I was gutted she died, although it had to come, as was the case with all of them!, seems like it will almost certainly get a second season if they want, the final scene did seem to be implying it.

Episode 6 was definitely the peak, that was a beautifully written and really emotional scenes. I do think the police officer infiltrating the junction wasn't as compelling and served as a distraction for the main plot for me especially as it ended underwhelmingly as we didn't get a chance to connect and understand the relationship between him and the Front Man, probably a case of too many characters

I can't quite believe it's success, I suppose South Korean cinema has been going through a golden period these last few years, so it was only a matter of time before their TV would cross over! It's great that they are producing such high quality work, but I do also hope it wakes people up to the issues it's discussing.

Posted by: Doctor Blind 18th October 2021, 07:32 AM

True, although if it starts a serious debate in wider society about UBI/UBS then it can't be a bad thing and I'm all for it. The Tories are still obsessed with how hard work is the route out of poverty, completely oblivious to the fact that around 40% of those on Universal Credit are in work!

I read an article discussing Squid Game with a slightly different take that summarised as: 'It’s not about winning or losing; it’s about finding pleasure in both working and living.' Something we should probably be able to do now in the 2020s.

Posted by: Bjork 21st October 2021, 08:28 AM

Love it too although I was a bit disappointed with the final episode and who had planned the whole thing, which made zero sense to me

Posted by: Lukuzz 21st October 2021, 09:20 AM

Was a brilliant series but yes I was also disappointed with the final episode

Posted by: Jamesy 25th October 2021, 01:07 PM

I’m still in love with the policeman.

Posted by: shadow2009 28th October 2021, 02:59 PM

It definitely peaked with the marbles episode.

To be honest I've been following alot of Reddit episode discussions and alot of people did predict that the old guy would be involved in everything so I did see the twist coming but the execution was very limp and underwhelming. It felt like the end of a Saw movie honestly. I also was a bit confused with his role in everything - did he come up with the whole game and create everything himself? Just because life is boring as a rich old person? Also it was very convenient for the plot that he wasn't in the losing team for Tug of War or he'd have died.

The side characters definitely made the show though. The girl who sacrificed herself for the other girl had me in tears.

Overall it was a really enjoyable show that definitely peaked in the middle (the first episode until Red Light, Green Light and the 2nd episode were a snooze) but I'm sort of numb to these 'games til the death' type shows and was really hoping there'd be a better twist.

(and the police officer was HOT AS f***)

Same here!! 'Clues that you missed that showed 001 was behind it' or something. So f***ing annoying. i'm sick of spoilers being plastered all over social media within a few weeks of a show being posted. Give people time to watch it!

Posted by: Brett-Butler 1st November 2021, 09:52 PM

A few people have spotted that on viewing the Tug-Of-War episode again, 001 was the only member of the team who was not padlocked to the rope, meaning that if worst came to worst, he would have been able to escape, leaving the rest of the team to fall to their death.