Squid Game

After hearing about all the hype and seeing it was one of the most watched series in the entire world I finally found time to watch Squid Game. I have to admit that I had fun watching it and was very entertained throughout the entire season. It's about hundreds of contestants (who are all down on their luck and need money) that are asked to play children's games for an shot at winning a lot of money, 45.6 billion won (about 33 million dollars). The only thing is these children games are now all deadly and the last contestant standing wins all the money. It will pull you into its world and before you know it you'll be hooked. It's a thriller with lots of twists and lots of violence. This is a show that will stay in your mind long after you watched it. I know it's already been renewed for another seasons so I hope they can keep the same magic they had for season one.

Just watched whole 9 episodes and my favorite was the 6th, Gganbu. Not perfect nor a masterpiece, but this is very well made and provides a certain level of emotional experience. The overall show was far beyond things that were shown in trailer. Very well directed, performed, and finding its own unique points from the genre mixture of various references such as Gambling Apocalypse : Kaiji, Battle Royale, and so on. Just hope all others enjoy this show not only in Korea but also everywhere!

Ps. Even to Korean ears, VIPs' English conversations were not well written nor performed. I think the drama could stand well enough without their presence and save the budget.

Seriously. All things considered, they're a pretty small and self-contained part. The main characters were brilliant in their roles. I guess good actors figured that having parts where they're wearing masks the whole time wouldn't get them much exposure. The pacing and character development were superb.

Comparisons to Season 1 are nonsensical. Season 1 was an original concept that stood and succeeded on its own, which cannot be the case for subsequent seasons.

The best thing about Season 2 is the acting. The cast is absolutely great! Where Squid Game 2 feels lacking, is in its refusal to resolve ANY of the multiple threads in this season. There are many ways to build suspense, but the laziest one is where you just refuse to answer any questions you raised for an entire seasons, leaving it to be addressed in Season 3. It is quite evident that the show is now a lot less interested in telling a satisfying story and more invested in stretching the franchise into a multi-season subscription-retention machine.

My God the actors who potrayed the VIP people cannot act. I cringed everytime they said a line. It felt like they were just reading them. Even the intonation was off. It was like when we were kids and had to read a play in class and we exagerated the intonation. Terrible, just awful.