- Released: 17 September 2021
- Amount of seasons: 1
- Seasons watched: 1
- Rating: 4/5
Synopsis
Over 450 poor people are brought to a remote island to play (deadly) children's games and compete for a huge sum of prize money.
My Thoughts
This wasn't even a series I intended to watch, but I saw the hype and apparently I'm not immune to it. I somehow managed to avoid most spoilers regarding this show, and I'm honestly glad I did. The twists and turns it takes are quite unexpected.
Did I like it? Yes. A lot, actually. The acting was phenomenal, I loved the concept and execution (for the most part) and the characters were great once established properly.
I also really liked our lead. He does do some morally questionable stuff (betting despite having huge debts, punching his daughter's step-father), but he is not morally reprehensible, nor does he become so throughout these games like I expected him to. He genuinely cares about other people, even his fellow contestants, and is willing to partner with them even if they might limit his chances of making it to the next game. He bonds with Sae-byeok, he continuously looks out for the old man, he's nice to Ali and others. He does end up taking advantage of the old man's dementia, but I don't really fault him since everyone's lifes is on the line. I actually really wanted him (and some others) to succeed.
The other characters were great too. My favorites being Ali and Mi-nyeo (no, I didn't find her annoying). I also really cared for the old man (with some notes about him later on in this review and Sae-byeok. The only one I really and I mean really grew to dislike aside from the obviously villain Deok-su was Sang-woo, who despite keeping up friendly appearances with everyone continuously screws people over in favor of himself. I probably wouldn't even be so angry at him if he was honest about it, but nope, he's constantly trying to act like it's the best for the "team" while putting himself in the most favorable position in the end. He is also the result of my favorite character dying (Ali).
The concept of the games was also something I just was really into. I'm quite the fan of tournament arcs (I ate up stuff like Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire at a younger age, before the TERFening) and obviously having this one with everyone's life on the line was very engaging. I also liked how it wasn't people actively trying to kill one another, like in the Hunger Games, but rather just Korean child's games with a deadly twist.
Overall I really loved the series and everything that happened in it. Until about the final episode. Most of it was great, seeing Gi-hun after he's won and how he feels incredibly guilty for being the only survivor, to the point he's even refusing to spend any of his prize money. When he gets a mysterious card from someone affiliated with the Squid Game, he finally ends up meeting up with the guy behind it all. The twist: it's Oh Il-nam. AKA the old man who has been participating in the games since the start and thought to have died. The guy who Gi-hun supported nearly always. Yep, he's the big guy behind it all.
A twist villain. This isn't even a modern Disney movie. Did it shock me? Yes? Does it work? Eh, I'm not quite sure. I'm not outright dismissive of this twist like I've seen some people been, but I don't think it works for me personally. We grow really attached to the character of "the old man" (I'm just going to refer to him as that before the twist reveal). He is such a sympathetic person and now it turns out he was lying all the time. Yes, it's good that he's trying to help poor people and that they can leave if they don't want to be there, but the way he goes about it is absolutely fucked up. He's basically having it be entertainment for him and a bunch of other rich capitalists.
What's to stop him from adding more positivity to his life by just giving away his money to poor people in even portions rather than having them compete in the Games of Death? Why did he have to build up this (nearly entirely) fake personality of the "old man"? He literally seems to do it for fun only and nothing else. And what if his team would've lost in stuff like the rope-pulling game? How would they have saved him without it being obvious that he doesn't have an advantage over others?
I don't know, I get that they wanted this to be a shocking reveal and maybe with more finetuning this could've worked, but the current execution kind of drags the show down for me. Doesn't ruin the show for me, but it does add a bit of a sour note to the last episode.
There's two more things that didn't really work for me. First: the police officer subplot. It never really went anywhere. The cop dies and despite having called for re-enforcements they don't show up (in this season at least). You'd also expect there to be more info about his brother he was looking for but it didn't really happen. The Front Man is revealed to be the cop's lost brother (a twist I saw coming from a mile away, btw) and then after he kills the cop the show just kind of moves on.
Then there's the final scene. At first, I liked where things were going after the "old man"-reveal. Gi-hun is now properly motivated and no longer burdened by guilt, and he starts upholding his promise to look after the families of the people he befriended at the game. He turns over a new leaf and is finally about to see his daughter, who has moved to the USA with her mother and step-family. Things are looking up. Then Gi-hun discovers that the Squid Game is still going on and last minute, instead of boarding the plane and going to see his daughter, decides that it's his mission to stop the Squid Game for good.
Heroic, that's to be sure, but I don't know, it didn't quite work for me. Gi-hun seemed so determined to turn over a new leaf and see his daughter again, but then really last minute he just makes this rushed decision. It also doesn't really finish his character arc. The series just finishes with him determined to put a stop to the games, nothing more.
Which begs the question for season 2. Will we get more of his story? Or would it rather be an anthology of Squid Games with a new cast of characters and new games each season? I'm not quite sure what I'd prefer, but for now I'm leaning towards the latter. This is a pretty good format for an anthology like that, but I do get it if they want to continue Gi-hun's story where he left off. Honestly, if he'd just boarded that plane and we'd have gotten an anthology next season, I think I'd have been most content. But Gi-hun's decided to fight back, so I guess that's what we'll be touching on if we do get multiple seasons. And that's an if. I don't trust Netflix to 100% produce second seasons anymore after cancelling Tuca & Bertie and The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance like that.
So yeah, I do have a few gripes with this show, particularly in the last few episodes, but it's still really, really good. I definitely recommend it.
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