Squid Game

[Ja'moke]

Anyone been watching this on Netflix?

Korean drama series about a bunch of people put into a life or death game for a monetary prize. I'm three episodes in and it's really good. An engrossing plot with great characters and a nice mix of violence and humour.

[TrenterPercenter]

Not started it yet but on my list!

[Poobum]

Agree it's good. On episode 5, things keep ramping up nicely. Good balance of characters and human drama, so everything has weight.

Spoiler alert

Thought the tug of war was excellently done, and proper harrowing

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[canted_angle_again]

I enjoyed this, it was pretty fun. Not as good as The School Nurse Files though.

[Consignia]

Already a thread going here: https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,89543.0.html

I'm liking it so far. Only 3 episodes in, I'll be finishing it over the next few weeks.

Not as good as The School Nurse Files though.

Got that on my to-watch list, how good is it?

[canted_angle_again]

It's so bizarre and genre bending (as you would expect from Korean shows). It's kinda a cross section of Buffy and Twin Peaks, but in an entirely Korean way. One episode will have your weirded out and well episode 5 had me in tears. That and The Uncanny Counter are what got me into Korean media. I love their shameless expression of emotion. A lot of the stuff is so refreshing because it's the antithesis of the cynicality that permeates western TV shows. The Boys being a prime example of this vicious almost self loathing that I wasn't aware of in western stuff until I noticed it's complete absence in Korean stuff.

[Poobum]

The VIP episode was fascinatingly bad.

Spoiler alert

Obviously a side effect of it being made for a Korean market, where how bad the English dialogue is and the really awkward delivery probably wasn't noticeable. But it was so bad, like they did one take and moved on bad. Also, it didn't add anything, except removing the mystery and adding the generic. Ending I'm still processing, but on the whole, short changing and bad.

[close]

[Gregory Torso]

I just watched this and uuurgh so much padding with shite... I really wish it had just focussed on the contestants and their relationships, because that was all great and the games were really tense and well-set up but fucking hellllllll everything else was totally unnecessary. This could easily have been 6 episodes instead of 9. The aforementioned

Spoiler alert

VIPS were so shit, like they'd been badly dubbed, with terrible dialogue that just cut into all of the tension of the glass stepping stone game

[close]

. And the last episode has a

Spoiler alert

ludicrous, pointless twist to it that not only completely undoes one of the hardest hitting emotional scenes in an earlier episode, but it doesn't make any fucking sense, and it goes on for ages, god it made me annoyed

[close]

. If you watch this, and I would recommend it for the performances of the contestants and how they bond with each other or fuck each other over, stop the last episode after about 20 minutes, because the last half an hour is bollocks. It just doesn't know when to end.

[Poobum]

Yeah the ending

Spoiler alert

is similar to my problem with Battle Royale films and the good Escape Room film, in that the arse falls out as soon as you leave the concept and head back to the real world, the momentum fizzles to nothing. Should have been written to end at the squid game. So many satisfying ways that would work.

[close]

.

[Better Midlands]

The VIP episode was fascinatingly bad.

Spoiler alert

Obviously a side effect of it being made for a Korean market, where how bad the English dialogue is and the really awkward delivery probably wasn't noticeable. But it was so bad, like they did one take and moved on bad. Also, it didn't add anything, except removing the mystery and adding the generic.

[close]

Reiterating what was on the other thread, it felt like

Spoiler alert

dialogue from a bad video game

[close]

.

[BeardFaceMan]

To call the pacing 'glacial' would be a huge understatement, far too much padding too, could've easily cut the runtime of this in half. The ending was total bollocks and those English actors were all acting for the first time after spending a lifetime in isolation and never hearing humans talk, yes? There was something good in there somewhere though, it was amazingly acted (by the non-English actors) and it looked fantastic, it was shot beautifully. Some nice gore and effects, too. Just a shame the good stuff was buried under so much nothingness.

[TrenterPercenter]

Ok watched 3 episode I like it but this "best series EVER on Netflix" is bollocks it's massively flawed in lots of ways but the sets and costumes are class!

[Ja'moke]

I loved the first six episodes, but yeah the VIPs in Episode 7 are really bad to the point where it takes you out of the show.

[bgmnts]

Loving the first episode so, got some big laughs out of me, but i'm gutted to read it's glacially paced, I hate that.

[BeardFaceMan]

The VIPs remind me of the English speaking people in the Hong Kong action flicks I watched in the 80s, theyre that level of bad, I'm actually amazed that they managed to get through the casting process for a professional Netflix production in 2021, they were awful.

[QDRPHNC]

My kid wants to watch this. Suitable for a 13 year old?

[Better Midlands]

My kid wants to watch this. Suitable for a 13 year old?

Depends, it's got a massive body count much like a Rambo film, I'd let my 13 year old watch it but YMMV.

[QDRPHNC]

He'll probably be fine then, he has a pretty high tolerance for this stuff. Thanks!

[bgmnts]

Episode 6 has just had me on the verge of tears, setting up Sang-woo as a proper cunt villain.

So i'm excited to get whiplash from the allegedly dreadful VIP stuff whatever that is.

[bgmnts]

Hoooooooooooooly
Shiiiiiiiiiiiit

Fucking howling.

[Chedney Honks]

Splatoon

[Butchers Blind]

I enjoyed this for the most part. Like everyone else, the arrival of the VIP's really took me out of it as up to that point it was all handled very well. The ending too could've been tackled better without that twist. Didn't make any sense really and took the emotional wallop out of the marbles episode.

[bgmnts]

Absolute stinker of an ending that has made me retroactively hate the show.

[Poobum]

Is amazing that they decided to

Spoiler alert

undo all of Gi-hun's character development by having him mope around and leave that kid in care for an extra year, before then deciding to abandon his family again. Also that they decided to destroy the emotional impact of Il-Nam dying by bringing him back to be the bad guy with an entire motivation of "got a bit bored dint I". Also that the thing with the cop and his brother basically being, "hey, host mask guy is the cops brother, weird that innit? Let's not do anything with that at all even though it seems perfectly set up".

[close]

[Cuellar]

There did seem to be a lot left unsaid, which is weird because it also seemed to drag on and on. Presumably with an eye on a second series,

Spoiler alert

it was nice of Gi-hun to give voice to the audience's unanswered questions right at the end, 'who are you people and why do you do what you do???' Yeah it would be interesting to know that, cheers. I guess we'll find out when Gi-hun goes BACK TO SQUID in ALL NEW SQUID GAME, Series 2!!!!

[close]

[Butchers Blind]

There did seem to be a lot left unsaid, which is weird because it also seemed to drag on and on. Presumably with an eye on a second series,

Spoiler alert

it was nice of Gi-hun to give voice to the audience's unanswered questions right at the end, 'who are you people and why do you do what you do???' Yeah it would be interesting to know that, cheers. I guess we'll find out when Gi-hun goes BACK TO SQUID in ALL NEW SQUID GAME, Series 2!!!!

[close]

Think I might have been happier if it was left unanswered. Just the tacit understanding that it's rich people fucking over the downtrodden for their own amusement.

[Ja'moke]

Squid Game meets Taskmaster: https://twitter.com/FrizFrizzle/status/1442250796029001731?s=20

[brat-sampson]

I read the black mask /

Spoiler alert

brother

[close]

reveal works better in Korea because that actor's an absolute megastar, and nobody expected him to be in it.

[Chairman Yang]

It really could have been two episodes long, just this miserable sarcastic drama with a violent dream sequence in the middle.

It goes up then down the way up then all the way into the fucking ground with stupid dyed hair to boot. Baffling

[Butchers Blind]

I've noticed there's been a bit of upset at how this has been translated into the English subtitles. The main concern being that it distorts the actual meaning of what the characters are saying.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-58787264