TV Show review: Squid Game (2021)

Yo. I've dragged my crusty ass back to the computer yet again to review a series I checked out recently. One that I'm sure a lot of you have also watched, since the internet has been collectively joining hands to suck the dick of this show and sing it's praise. It's called Squid Game, Netflix's lately original series to their platform. Squid Game is a Korean survival drama series created by Hwang Dong-hyuk, and while it was just released he has been trying to create it since the late 2000's. It has been compared to other shows and forms of media, such as Alice in Borderland, Battle Royale and several manga's and light novels. So, I'm sure some people would wonder if it's worth checking out, or if it is just going to be generic survival show.

Well, I'm here to say "God damn it, you son of a bitch, I liked the show pretty well. Pussy."

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The concept of the show is a pretty fun one, and I would say it's pretty fresh in terms of what it has been compared to. The show is centered around a group of 456 people all competing for a grand prize of potentially millions of dollars, by playing childrens games to determine the ultimate winner. With the consequence of losing being death. Obviously, that sounds similar to other things like I previously mentioned, but, it was done very well in this series and I enjoyed my time speedrunning the episodes. The core concept never got boring or old for me while watching, I was always interested in watching and seeing what new games they would incorporate into each episode to play.

Which was a bit surprising to me, I figured after a few of the games I'd get kinda bored with it. I mean, how many times can you watch a group of people play checkers with the loser dying before it gets lame? Well, turns out that kind of shit must take awhile, I guess. Probably because for the most part it has great acting for everything, though it does have some missteps at a certain point, and you get interested in a fair amount of characters hoping that they'll win their games while praying for others to get thrown into a pit of legos to drown while stabbing their feet constantly. You know, as one does. But, yeah. I should also probably mention here that you realllllly need to watch this show with the subs on and not the dubs. The dubbed version is really shitty, and it doesn't translate very well and just comes off too goofy to take seriously.

My favorite part of the series is that the narrative and dialogue flesh out the characters really well, and you very quickly realize that pretty much every single person in the show is a flawed, fucked up human being, and no one playing the game is there because they're a good guy. They're literally only there because they want some god damn money. But, later on it becomes more of a what will this corrupt person do to survive, and how far will they go? The show definitely doesn't try to be this profound thing about redemption like you'd typically expect. I definitely don't think this could have been done so well without some really great acting, and thankfully there's tons of it here to watch.

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Okay. So, now, I'm gonna talk about some spoiler stuff here. So, just stop reading here if you don't want it to be ruined, babybois. My biggest issue with the show is that the quality has a large drop off several episodes in. Towards the last third of the episodes, there is a big tonal shift and the story kind of changes in how it's going. You go from trying to piece things together yourself through this big mysterious thing, to lets get spoon fed exposition and have all the answers just shoved down our throat because fuck it, why not. It gets super goofy in the later episodes and just feels very out of place.

They introduce some background characters that are played by a mix of people, but, mostly american actors. And, while they're background characters, they play a big part in the narrative of the show. But, the issue is is that they're kind of doodoo butt butter. I honestly don't understand why they were introduced or brought in, because they don't serve any good purpose to the series beyond just ruining it a bit with bad acting and making the narrative goofy. You get all the answers in these last episodes, of who is responsible for the games and what the purpose is and just everything. And, it just seemed like a bad choice, especially because the ending basically shows that they want to make more seasons in the future.

And, now there is no mystery or intrigue to any future releases. Because they just shat everything out onto the screen for you to learn. It just seems like a weird decision for the showrunners, because they basically just changed the show entirely in the last half. And, I think it would have been better to save these answers for the future to give people more interest in the show. But, maybe there will be another big tonal shift in the future and the show will just become entirely something else for all I know. I guess only time will tell. It isn't bad enough to ruin the show, because there's still lots of good elements from the first half in the second half. But, yeah. It does dip in quality a fair amount.

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But, I'm gonna stop there with spoilers. Overall, I would recommend the show. It has a pretty good narrative that gets bogged down, but there's still enough there to be fun and interesting. The acting is fucking solid and is what helps sell the entirety of the story. The games themselves are always interesting and different enough from one another to keep your attention where you don't feel bored, and the first 3/4ths of the show keep a mysterious feeling to the tone that is really nice. Again, the last quarter of the episodes does dip down and suck a bit of ass. But, they're still very decent and worth watching to finish it out. Definitely check the show out if you haven't yet.

But, yeah. Until next time, I guess, doods.

Later!