There's a scene where the protagonist is playing russian roulette with one of the bad guys and when he's down to the last two chambers (they don't spin the gun) the bad guys says "Yeah you could just shoot me, but then you'd just be like all the rest, a piece of trash. You just got lucky." and then to prove a point Mr. Squid Game doesn't just shoot the other guy, but instead takes the 1:2 chance and makes it. Then he passes the gun to the other guy.
When the villain had that monologue I was so ready for the protagonist to go "yeah I did just get lucky, what are you even going on about? I know I'm not special." and then shoot him or something.
How many netflix failsons were allowed to give notes on this?
I have zero interest in watching another season of this. Can nothing just be a good miniseries anymore? Gotta run everything good into the ground until it sucks?
It’s the Netflix paradox lol. Good shit with an ongoing narrative gets cancelled after one season, stuff that should have been a one and done or maybe two seasons gets dragged out for years (see also: stranger things)
There's a lot of that.
They did, to be fair, let Maniac and Beef stand on their own, but Jesus stranger things should have ended after s1.
EDIT: but goddamnit I just remembered they canceled The OA. Fuck Netflix man
EDIT 2: Beef is getting a second season apparently, but it is at least not a sequel
An exception to that rule might have been Bojack Horseman. It had a great ending after multiple seasons and resolved itself very nicely. IMHO, it might be the greatest show Netflix ever produced.
Generally speaking, you're right though. It doesn't just apply to Netflix, but almost every Television series. On the other side of the spectrum shows' greatnesses are realized long after they're canceled due to poor marketing, like Inside Job.
EDIT: small grammar change.
You know, I tried multiple times to get into Bojack and it never landed for me. It seems like it should be extremely my shit. Maybe I should give it another go one day.
The first season is it finding itself, I struggled with it too but after that it's pretty great
Did inside job get cancelled? Noo
Edit: just realised i got mixed up between inside job and inside man, ngl i dont care that much about inside job getting cancelled
The original creator made very little money on the first season, Netflix made it all. I believe the creator said they had no real interest in making a second season originally but wanted something to show for the show’s success.
Ugh I have mixed feelings. He does deserve to be compensated, so I'm glad he was at least able to get some cash out of Netflix for a second season.
I completely and utterly agree with your mini-series sentiment. I don't even begin to watch shows that aren't already finished.
Do you think Squid Games S1 can be watched as a stand-alone or does it lean too heavily into continuing?
First season is totally fine standalone, that’s what it was intended to be in the first place
Thanks! That's perfect to know that was the intent. I'll definitely torrent it then.
I think it's 100% fine on its own. There's a little "hey wink wink nudge nudge, maybe you could give us another season" at the end, but not every story ends with every loose end neatly tied up anyways.
Yes everything has to be wrung out. What we do in the shadows ended recently and as soon as it ended there were calls to keep it going: "It was still good!"
The (american) industry does not understand getting out while the gettings' good. This isn't even a capitalism thing, it's an american capitalism thing.They cancel the good stuff that needs new seasons and drag out the stuff that should have ended
Before what we do in the shadows the last show I saw that ended on a high note was probably Better Call Saul and that's been a few years. On the other hand I just found out Archer didn't end when he got in that coma. It's still going on. The Simpsons is older than my adult nephew
I honestly can't imagine how a squid game season 2 could be good. The first one was a unique flash in the pan. You can't just do it again and if you do anything else in the same world it's just gonna become some action cop shit. Has anyone seen the rest of it? Am I somehow wrong without spoiling it for people who do wanna watch it?
I watched all of season 2. It's basically a complete rehash of season 1, down to the thematic beats and all. Some new games and characters try to fool the viewer, but there's not much novel substance to it and it ends on a cliffhanger.
I haven't seen Squid Games and you didn't spoil anything so far. Is S1 made in such a way it can be watched as a mini-series?
It was initially conceptualized as a one and done story and has a half assed cliffhanger at the very end of the last episode where the protagonist is getting on a plane and decides to instead remain and fight back or something. There are no other hanging threads and everything else is wrapped up.
I felt the same way during the roulette scene. It was such a perfect opportunity for the MC to shrug off the explanation of luck but they just lean into it. I think the justification was to put the other guy on the spot so that he had to abide by the rules of his game, but then that also just waves off his behavior as ideological rather than opportunistic. The recruiter is just a poor who adapted rise n grind culture as deeply held values to the point where those values actually govern events. In real life those people are just riding a wave, they're getting lucky, their principles don't actually cause things to happen.
I didn't much like the bread or lottery scene either. The poors kept choosing lottery, which I understand what they're going for. They choose lottery because they're given false hope of a rigged game (Just like Squid Game!) but it also comes across as "look at all the irresponsible people. If they chose bread they would be better off." There's a very fine line between showing a class ravaged by greed and false hope and then condemning people for being naive dupes.
It's funny you mention the bread & lottery scene because I disliked it initially, but have come to enjoy it as a nice piece of characterisation. I think I was apprehensive about the show, so anything that could be read negatively was.
But another reading is that the recruiter guy is copying his masters to validate himself. He needs to feel that he is in control and above "the trash". The bread & lottery was just something he did, it was unrelated to his job. Of course most people would pick a lottery ticket unless you're literally starving you're not gonna go for a cheap, shitty, potentially poisonous (too old or other stuff) snack, you're gonna go for something that has a pretty decent chance of being worth 5$. But the recruiter feels like his half-assed copy of the games proves something, makes him less alienated. That's why the "dog" comment gets to him.I didn't mind that the recruiter shot himself, but I really minded that the show felt the need to establish the protagonist as being "special". I feel like him struggling with the fact that he just got lucky was a large part of the ending of the original.
On the positive side there's a trans character and it's apparently done pretty well. So well that even redditors manage to not misgender her
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On the other hand, I did think it was prescient that the lines "The game will not end until society changes" and "You think you can end the game with a pistol?" came just a month after the Luigi Incident
I'm a few eps in, I'm pleasantly surprised how it's only a bit worse than S1 not complete sell out cash-grab(only slightly)
Here's my quick spoiler-light S2E2 'review'(a paragraph of thoughts);
spoiler
Not too bad, the anti-capitalism becomes even more blunt and in your face, some ok anti-cryptocurrency stuff, and the series first (that I know of)trans character who looks to be one of the main 'players' going forward
Obvious plot hole, the guns from the first game('Red light, green light') that were clearly supposed to be automated when shown previously in S1( the doll cameras tracking movement , the gun barrels moving 'robotically') are now controlled by human snipers; it's just a 'dramatic' way to re-introduce a S1 character as one of the masked (wo)men, imo this was a bad decision as what made that game scary is the impersonal nature of the doll tracking any-movement during a 'red light' and instantaneously executing disqualified players with no way to reason with it, and there're a thousand other ways they could have re-introduced that person, some of which would be more impactful
EDit: Just finished the season the ending is bullshit just cliff-hanger setup for the next season, leaves a bad taste in my mouth about the rest tbh, especially the boat guys plot which had basically no movement over the whole series
Was she in season 1? I thought she was a new character with a similar background to another character. She's a North Korean defector who still has family in the DPRK trying to smuggle them into Occupied Korea. Still thought it was a nice plot twist that we assumed she'd be recruited as a player for the games, but it turns out she's a guard who enthusiastically participates in murdering people.
You're actually right it's a new character with essentially the same backstory(mother rather than brother she's trying to rescue/traffic), I stand by my point that they could have shown she was a mask rather than player without damaging the impact of the first game
Thank you for the review, that's exactly the sort of response I was hoping for
Nah if in watching slop I'll be watching the new hundred years of solitude adaptation
I liked season 2, but I could just be too treat brained. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Season 3 will be the final season and they filmed it back-to-back with season 2. The showrunner said he only wanted to do 10 episodes or so, but found himself creating a lot of additional material, enough for the 15ish episodes we're seeing. Season 3 is already done filming and is in post-production right now, so we may even see a spring 2025 release.
Season 2 ends with a revolution of trying to overthrow the game creators once and for all, with additional help on the way from outside the game. Some of it is repetitive with similar characters and story beats, but I think that's just going to happen when you have hundreds of people, they will share similar stories. I thought they had some great plot twists this season and avoided the low-hanging fruit (like having the mother-son duo pitted against one another).
Overall, it looks like this main storyline in Korea will be wrapped up in a satisfying conclusion. Netflix wants to do spin-offs, but I can just ignore those. There's talk of doing an American remake. I don't think it would be as successful because we already know what's going to happen.
Nothing wrong with enjoying a treat. I was curious wether this was an enjoyable treat after watching episode one and I wanted to know wether I was gonna be left feeling like it was a waste. Sounds like it won't be.
I'd love an american season made by some failson nepobaby. Gonna love some good old American exceptionalism with poor aesthetics. Maybe they can get the people who made live action avatar the last airbender to do it.
Or Dumb & Dumber after they're done fucking up 3 Body Problem (I've only seen some clips. Haven't watched the whole thing). Zack Snyder also works a lot with Netflix. Maybe they can all do a collab and blow $800 billion on the project.
At least Doofus and Dookie have shown they can do an adaptation as long as the original creator is there to handhold them alongside the original work (finish the goddamn books Martin, Master of Orion cannot be that good)
Some Korean musician that's really popular. He's the guy with dyed hair who pushes people in the first episode during Red Light Green Light. His character is hilarious and a great villain. Between his drug-fueled party behavior during life or death situations and random sentences in English that are usually "Yeah boooooy that's my fuckin' bro right there!" I thought he was funny while still being terrifying.
