Squid Game

I occasionally like to branch out and watch some stuff from other cultures. I like to see what's out there. I think it's good to see other people's takes on movies and TV that you're not as familiar with. I wouldn't say I always love what I end up watching, but I think it's still a nice thing to occasionally do. The various Netflix shows from other countries tends to be a well I've returned to a couple times when I'm feeling that itch. Dark continues to be the gold standard for that sort of thing. But I did like the first season of Squid Game when I watched it a couple years ago.

I was surprised when I heard it was getting more seasons. Not in the business sense. It made money hand over fist so obviously there was gonna be more. Even though it ended really conclusively. When I finished season 1, I was satisfied. It told a complete story. In fact, I wouldn't be remotely surprised if you told me the original idea was just a movie. It's fairly succinct. But no, we gotta have more. And here's my real issue with seasons 2 and 3. What did we get out of it that we didn't get out of season 1? What new ground did we cover? By my reckoning, precious little. Squid Game is not a subtle show. But it's not trying to be. It's silly and over the top. It's a criticism of capitalism writ large. In season 1, Gi-hun wins. The kicker of it being that nothing has really been changed. Il-nam dies, but the games continue and Gi-hun winning does nothing to put a stop to it. There's a center of humanity there. Gi-hun is largely a dopey guy, and he obviously has plenty of trouble with money. But at his heart he's good and that's largely why he wins in the end. It's a nice story. The Squid Games are too large and systemic for Gi-hun to do anything about, but occasionally with luck and by simply being kind, you can make it out.

Fast-forwarding to seasons 2 and 3, what are we doing. Well, Gi-hun now wants to take down the whole system. It's doomed of course, because as we went over in season 1, the system is too large to be stopped. The one thing I'll grant season 3 is I like Gi-hun's send-off. I like that we can personally say to the Frontman that you're wrong, humans can be good. I've proven it. Gi-hun had long since lost hope that anything of real note was going to happen to this place after the failure of the revolution. But it's a nice little personal triumph. Again though, how does this notably differ from the lessons we took away from season 1? We're still covering the same topics.

An additional note of disappointment I have with season 2 and 3 is the Boat Boys. This desperately needed to get cut. Fully remove 3/4 of the scenes with these guys and nothing of value would be lost. Ope, they're not on this island. Ope, not this one either. Oop, nope, not this one. And that goes on for like hours. It's a real black mark on the latter seasons. Pretty much any time we cut away from the games themselves is a misstep in my opinion.

Hyun-ju was my fave newbie from the latter seasons. I think in general, we had stronger ideas going on for our fellow game folks in season 1, but she was a very bright spot from the new batch. Loved her.

My overall takeaway is that season 1 is not as revolutionary as its huge success would indicate, but Squid Game is worth your time. The latter two seasons notably less so. It's not that I'd say they're outright bad, rather they're just not necessary. They don't do enough to justify their existence.