Squid Game

Went into this thinking I was getting a Korean capitalist take on Saw (and I kinda did), but I mostly got a more violent Rat Race. And I don't hate it! It's definitely hard to reduce this down to a single score, as there's a lot to like and a lot of flaws. What I liked: - A visual treat. The games are a great spectacle, and the costumes and set pieces overall are very unique. - The performances are strong all around - you hate the villains and love the (flawed) protagonists. - Great ending! Some of the flaws: - Seong's introduction as a childish deadbeat dad makes him hard to like at first. Once he begins the game, that whole storyline is basically dropped and we're meant to root for him, which took me a while to warm up to. - Related, a lot of the smaller story arcs end up going nowhere or getting dropped. - There's a few cheap emotional twists that don't feel earned. To their credit, I cared about the characters enough to be sad when people I liked died, but I felt like some of the twists came off as predictable, a tad contrived, and emotionally manipulative. There's definitely the setup for a season 2, though I don't think I want it. I could see it falling into the trap of subjecting the protagonists to endless trauma, which can be exhausting to watch and makes the characters more stoic and one-dimensional. Despite its flaws I really liked it!