Squid Game

Class critique for babies, but not necessarily bad either. So before I say anything else, I’m just gonna say that I’ll likely spoil a couple things here and there, but I’ll do my best to keep this spoiler free. I also want to mention that, regardless of the tone I use, this is a good show and no one should feel bad for liking it.  Ok, and now onto actually taking about the show. The main thing to note here is that it’s not anywhere near an original concept for a show, especially as far as Asian media is concerned. It’s really simple and happens to have a decent few extra details sprinkled in there. That, and the conceit about children’s games and big prize money is actually somewhat interesting, but again not all that unique.  Most painfully obvious though is the class critique. It obviously wants to comment about capitalism turning the lower class into racehorses, with no regard for the actual lives of the subjects. Capitalism allows for anyone to succeed, but necessitates that most people will barely be able to live, and that a decent few people will struggle to live to such a degree that they’d willingly stake their lives on the possibility of not having to worry about money. It’s absolutely accurate, obviously exaggerated for the benefit of lay viewers, and is something that needs to be understood by more of the general public.  The sheer quantity of people who think that capitalism is fair and not dehumanizing is absolutely baffling and it’s good to see popular media such as this that really sheds light on it. Yeah there’s stuff like Snowpiercer, Parasite, and a million other pieces of media doing it better, but it’s still always nice to see a new one get popular.  Outside of thematic stuff, there’s tons to talk about as far as technical blunders in the show, with the main things being iffy writing, structural flaws, editing mistakes, and general VFX issues. The VFX stuff, while not that bad, does bring you out of the show a bit since it really likes it’s gore and it’s not openly going for a heightened reality like Tarantino might but rather looking for a halfway point between realistic and bat-shit wild. There’s also a lot of moments that don’t get paid off and just take time away from the story, where I wouldn’t call them red herrings since they didn’t have a trail to follow and they just took up screen time. Beyond that there’s a few moments where the editing was just bad, a few more where the logic broke, and more still where the writing becomes super corny. Granted, that last one might be fixed by the original language version, but for the purposes of this review I’m still complaining.  The dialogue isn’t the only thing I mean either, as there’s a lot of clear setups and payoffs that don’t feel how you’re clearly supposed to about them, as well as moments where I can’t fathom any dialogue fitting the scene well enough. But this luckily wasn’t constant and wasn’t enough to ruin the show, as goes for all the other complaints I mentioned.  At the end of the day, it’s not supposed to be high art, and that’s ok. It’s a high concept show with a wacky premise, a real message to send, and semi-decent technical ability. And before I get yelled at for it, yes the cinematography was good, but it felt like the heavily stylized production design did most of the heavy lifting and then wide angle lenses were used transparently for more important moments or in conjunction with slow-motion.  So it’s good, but not incredible. Check it out I guess. TL;DR - I binged this behind my roommates’ backs and am continuing to watch it with them while pretending that I haven’t seen it all... how long do I keep this up?