Squid Game

I liked it but I wouldn't blame anyone here for not, its very Korean, even moreso then the first season. I think part of the complaint is the dubbing for some characters this season was atrocious. I always swap from dubbed to Korean half way through the first episode of any Korean show, and it was really bad this time. Watching this in Korean made it far better.

The tranny? Yea IRL thats a dude so it was literally a dude in a wig and his real voice is super obvious, which the dubbing fucks up, so it creates sort of a humorous situation where everyone knows and does their best "Korean Polite", except for the Grandma who is super non PC lmao. They are all dismissive of him/her, yea he was in the Special Forces at one point so can competently use a gun but its not like they are hero character.

Granny telling her son no, would have happened exactly like that IRL. You do NOT disrespect your mother there.

The abortion stuff is interesting actually, it was only recently decriminalized (however happened regularly even though "illegal"), so it being talked about in the show is kind of a Korean thing atm.

The Korean relationship with Christianity its extremely complicated. The creator of this clearly is at odds with it. The extremism of it there makes Evangelicals look atheist. The drugs being in the cross and that character generally I think something was lost in editing, he shouldn't have had that cross at all so they let him keep it and knew what was in it, I guess so he would get people killed but it didn't really work. "Thanos" was not supposed to replace the Gangster, he was more of levity character I think? He didnt work. Personally I think each drug was supposed to help him win each game (see how perfect he was at Red Light Green Light) but they abandoned that at some point during filming and just made it molly.

Anyways I can go on, but I get it, its not as good as S1, and its effectively half a season, but there was a good amount I liked personally.

001 joining was obvious but interesting. I am not sure he did to keep 456 contained (didnt appear to at all), or because he is disillusioned and the Old Man last season told him that he had a ton of fun playing with 456.
I liked the inter round voting, more obvious to differentiate sides, the Thug from S1 was good but just doing that again would have been a mistake
I was really hoping everyone would have made it through the first game, so they still didnt totally believe 456. The way they filmed it so it focused on the video floor was fantastic, I was rootin for em.
I liked the third game but was hoping they were going to cap it at 1 a room to crank the drama
The first episode may have been the best one in the series, it was extremely well done.
I REALLY liekd the focus on the Triangle, showing they are as down as out as the players IRL. Also that they are generally no more competent then any player and the whole Game is built on lies.

I dunno, I really did flat enjoy myself watching it I was worried it would just be into->game->leave->game_> and so on and they really switched it up. They clearly had more money this season and used it, and I am curious how they will end it. Its just as likely that they kill off Seong in the last episode or have him kill off The Front Man. I think the creator isnt thrilled his show got so big, some stuff this season just feels mean and the negative effects of Capitalism is lost when one of the biggest companies on the planet is paying for your dream to be on screen. Creates an interesting dyanic between art and artist and he clearly sees himself as Seong trying to fight back against the system, but no matter how much his message gets out it goes unheard like they ignore the character.

Characters outside of 456 and 001 are pathetic. I like the cop guy too but he's hardly in it.

The big ugly tranny is just ridiculous. It's like the tranny in bachelor party just blatantly obvious.

The rest of the cast is a mix of freaks and geeks with no substance. Certainly no emotional deaths like in S1. S1 had a lot more tension and drama. This one I had to skip through a lot of boring parts like the votes to stop or go on.

Cad said:

I really can't imagine watching any foreign shows dubbed. Completely ruins it.

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Yea I am the same way, I will flip back to dubbed to see how they make some characters sound but I woulda been beyond irritated trying to watch this dubbed this season.

Did they really end it on a cliffhanger?

I thought there would be like 3 more episodes or something.

Aazrael said:

Did they really end it on a cliffhanger?

I thought there would be like 3 more episodes or something.

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Yeah that was pretty pathetic. 7 episodes and no resolution. It's like they split the season in half for no reason. And they wasted the first 3 episodes setting up the games. Very weak compared to the first season. And it felt like the whole season was about setting the stupid transexual up to be a hero. Like everyone else involved in the coup dies except shim.

I wish I remember why we watched the first season. What was the draw?

I turned the first episode of season two on and it couldn't even hold my attention. The acting and dialogue seem atrocious. It felt like they were relying on me having some sort of connection to the main character of season one (and the cop who got shot, who I remember even less) but not only do I barely remember him, whatever the fuck he's up to is completely uninteresting.

Feels like Squid Game was only successful the first go around because of the word of mouth and novelty of it, and there's literally no reason for this second season to exist.

Gravel said:

I wish I remember why we watched the first season. What was the draw?

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Ultraviolence.

It was sort of a modern day Clockwork Orange. Although that had ultraviolet rapes and tons of female nudity too.

Gravel said:

I wish I remember why we watched the first season. What was the draw?

I turned the first episode of season two on and it couldn't even hold my attention. The acting and dialogue seem atrocious. It felt like they were relying on me having some sort of connection to the main character of season one (and the cop who got shot, who I remember even less) but not only do I barely remember him, whatever the fuck he's up to is completely uninteresting.

Feels like Squid Game was only successful the first go around because of the word of mouth and novelty of it, and there's literally no reason for this second season to exist.

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The unexpected. Nobody thought people were going to actually get killed in Redlight/Greenlight. It was the "games". It was not a coliseum with gladiators. After that, I wanted to know what other kinds of games existed and how the players were going to cope with this dire situation.

Dr.Retarded said:

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Creator Hwang Dong-hyuk planned Seasons 2 and 3 as one story but split them to avoid too many episodes. They already shot all episodes, and the decision to split the seasons seems to follow Netflix’s trend of shorter seasons to stretch out popular shows and keep subscribers interested longer. Squid Game Season 3 is set to premiere on June 27, 2025, so we won’t have to wait too long for it. Personally, I would have preferred one longer season.

Dr.Retarded said:

I'm going to wait and watch it I guess when the finale comes out. Probably ought to just rewatch the first season, because it's been a while.

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Yeah, I'd recommend waiting until June and watching it all as one season instead.

Dr.Retarded said:

I'm going to wait and watch it I guess when the finale comes out. Probably ought to just rewatch the first season, because it's been a while.

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Yeah it ends in the most retarded way possible in the middle of the biggest action scene with zero resolution on a stupid cliffhanger.

binged through season 2, fuck netflix for splitting this into 2 seasons. This was half a season. Don't watch if you are reading this, wait until season 3 drops in June and get a full story.

Its just not that interesting in season 2, season 1 had a lot of interesting ideas about capitalism, unfettered greed, what motivates people, healthcare, what debt/poverty does to you, how we treat each other, how the rich fuck with people, how we disappoint those we love, what the effects of your fuck-ups have on those you love, what real indifference looks like, etc.

season 2 doesn't really have any big ideas, just violence writ large and the story of a moron who has unbelievable plot armor and luck/pluck. The more and more you see the less believable the world they make feels.

I did enjoy the actual games being played out but that was like 45 mins of 7 hours, so the ratios are bad.

spronk said:

binged through season 2, fuck netflix for splitting this into 2 seasons. This was half a season. Don't watch if you are reading this, wait until season 3 drops in June and get a full story.

Its just not that interesting in season 2, season 1 had a lot of interesting ideas about capitalism, unfettered greed, what motivates people, healthcare, what debt/poverty does to you, how we treat each other, how the rich fuck with people, how we disappoint those we love, what the effects of your fuck-ups have on those you love, what real indifference looks like, etc.

season 2 doesn't really have any big ideas, just violence writ large and the story of a moron who has unbelievable plot armor and luck/pluck. The more and more you see the less believable the world they make feels.

I did enjoy the actual games being played out but that was like 45 mins of 7 hours, so the ratios are bad.

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I can't believe how much time they wasted with the stupid vote counts. As if anyone would ever be interested in that. They acted like they were pivotal moments for the story but it was a total waste of screen time. Thank goodness for the fast forward button. If I was watching this live I would have turned it off after the second vote count.