Review of Squid Game

This will be your thorough start-to-end review. I am going to mention that this series got right, and everything it got wrong. I am rating it a 5 overall. It's a solid 8 for the first 5 episodes, and just ONE star for the remaining episodes. You'll understand why.

And in advance, excuse me for my not-so-good English. (Im not native).

Overview: This series was a risk to take, the director knows that very well. It's very bloody, and the centerpiece of the plot deals with a rather sensitive idea. It was no problem because it was handled as it should be, not perfectly but, it was good and enjoyable, until it started falling apart and the bad outweighed the good.

The Good:

• The idea is great. If you have watched this series, you must have a faint idea about why this had so much buzz in such a short time. The whole concept of "Hunger Games" style, being played by the wealthy but not forced to do so, as well as the kids' game as their theme, did pretty well in the first episodes. It was fair, square, and it lived up to its own concept.

• There were stereotypical characters, and others really well-written, the entire cast is great, memorable, and there are characters who you would root for. All characters had a common thing between them, financial misery, and that money can solve all problems, yet they had some depth to them. It's not the best character writing but it sure did the job.

• The atmosphere was so great during the first 5 episodes, you can actually LIVE in the shoes of the characters, you can see what they see, you can feel it, you start actually relating to them. It's all great, it's what the series is meant to do.

• The acting for most characters was great, the dialogue is smart (I watched it in fan-subs, as the original subs didn't do it for me).

The Bad:

• The main character is kind of "stale" to me, it's not really someone I'd care about, he is a loser, and he is set out to be one all the series but he ends up winning just like that, he gets this psychological breakdown after he wins, but it just feels so not right. The main character is just wrong. I am pretty sure everyone shares the same opinion. It's not about the actor, but the director didn't really get so clever about managing his MC's façade it felt flat.

• It becomes predictable towards EP 6: You start wishing something unpredictable happens. Most characters just die during the 4th and 5th game, and there's not much to see after that.

• It deviates from its concept: Kids game, right? That's what made the first 4 games great, as soon as they deviated from that logic, it started feeling like a different series, ones we didn't sign up for, nor did we want.

The Ugly:

• Remember the policeman who played spy to look for his brother? Such a really long side-plot for what? We watched him infiltrate the island but for what? He gets shot off by his own brother, nothing happens afterwards. We sure haven't seen him die but something about the entire side plot should've happened during the first season because it took a lot of screentime of the FIRST season. Simply leaving it for a second season after it took so much time from the first season is just ridiculous and kind of greedy. Also, being shot by his own brother is really cliché.

• VIPs: This is a grand "kek", they were just very bad and a pain to watch. Nothing about them really adds anything to the series, they had so much potential, and the air of mystery about them faded away poorly as soon as they started talking nonsense. I get the director wanted us to hate them, but this bittered the drink
• Nothing gets resolved: This is the big downside of the entire series: So WHAT. They want to enforce the fact the money doesn't buy happiness, it does buy happiness. But that's not the point, because the contestants CHOSE to partake in the blood fest. Yet somehow the MC kept whining and whining seeing people die. What the hell? You signed up for it, you get what you wished for, lolz.

• Last game is a buzzkill: They should've come up with a better 1 on 1 game. It was already a big let-down when they killed off the girl like that, but seriously? Suicide? After all he went through ? So freaking stupid.

The last 3 episodes just killed a lot of braincells in my head. It felt like the director and the writers just turned the switch of thinking in their brain OFF. I couldn't help but feel so bad for not just skipping to the end of the last episode.

All in all, it was fun to start with, and kind of an ultimate disappointment in the end. But it's still good, totally worth your time but no way in hell does it come close to the best 100 series ever.