Squid Game: Am I Missing Something?

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greeneyes

Lifer
Jun 5, 2018
2,126
12,193
The absurdly over-the-top over-acting made it painful to watch. Every scene was a boorish situational gag with actors whose tone bordered on grotesque caricature. The apparent hype propagated on social media to portray this as the "next big thing" is incompatible with the actual product.
 

username

Lifer
Dec 24, 2014
2,084
14,237
Tucson Az
I really liked it and want to check out Alice in borderland. Apparently that has a comic that the show is based on. I watched squid game in Korean with English subs.
 
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Reactions: hoosierpipeguy
Mar 1, 2014
3,646
4,916
If you haven't heard about Squid Game yet, it's a global phenomenon that's on Netflix right now. It is number 1 in something like every country you can get Netflix. Its always mentioned on the news, the cast was on The Tonight Show, and it dominates Netflix when I log in.

I watched a few moments of the preview, and well, I didn't find it appealing at all. I'd rather read at night.

Anyone else not riding the Squid Game train or is it just me?
Squid Game is popular firstly because it's shocking, and secondly because the entire theme of the show is people who are habitually in debt, which means the average person feels deeply empathetic toward the cast of halfwit gambling addicted characters.
 
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brian64

Lifer
Jan 31, 2011
9,604
14,672
Aug 1, 2012
4,587
5,131
grandma2.jpg
 

beezer

Part of the Furniture Now
Jul 12, 2013
618
743
I've been watching it here and there with my wife who is Korean. It's certainly unique and my wife enjoys the weaving in of traditional Korean games that she used to play as a kid, though the plot is rather disturbing. The Korean acting is good, but there's been widespread criticism over the American actors who enter in at the later episodes. I've been listening to the Korean version with the English subtitles...those who have watched the dub over in English might find all of the acting bad who knows.
 

greeneyes

Lifer
Jun 5, 2018
2,126
12,193
There's no novelty here. After the "poignant" commentary on Capitalism by the (surprise! Korean!) film Parasite, this was a predictable and uninspired spin-off. And before Parasite there was Snowpiercer, another commentary on Capitalism and the wealthy elite.

I'm all for intelligent and thoughtful commentary of any type but the crescendo of overacting and the incessant one-upmanship of "shocking" scene after scene in ever-more contrived and unrealistic contexts reaches the point of saturation very quickly.

In fact, it has the structure of a video game timeline, forced into the format of a film. What's the next challenge? What's the next escalation? Very formulaic.
 
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of "shocking" scene after scene in ever-more contrived and unrealistic contexts reaches the point of saturation very quickly.
One of my main criticism that I posted in the "What are you watching" thread, was that the writers and director made each death softer in a way. After Game of Thrones and killing main characters at our height of rooting for them, this one was a no-shocker to me. As each character was killed, the audience know they are going to die, and even the beloved characters do something or say something that turns the audience against them somewhat. Thus, the violence and death is softer and less shocking, IMO. If they really wanted to shock this audience, they should have killed them while they were freshly bonded with the audience.
 
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Maybe that's why it doesn't appeal to me. I'm not out to get shocked. If I was, I'd approach a wall outlet with a length of wire and save myself the Netflix dues.
Canadians…. Ha ha.

I’m not a horror film fan at all. But, I like my violence to not be candy coated. This is why I loved Private Ryan over most war films. War is not “whoopie!!” It’s more like “oh my God!”
 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
It's mentioned everywhere. I haven't seen it. There are so many things I know I want to see, I have a hard time catching up, so I'm really not looking for other binge viewing. But if I happen on it by mistake and become addicted, I'll confess.