quote:

Originally posted by corsair:
Well, first two acts kept my attention, the third act though..mehhh.

I just finished watching and agree w/ this. The series takes a nosedive after ep. 6.

Too much time was spent on the VIPs that didn't advance the storyline, and their characterizations and the acting were indeed cringeworthy.

I was expecting to see at least one game where wits or being female was an advantage to being a healthy, strong male, but that never came up. At one point when they're forming teams, Gi-hun/Player 456 mentions some Korean playground games that girls are usually better at. I would have liked to have seen one of those.

My biggest gripe w/ the series is probably how Front Man made such a big deal about how the competition is to be fair and egalitarian, yet many times the rules and games weren't conducted fairly at all. For example...

*****SPOILER ALERT*****

Ep. 7 w/ the glass bridge. The last few people in line were at much greater advantage than everyone who had to go ahead of them. There was nothing competitive about this; it was simply an unknown factor when the players selected their vests.

In the middle of the game, Player 101 refused to advance and challenged someone else to go forward or else let everyone perish. If there was no penalty for going out of order, then why have ordered vests at all?

You could argue that providing an entertaining competition to its well-heeled viewers was ultimately more important than providing a fair one, but the glass bridge failed at that. There was too much that could have gone wrong, such as a high probability of everyone dying (which would be uninteresting). The way things played out, the three at the end of the line survived, which goes back to my point that from a competitive standpoint, it was neither fair nor interesting nor something people would gamble on.

Have to agree that the show takes a nose dive in the last few episodes. There are a lot of parts that are dreadfully slow, like the 4th game and the conversation between the characters in the last episode. The VIPs were just stereotypical rich masked decadent pervs that didn’t add anything to the show. The ending was pretty unsatisfying too.

I think a lot of the popularity of the show is due to the shock value of adults being killed for losing children’s games, not because it’s particularly entertaining in the end. It could have easily been shortened to only 7 episodes and may have been better for it.

quote:

Originally posted by Dwill104:
I think a lot of the popularity of the show is due to the shock value of adults being killed for losing children’s games, not because it’s particularly entertaining in the end. It could have easily been shortened to only 7 episodes and may have been better for it.

Its a hell of a concept, two-thirds of the way through you're involved, there's depth and complexity not just with the players wrestling with their conscience to return but, also negotiating the games and the eventual emotional impact. The later half, while you're intrigued with the cop who infiltrated the complex, and still processing the marble-game, it really falls off with the VIP introduction, and the pathetic glass-bridge crossing. It almost seemed liked there was a different group of writers. I'm interested in s.2 though....

Consider the Japanese version. I think it was released earlier too (Korean version is a re-take?). Alice in Borderland (netflix).

There are issues with the Japanese version as well. And it goes off track at times. But it's a little more consistent in the story line.

Spoilers ahead stop reading.



The other thing about the bridge game was that the last 3 survived only to basically kill the girl with shrapnel after she beat the game. That’s like after passing the red light green light safe line the big doll randomly shoots at the winners. Makes no sense. The ending sucked as well. He’s basically a fucking loser with 38 million minus the suitcase in cash. How does he think he can take these guys on? There’s zero chance of him succeeding and a nearly 100% chance of him getting whacked. He’s a fucking loser no matter how you slice it.