First Things First…
I tapped into Season 1 as soon as it became a phenomenon on Netflix but haven’t watched it since. The twists are gone for me now, so I hope the show is rewatchable.
7 Things I Like
7. Hidden from Prying Eyes
The episode ends with the roof closing over the playing field as the camera zooms out. The entire compound is camouflaged in the middle of a jungle. But that’s not all—it’s also tucked away on an island that appears hidden and isolated. These players don’t know just how far from home they were taken while they were drugged and unconscious.
I don’t know where this island is set, either, but its seclusion adds to an already mysterious show. Where are they? How did the people in charge get this land? What kind of group could build something like this?
6. Establishing the Players
It’s a little formulaic as we zero in on a handful of players at the compound who, unsurprisingly, all survive the first game. This group looks like they’ll be the characters we’ll spend the most time with. Luckily, it’s an interesting group.
There’s the old man with number 001—at the complete opposite end of Gi-hun—who says he’s trying to stave off dementia by counting as a tumor in his brain grows. Unlike the other 455 players, he’s having a blast! Even after the first game resumes following the initial slaughter, he’s smiling and is the first to carry on as if nothing happened.
There’s also Gi-hun’s childhood friend, Sang-woo, who might not be as successful or honest as he’s cracked up to be… and there’s the pickpocket and her pimp (at least, it sounds like that’s the relationship here) who’s the biggest bully so far.
Finally, there’s the guy who saves Gi-hun’s life as they approach the finish line during the first game. I don’t think we saw him prior to that moment, but he’ll have to factor in now that he did something noble for the protagonist.
I want to spend more time with these characters. And now that probably more than half the players have been eliminated, it should be easier to focus on them.
5. For Your Entertainment
It’s equal parts amusing and disturbing—a phrase you can say about most of this premiere episode—when the Front Man sits down in a luxurious room, on a luxurious couch, pours himself a luxurious drink, and listens to smooth jazz as he watches the mayhem unfold.
Knowing that the players were all hand selected because of their debt-induced desperation makes it clear that this is a statement on class, with the wealthy—most likely bored and in need of amusement—treating the lower class as nothing more than disposable playthings. It should make for a fascinating dynamic as the season continues.
4. Lego Dollhouse
The hallways and staircases the players move through on their way to the playing field for the first game look like a big dollhouse built out of Lego. (Yes, the plural of Lego is Lego.) Pair the decorative patterns with the eerie, enigmatic music and the sinister masks worn by the employees, and the effect is terribly unsettling.
3. Gi-hun’s Very Bad Day
It might seem like we don’t get to the good stuff until the players are gathered and the games begin. But if Gi-hun is going to be a compelling and sympathetic main character, it’s essential that we see just how desperate he is so we can believe he’d actually make this insane decision to participate in these games.
As for the rest of the players, it’s enough just to know they’re all in similar debt. They must be facing equally desperate situations. But we need to see with our own eyes what’s going on with our main character.
And oh boy, does his life suck.
He’s divorced, his ex-wife is remarried to a much more successful man, and he barely has a relationship with his daughter (who he clearly loves). To make matters worse on the family front, his ex’s new husband is going to take them away to the U.S. Meanwhile, he’s reduced to begging for a nerdy kid’s help after many failed attempts just so he can win a cheap birthday present for his daughter from a crane game.
Sadly, that’s just the start of Gi-hun’s troubles. He lives with his mother and steals money from her. She loves him but doesn’t respect him. And he’s in a boatload of debt to loan sharks and I think just signed away his organs if he can’t repay them within a month.
Even when something goes right, like when he finally guesses the PIN code on his Mom’s ATM card on the last try before he gets locked out, and when he wins money on the final horse race, his good fortune turns to shit within minutes.
Everything sucks, but it never seems unbelievable. Gi-hun is just a guy whose life went to shit after he lost his job, failed at multiple business ventures, and got divorced.
By the time he makes the call, we’ve watched 30 minutes of him getting absolutely shit on from every direction. And while I take no joy in his misery, this is the only way I’d ever buy that he’d sign up for the insane situation he puts himself in voluntarily.
2. Bloodlust
Okay, so we’ve seen Gi-hun is in crippling debt, his job prospects suck, and he might soon owe a kidney to his loan sharks (or maybe an eye) …
So it’s CRAZY to think he’d be disappointed about wining money, right?
Not so fast.
After losing round after round after round of another game to a mysterious salesman in the subway station…
And getting his face slapped again and again and again, until it’s red, raw, and bleeding, because he has no money to pay for every lost round…
He finally wins!
But in his fervor, he forgets that he doesn’t get to slap the guy in return. The slaps were only a replacement penalty. He actually wins money…
And when the salesman catches Gi-hun’s arm to stop his slap and hand him his winnings, Gi-hun’s face drops and his spirit leaves his body as he says…
“Oh, yeah. The money.”
Gi-hun doesn’t strike me as a violent man. But under the right pressure, and facing the right triggers, clearly a person can fall into a depraved, animalistic state more quickly than it’s comfortable to think about.
Of course, when he goes home and is back in reality, he knows the money is real, and that’s what matters. That’s his main motivation in calling the number on the salesman’s business card.
But it’s fair to think that the bloodlust the salesman awakened inside him seals the deal.
1. Red Light, Green Light
“I will now repeat the rules. You are allowed to move forward when ‘it’ shouts out, ‘Green Light.’ Stop when ‘it’ shouts, ‘Red Light.’ If your movement is detected afterward, you will be eliminated.”
Woman on PA
And now the payoff!
Everything leading up to the first game points to something sinister afoot. But I’m not sure I expected something this depraved. Players who lose at this game are literally gunned down right there on the playing field.
When the first player is eliminated, it’s not quite clear to his competitors what happened. But after the second guy gets shot, all hell breaks loose! It turns into a frenzy of humanity scrambling to exit the way they came in…
Only for their lifeless bodies to end up in stacks blocking the locked doors.
The game continues from there with much clearer stakes. It’s barbaric. But it’s also mesmerizing. And considering this is only the first game, it begs the question…
What’s next?
2 Things I’m Mixed On
2. Squid Game for Boys
“That’s right. You die.”
Gi-hun
I don’t love the opening flashback, with the little boys playing the Squid Game. There’s too much exposition in explaining the rules of the game. I didn’t really follow them all anyway. So it’s not the most exciting first couple of minutes to kick off the series. But it does a good job of foreshadowing by saying the players “die” if they lose the game.
1. Herd Mentality
When the players start getting mowed down during Red Light, Green Light it’s an insane situation. And it turns into a free for all.
I don’t know if I’d keep a level head, either. But I have to at least question if so many of them would really act so stupidly and get themselves killed unnecessarily.
I mean, it doesn’t take long to figure out what it means to be “eliminated.” Yet, by retreating past the starting line and banging on the doors to try to escape, they break the rules and are killed. And there are just so many of them who do the same thing and suffer the same fate.
2 Things I Don’t Like
2. Remember This from 10 Minutes Ago?
I hate when a show thinks the audience is so dumb that they show a flashback to something that just happened earlier in the episode.
In this case, when Gi-hun’s mother tells him that his daughter is going to be moving to the U.S. with his ex-wife and her new husband, they immediately flash back to a few minutes earlier in the episode, when Gi-hun mentioned to his daughter what he’ll do for her birthday next year and she responds uncomfortably.
It was clear enough from her reaction in the moment that something was wrong. And it’s obvious enough when Gi-hun’s mother breaks this bad news to him that that’s why his daughter had such a weird reaction.
If he was getting this news from his mother in the next episode, it would make perfect sense to put that scene with his daughter in the “Previously On” section. But within the same episode, especially so close to one another, the flashback is wholly unnecessary.
1. Spelling Out the Situation
“Every person standing here in this room is living on the brink of financial ruin. You all have debts that you can’t pay off. When we first went to see each of you, not a single one of you trusted us. But as you all know, we played a game, and as we promised, gave you money when you won. And suddenly, everyone here trusted us. You called and volunteered to participate in this game of your own free will.”
Masked Manager
It’s one thing when the people running the games start revealing a few of the players’ names and debts. It shows that they were all handpicked for the same reason as Gi-hun.
But then, they start spelling out the fact that no one was forced there, that they all played a game, they all won money and learned to trust them, they all volunteered to go, they all chose this, etc.
Again, it feels like they don’t trust the audience to understand this. I wish they would’ve left more of this unsaid.
Tim Matassa
