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Overall Worth The Watch

I feel like it was a strong start with the gusiwon (sorry if that’s misspelt) guy battling his internal struggle to crash out, and the high school students being bullied wanting to end the torture. But, it got a bit lost in the sauce with making such a big deal out of the gang plot. I thought it would be more geared towards how ordinary citizens would act when faced with owning a gun, not a bunch of gang fighting over guns, as anyone would expect to happen.

I’m glad the gang plot only lasted a few episodes and the show came back around to circling the choices of regular citizens, but that part felt a bit rushed since they focused so much time on the gang plot. As I saw someone else say, the end felt kinda rushed and not as explosive as it could’ve been. It would have been nice to see more societal corruption and how the government tries to handle it, because realistically, everyone isn’t giving up their guns after seeing one heartwarming moment at the end of a riot. It rushed coming to the “happy ever after—there’s no more guns” when it would be a much bigger issue that takes way longer to handle.

Now Moon Baek—I love the the layers of his character. I know he was a bad person, but I could understand his thought process because of everything he went through. I’m not justifying it, I’m just saying I understand why he went a bit crazy. I loved his personality when he was playing Lee Do’s silly little sidekick, though.

The acting was absolutely wonderful, other than the “Americans”. I might be nitpicking, but it bothers me that they use people with heavy British accents to play Americans in K-dramas. They’re also super robotic and speak in a way that no one actually speaks.

Overall—it was a good watch with well shot action scenes. It was definitely worth the time, I just wish it wouldn’t have focused so hard on the gang plot.

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Good Plot, Disappointing Ending

I’m honestly a bit conflicted on how I feel about this show. it started really strong and had me on the edge of my seat, but the middle does drag a bit. Honestly, it could’ve been 8 episodes.

One thing I’m really confused on is if Jihoon is alive? They make it seem like he’s dead dead and they even tell Kwon Seokjo that he’s dead (Jihoon being really his only reason to maybe stay alive now), but then he texts Joomin at the end? was that real or her delusion of grief? I mean, I hope he’s alive because his death was bullshit.

Another thing that rubbed me the wrong way was Muchan in episode 10 to how he was at the end of episode 12. He was hellbent on saving Minsoo, who very much deserved to die, with the victim being the daughter of someone he was extremely close to. But, episode 12 insinuates at the end that he decided “ah screw it, now that everyone I care about is dead because I tried to stop them from seeking justice, I’ll become dog mask now.” Like brother, you could’ve just joined the train from the beginning and most of them would still be alive/around.

Also, unless I missed something, they kept it from us the entire show until the end that the reporter was the one who killed Hyun’s parents?? I’m sorry but the tension and anger from Hyun to the reporter absolutely was not strong enough if that’s the case, because their dynamic just seemed like they’ve had disagreements and backstabbing in the professional lives.

Again, it was a good show with a mostly enjoyable
plot, but some choices just seemed very out of character for some of them. Some stuff just didn’t add up in a way that would make sense. Like, after all that, you can’t tell me they really let the assemblywoman off the hook for everything?? When they had it lined up that her husband was leaving her and they found evidence, so she completely screwed??

I guess I do have a lot of complaints, but I did thoroughly enjoy the first 2/3 of the show.

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Good Plot, Slow Paced, Solid Acting

I really really enjoyed the acting in this. I barely recognized Byun YoHan from Misaeng, because he plays such a different character and does so good at it. Ko Jun also did amazing per usual. And, a special shoutout to Lee GaSub for playing two different characters executed amazingly.

I enjoyed the plot very much, but things do drag some due to going overboard in foreshadowing. It was painfully obvious when a character was “suspicious” and it caused the reveals to be dull. I don’t know if it was intended to be obvious, but I personally enjoy some good shock value.

The congresswoman did not need that much screen time. Her husband is the one that committed the crime, and she just assisted in covering it up, yet she seemed to have more screen time than him. I honestly started skipping through her scenes because it was just a repetition of her using her status to control things being covered up.

I feel like they made JungWoo a little bit too chill for the fact that he just spent 10 years in prison for being falsely accused of murdering his best friend and girlfriend, and also the way people treated him knowing damn well they’re the ones that actually did it. Maybe I’m just temperamental, but I feel like most people would’ve crashed out way harder. Though, maybe he would have if he didn’t have Detective Na to keep him grounded and focused.

Speaking of Detective Na, I wish they would have shown us what happened with his wife.

All in all, it was a decent watch, but could have been 8-10 episodes and could’ve had more shock value. I probably won’t re-watch it, but I don’t regret giving it a watch.

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Butchered Characters, Pointless Side Plots, Flat Ending with Extras for Finalists

I’ll preface this by saying, I understand the point they were trying to make with proving that money and greed always win, but they could’ve done so in many different ways.

First off, they ruined Daeho (388) so much. The English translation makes him seem so much worse than he is. They mistranslated him “lying about the military”. He actually said he was some kind of a civil servant (basically a replacement to fulfill his military duty), because he was deemed too unstable to be in the marines. Even if he did lie, was that really the worst thing someone did in those games? He was scared, as was everyone else. It was his way of trying to protect himself. Either way, his storyline is rushed. We needed some background on how we got to the point of him lying.

Speaking of Daeho, it makes no sense that Gihun went on a literal manhunt for him and killed him in cold blood, yet he had so much hesitation in killing 100 and the other “O” team members, in which he ended up not being able to do it. Yes, he was mad at Daeho, but he was also close with him. He didn’t like 100 from the start.

Now Hyungi’s (120) death made no sense either. You’re telling me someone in the special forces with that much field training would have let their guard down so much as to stand in a doorway with their back turned for that long in the middle of a bloodbath?? She absolutely would not have.

Also, killing off almost all the MC’s in one episode just to have the last half of the season be 75% extras was stupid. Again, we could’ve gotten our point across about money and greed while still having more of the MC’s present. If anything, it would’ve hit harder if they were the ones having to betray each other, like in season 1.

The side plot with 246 and guard 11 was drawn out way too much. Like great, she saved him cause she knew his daughter, but we didn’t need as much background as we got to be able to see that point. So much scene time was used for their side plot and it was unnecessary.

And, as much as I love Wi Ha Joon, detective Jun-Ho‘s side plot was the most useless. He went on a blind search the entire 2nd and 3rd season, just to find the island after everyone was already dead, ask Inho “why?” and get left on heard, abort mission, then become a billionaire adoptive dad. Like what??

Then here we have 333, they created so much space for him to step up and stop being a pos baby daddy, just to have him not give a frick really about Junhee dying. THEN, he proceeds to even try to sacrifice his own baby to win??? Like, we knew he was a terrible boyfriend and soon to be father, but he wasn’t a psychopath. Season 2 Myunggi would NOT have gone that far. Whether he was really going to kill the baby or not, it was crazy he even threatened it. And let’s be real, with how selfish he was being in the 3rd season, if it was him and the baby left, he would’ve chosen himself.

They made so many characters basically into completely different people, which we have to remember, season 2 to season 3 was really only an overnight difference, so they all wouldn’t have changed that much.

I will say though, I did enjoy Namgyu’s drug induced personality and him mocking Thanos the entire time. I also enjoyed the unexpected team up with 333 during hide and seek (until 333 killed 120 for no reason). I also enjoyed Minsu’s drug induced hallucinations, and I’m glad he made it to the finals.

I also enjoyed the dynamic of 149 and 007 this season. It was heart breaking that she had to kill her own son, but she couldn’t let him turn into something he’s not by using a mother and her newborn. Her suicide was also very sad. But, it was one of the only plots that made sense to the origins of the characters.

Anyways, to sum it up, they butchered so many of the characters by changing their core values up over night, wasted screen time on useless side plots, and wasted the potential of a more impactful ending by using main characters instead of a bunch of “O” team extras.

Oh, and also, the last scene with the “American” squid games. Please, don’t.

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