This review may contain spoilers
Give us a Squid Game prequel for the Frontman
For storytelling purposes, I will treat season 1 and season 2 & 3 as two separate arcs.I strongly believe that season 1 was an outstanding masterpiece that could have ended the series like that. The raw nature, the new elements and the plot twists where seemingly "good" people become selfish as the game progresses - this is the core of humanity, egoistic after all.
I was truly hoping for season 2 & 3 to keep up in a similar manner. I believe that the second arc purposefully implemented comedic elements (looking at you Jeon Seok Ho) to reach an even broader audience. But that did kind of harm the cruel atmosphere that was supposed to reign on the island.
The games were exciting, the ones in season 3 re-taking some elements from season 1 (the VIP stage, the big arenas, the suits in the final game, the music etc.) and made them more thrilling than in season 2. My only concern was the shallowness of some support characters from the final game. They were supposed to have the most screen time (being alive the longest) but most of their characters lacked proper development. I could not find myself being attached (loving or hating) characters in the same way as in season 1.
I truly had mixed feelings, ups and downs throughout season 3 but I was generally really happy to see some elements that really worked in season 1, resurface in this season. The side arc with Detective Hwang was also dragged on, eventually leading to an anti-climatic encounter ("Why?") with his brother.
While I really appreciated the last episode's parallel development that could have lead to a big climatic finale, I do feel like the last 15 minutes (aka the real ending) felt a bit rushed and undecided. I personally do not have a problem with seeing Squid Game recruiting in Los Angeles, because I don't really believe as US adaptation makes sense anyway.
The thing that left me the most curious though were the scenes with the Frontman / Player 132 in his first games where he was handed the knife, the same way he handed it to player 456 in 2024's games.
I was genuinely curious about the older editions of Squid games and believe this could be a huge success if a prequel to Squid Games could be announced - with Player 132 in a very grim scenario and to go deeper into his backstory, possible with his brother too. That could further depict his character development and how it lead to him being who he is today, alongside his morals that changed immensily among the journey.
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