This review may contain spoilers
Disappointing season
Some things were done better than the first like the prison games, but most things made the season worse.
1. The players were divided early on where half the members were sent to the prison to face death. Not only are these low piece players who can be easily targeted during main games, but they also have to face a second elimination during the prison game. So the living room players more or less remained the same throughout the season and the people who went to prison never came out other than Choi Hyun joon who didnt even want to attempt the secret room game.
2. The huge divide after the main game created early alliances where people with strong alliances kept winning games and weaker players are sent to prison and have no hope of getting out of there. There was no room for people like Lee Sedol or Justin Min who were interested to play their own game. The whole season depending on alliance where weak players like So hui and Tinno (they were both very smart and played the games with strong strategy, but had weak nerves and therefore easy to manipulate) held on to strong players to survive until the end (no comments on what happens later because that's ridiculous).
4. What's the point of having a secret room in the living area? The game is already heavily favored towards high piece players and this doesn't help. This secret room game also came with no consequences aka no elimination, like wtf??? This game also came no surprise to the player vs the prison side secret game was more innovative with elimination risks that gave the exact same reward for winning i.e. 10 pieces except with a major advantage i.e. the winner can claim the 10 pieces at any point even when he is just about to get eliminated. Like why do we even need to watch 12 episodes when everything was decided on the very first episode? Did the producers think the secret room wont be unveiled until much later? These are extremely smart people on the show, especially after the first season, everyone is going to be on the look out for this stuff in this season. The secret rooms were solved in the very first episode. This was too easy as opposed to the first season where the clue was super hard to find and can be solved by the living room player (the one with more pieces) to unlock the secret room on the prison side.
5. Lots of manipulation by few players. In the first season I loved watching people get along with each other despite differing alliances. Except of Dong Jae and See Won who were aggressively competitive and had strong alliance opinions, most people were friendly and mixed well with everyone. In this season the prison divide just ensured alliances were fixed and the cast itself seem to play to that game play. I liked a few players, those who were strong strategically but also competitive and straightforward and played well with everyone: Sedol, Justin, 7high were my favorites. the others who were not terrible, but somewhat strategically selfish that I could root for was eun yu, har in, je yeong. I absolutely disliked Hyun gyu, so hui and later Tinno when he backstabbed 7high.
6. Why were there so many auction/betting games? Why were the final games so simple? Why were so many of the main games to be played in teams or easy to form team and play? Prison games were more fun since we got to see the player's real skill while playing it. They also need high reward for people playing the death games so they can recover from their poor fates. I personally think the people in the prison should be fed better to be able to have the energy to play multiple games in a day. If anything this season shows how stupid the producers unbalanced the prison side of the game sort of a mimic to represent society where rich gets richer and the poor have no hopes to improve their fates. But game shows are fun only if events are unpredictable and when everyone has an equal opportunity to win.
7. Poor casting. I wont say the first season cast was absolutely perfect. There were a few weaker players even if their IQ was supposed to be high like Yu Min, Hye Sung or the Go player who hung on to some stronger players for longer than they deserved. But the strong players played their game fair for the most part like Orbit or Dong Jae or Seok Jin. Some people though Dong Jae doesnt deserve to leave soon, while I agree to some extent, he does deserve to be eliminated because he didnt have a back-up plan to maximize his points or the vision to stick with his original alliance that would guarantee he prob wont get betrayed by forming teams with newer players who were part of a major alliance.
Anyway, the casting this season also has a few weak players, but most of them were very strong strategically but its frustrating to see them get so blatantly manipulated by not so strong, cunning players like hyun gyu. He didnt find the clocks, kyuhyun did. He didnt find the secret room, So hui found the birds and trees. He didnt solve the puzzle, So hui did by finding "Insert". He just "accidentally" drops his piece after they solve the puzzle and enters the room without discussing with the other living room people if any of them wanted to go esp So hui or kyun hyun. The prison room people on the other hand actually decided fairly on who wanted to enter and everyone played a part in solving the puzzle. hyun gyu is smart in the sense where he knows how to play the people (like a sociopath) but has no real skills in playing the game. He wins by forming strong living room alliances with strategically strong players like So hui, Tinno and 7High and later Hyun Joon. When he realized he was betrayed by hyun joon in the mancala game and he now had to play alone, he desperately manipulates his older alliances like So hui and Kyuhyun to betray their new group so he "doesnt feel alone". And they agree....they dont have a backbone and kyuhyun deserves to be eliminated because of this poor decision (Remember he doesnt even know hyun gyu had the 10 piece advantage when he decided to help him because of fake tears). So hui is even worse than hyun gyu imo. She is so smart, yet so easily manipulated by hyun gyu every moment is just so unbelievable. She wanted to take pieces from the living room players after winning her game because they had tons of pieces but instead didnt question once when hyun gyu suggested she take from prison players instead because that would ensure they remain weak. Then she cries on how she feels bad to do this. She sends Tinno to the prison because hyun gyu tells her he has the best chance of coming back to the living room (but not him ofc) and she just agrees and then cries and feels bad when he gets eliminated that day. Hyun gyu just keeps evading prison because no one has the spine to send him to prison and he had an unfairly acquired secret room advantage. Send him to prison and we would have seen how much he truly was capable to strategically winning solo games. But we already know he isnt that smart and purely relies on manipulating others to cover for him. Did he play devil's game well? Sure, he kind of did and he did play a huge part in securing that lucky advantage that the producers screw up. But was it fun to watch? No, its not fun to watch the Devil win an unfair game. When he said things like "Are you scared (derogatory)?", "Do you know how to math?" to hyun joon who he knows goes to top tier school in S. Korea for mathematics, and that sealed the deal for me. He is arrogant, not even the smartest in the room but calculative, unemotional, selfish i.e. completely unlikeable and undeserved winner. I would not have hated him as much as I did if he had to play the game in alliance with smarter players like 7high, eun yu, harin or hyun joon who are not afraid of playing the game or betraying him, aka people with courage and strategy to take risks. Unfortunately most of these people were in the prison away from him for the most part and he instead ended up forming alliance with lucky loyal doormats like kyuhyun, Tinno and the pick-me girl So hui. They should really stop casting celebs like So hui and kyuhyun who are afraid to play the game like it should be because they are worried about societal backlash if they are found playing dirty but instead actual smart non-celebs who care about winning the final pot and ruthless enough to do whatever it takes for maximum entertainment. If
Anyway once my favorite players got eliminated playing the game, I just fastforwarded to see who the winner was, though I already know but still hoped it was hyun joon. In my opinion, hyun gyu is a sociopath without finesse and So hui is a high IQ coward. I want justice for 7high, Justin Min, SeDol, Eun Yu who played courageously and strategically but in unfair conditions. I hope season 3 cast, game design is better than this one, at least please revert back to season 1 prison rules at the minimum. If you are going to cast a sociopath, please cast more than one.
1. The players were divided early on where half the members were sent to the prison to face death. Not only are these low piece players who can be easily targeted during main games, but they also have to face a second elimination during the prison game. So the living room players more or less remained the same throughout the season and the people who went to prison never came out other than Choi Hyun joon who didnt even want to attempt the secret room game.
2. The huge divide after the main game created early alliances where people with strong alliances kept winning games and weaker players are sent to prison and have no hope of getting out of there. There was no room for people like Lee Sedol or Justin Min who were interested to play their own game. The whole season depending on alliance where weak players like So hui and Tinno (they were both very smart and played the games with strong strategy, but had weak nerves and therefore easy to manipulate) held on to strong players to survive until the end (no comments on what happens later because that's ridiculous).
4. What's the point of having a secret room in the living area? The game is already heavily favored towards high piece players and this doesn't help. This secret room game also came with no consequences aka no elimination, like wtf??? This game also came no surprise to the player vs the prison side secret game was more innovative with elimination risks that gave the exact same reward for winning i.e. 10 pieces except with a major advantage i.e. the winner can claim the 10 pieces at any point even when he is just about to get eliminated. Like why do we even need to watch 12 episodes when everything was decided on the very first episode? Did the producers think the secret room wont be unveiled until much later? These are extremely smart people on the show, especially after the first season, everyone is going to be on the look out for this stuff in this season. The secret rooms were solved in the very first episode. This was too easy as opposed to the first season where the clue was super hard to find and can be solved by the living room player (the one with more pieces) to unlock the secret room on the prison side.
5. Lots of manipulation by few players. In the first season I loved watching people get along with each other despite differing alliances. Except of Dong Jae and See Won who were aggressively competitive and had strong alliance opinions, most people were friendly and mixed well with everyone. In this season the prison divide just ensured alliances were fixed and the cast itself seem to play to that game play. I liked a few players, those who were strong strategically but also competitive and straightforward and played well with everyone: Sedol, Justin, 7high were my favorites. the others who were not terrible, but somewhat strategically selfish that I could root for was eun yu, har in, je yeong. I absolutely disliked Hyun gyu, so hui and later Tinno when he backstabbed 7high.
6. Why were there so many auction/betting games? Why were the final games so simple? Why were so many of the main games to be played in teams or easy to form team and play? Prison games were more fun since we got to see the player's real skill while playing it. They also need high reward for people playing the death games so they can recover from their poor fates. I personally think the people in the prison should be fed better to be able to have the energy to play multiple games in a day. If anything this season shows how stupid the producers unbalanced the prison side of the game sort of a mimic to represent society where rich gets richer and the poor have no hopes to improve their fates. But game shows are fun only if events are unpredictable and when everyone has an equal opportunity to win.
7. Poor casting. I wont say the first season cast was absolutely perfect. There were a few weaker players even if their IQ was supposed to be high like Yu Min, Hye Sung or the Go player who hung on to some stronger players for longer than they deserved. But the strong players played their game fair for the most part like Orbit or Dong Jae or Seok Jin. Some people though Dong Jae doesnt deserve to leave soon, while I agree to some extent, he does deserve to be eliminated because he didnt have a back-up plan to maximize his points or the vision to stick with his original alliance that would guarantee he prob wont get betrayed by forming teams with newer players who were part of a major alliance.
Anyway, the casting this season also has a few weak players, but most of them were very strong strategically but its frustrating to see them get so blatantly manipulated by not so strong, cunning players like hyun gyu. He didnt find the clocks, kyuhyun did. He didnt find the secret room, So hui found the birds and trees. He didnt solve the puzzle, So hui did by finding "Insert". He just "accidentally" drops his piece after they solve the puzzle and enters the room without discussing with the other living room people if any of them wanted to go esp So hui or kyun hyun. The prison room people on the other hand actually decided fairly on who wanted to enter and everyone played a part in solving the puzzle. hyun gyu is smart in the sense where he knows how to play the people (like a sociopath) but has no real skills in playing the game. He wins by forming strong living room alliances with strategically strong players like So hui, Tinno and 7High and later Hyun Joon. When he realized he was betrayed by hyun joon in the mancala game and he now had to play alone, he desperately manipulates his older alliances like So hui and Kyuhyun to betray their new group so he "doesnt feel alone". And they agree....they dont have a backbone and kyuhyun deserves to be eliminated because of this poor decision (Remember he doesnt even know hyun gyu had the 10 piece advantage when he decided to help him because of fake tears). So hui is even worse than hyun gyu imo. She is so smart, yet so easily manipulated by hyun gyu every moment is just so unbelievable. She wanted to take pieces from the living room players after winning her game because they had tons of pieces but instead didnt question once when hyun gyu suggested she take from prison players instead because that would ensure they remain weak. Then she cries on how she feels bad to do this. She sends Tinno to the prison because hyun gyu tells her he has the best chance of coming back to the living room (but not him ofc) and she just agrees and then cries and feels bad when he gets eliminated that day. Hyun gyu just keeps evading prison because no one has the spine to send him to prison and he had an unfairly acquired secret room advantage. Send him to prison and we would have seen how much he truly was capable to strategically winning solo games. But we already know he isnt that smart and purely relies on manipulating others to cover for him. Did he play devil's game well? Sure, he kind of did and he did play a huge part in securing that lucky advantage that the producers screw up. But was it fun to watch? No, its not fun to watch the Devil win an unfair game. When he said things like "Are you scared (derogatory)?", "Do you know how to math?" to hyun joon who he knows goes to top tier school in S. Korea for mathematics, and that sealed the deal for me. He is arrogant, not even the smartest in the room but calculative, unemotional, selfish i.e. completely unlikeable and undeserved winner. I would not have hated him as much as I did if he had to play the game in alliance with smarter players like 7high, eun yu, harin or hyun joon who are not afraid of playing the game or betraying him, aka people with courage and strategy to take risks. Unfortunately most of these people were in the prison away from him for the most part and he instead ended up forming alliance with lucky loyal doormats like kyuhyun, Tinno and the pick-me girl So hui. They should really stop casting celebs like So hui and kyuhyun who are afraid to play the game like it should be because they are worried about societal backlash if they are found playing dirty but instead actual smart non-celebs who care about winning the final pot and ruthless enough to do whatever it takes for maximum entertainment. If
Anyway once my favorite players got eliminated playing the game, I just fastforwarded to see who the winner was, though I already know but still hoped it was hyun joon. In my opinion, hyun gyu is a sociopath without finesse and So hui is a high IQ coward. I want justice for 7high, Justin Min, SeDol, Eun Yu who played courageously and strategically but in unfair conditions. I hope season 3 cast, game design is better than this one, at least please revert back to season 1 prison rules at the minimum. If you are going to cast a sociopath, please cast more than one.
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