It was fun, but the show falls back on usual Korean story tropes (ie forced deaths to make "cool" sacrifices) , the acting by the VIPs was so laughibly bad and cringy that it almost tanked the whole show, and some stuff is stupid and makes no sense at all.
Examples (spoilers!)
1. The players keep acting like they can win the game together and get out of there together with the money, again and again. It's made 100% clear that they either can't stop playing until one person is left alive, or they can end things with a majority vote but then don't get the money. No one ever mentions this again or acklowedges that anyone they bond with will die if they want that money.
2. They all left the game and then choose to come back, knowing the above... but a husband and wife joined again. They tried to make it a shocking and surprising thing that this poor couple are made to face each other to the death, but by choosing to come back they knew that one of them would have to die. Really dumb!
3. The first time when they quit they say the accumulated money will go to the families of the deseased. When they return that money is still in the piggy bank and they continue from where they left off.
4. The missing brothers stuff is in the goshiwon and it seems like rent was skipped for a month, so the cop brother says he will pay the rent and looks through his stuff, goes looking for him because of that card. Later we see in a file that he won the game years ago, and it seems he's been working as the front man for a good long time too. Um...didn't he just go missing recently?
4. They gave my fav character a super cheap death. Cmon, random exploding glass took her out? She's there to play the games and no one notices she's been impaled or offers some medical attention so she can compete still...when they say it's all fair? How did they know there damn stupid exploding glass trick would not take everyone out and end the games by mistake? It was just a set up for that 3 in the sleeping area with knives scene, but was too forced.
5. They took all interest and moral dilemma out if the ending by neatly killing off everyone, keeping the good guys hand s clean, and making the other guy a clear villain.
6. The main character gets stabbed twice in the final fight but carries on fairly easily, but the other guy gets bit in the foot and that's it...becomes completely defenseless after that. The whole ending after that was very forced.
7. The red hair thing was a little stupid. As was the case off money for the old lady and child - looks cool but how is she gonna use that or explain it when putting it in a bank? Her son is missing for fraud and the cops already visited her. In the same vein - him becomg a sudden multibillionaire didn't attract any attention from the tax office?
8. When he got off the plane at the end: we went full circle and killed the character development because the last thing he does is impulsive, prob gonna get him killed (no way he can take on this shadow group with red hair and some cash - he's easily dead) and he lied and failed his daughter. Again.
9. They didn't tie off a few things. The Morse code thing went nowhere if I'm not mistaken. The guy didn't do anything to get that mom back from N Korea.
10. Also, cop guy infiltrates stupidly easily - and his iphone battery life is AMAZING. No way there's a charging cable laying around in a facility were no phones are allowed. Even Mr head honcho has to use a land line.
11. Will normal people playing games really randomly all out try to kill each other at night? They say they provide less food to stoke tension, but there was enough for everyone if that group didn't cut in line for seconds. No way they'd know that would happen. And it certainly wouldn't guarantee a bloodbath. It's normal people in debt, not hardened criminals (apart from the one guy).
And that's about what I remember. It was fun, but a little stupid too. It started very strong and could have been GREAT, but the writing needed tightening up and less reliance on formulaic tropes.
Examples (spoilers!)
1. The players keep acting like they can win the game together and get out of there together with the money, again and again. It's made 100% clear that they either can't stop playing until one person is left alive, or they can end things with a majority vote but then don't get the money. No one ever mentions this again or acklowedges that anyone they bond with will die if they want that money.
2. They all left the game and then choose to come back, knowing the above... but a husband and wife joined again. They tried to make it a shocking and surprising thing that this poor couple are made to face each other to the death, but by choosing to come back they knew that one of them would have to die. Really dumb!
3. The first time when they quit they say the accumulated money will go to the families of the deseased. When they return that money is still in the piggy bank and they continue from where they left off.
4. The missing brothers stuff is in the goshiwon and it seems like rent was skipped for a month, so the cop brother says he will pay the rent and looks through his stuff, goes looking for him because of that card. Later we see in a file that he won the game years ago, and it seems he's been working as the front man for a good long time too. Um...didn't he just go missing recently?
4. They gave my fav character a super cheap death. Cmon, random exploding glass took her out? She's there to play the games and no one notices she's been impaled or offers some medical attention so she can compete still...when they say it's all fair? How did they know there damn stupid exploding glass trick would not take everyone out and end the games by mistake? It was just a set up for that 3 in the sleeping area with knives scene, but was too forced.
5. They took all interest and moral dilemma out if the ending by neatly killing off everyone, keeping the good guys hand s clean, and making the other guy a clear villain.
6. The main character gets stabbed twice in the final fight but carries on fairly easily, but the other guy gets bit in the foot and that's it...becomes completely defenseless after that. The whole ending after that was very forced.
7. The red hair thing was a little stupid. As was the case off money for the old lady and child - looks cool but how is she gonna use that or explain it when putting it in a bank? Her son is missing for fraud and the cops already visited her. In the same vein - him becomg a sudden multibillionaire didn't attract any attention from the tax office?
8. When he got off the plane at the end: we went full circle and killed the character development because the last thing he does is impulsive, prob gonna get him killed (no way he can take on this shadow group with red hair and some cash - he's easily dead) and he lied and failed his daughter. Again.
9. They didn't tie off a few things. The Morse code thing went nowhere if I'm not mistaken. The guy didn't do anything to get that mom back from N Korea.
10. Also, cop guy infiltrates stupidly easily - and his iphone battery life is AMAZING. No way there's a charging cable laying around in a facility were no phones are allowed. Even Mr head honcho has to use a land line.
11. Will normal people playing games really randomly all out try to kill each other at night? They say they provide less food to stoke tension, but there was enough for everyone if that group didn't cut in line for seconds. No way they'd know that would happen. And it certainly wouldn't guarantee a bloodbath. It's normal people in debt, not hardened criminals (apart from the one guy).
And that's about what I remember. It was fun, but a little stupid too. It started very strong and could have been GREAT, but the writing needed tightening up and less reliance on formulaic tropes.