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I didn't see a thread for this, so....
Anyway, I heard about this series awhile back from some youtube personalities I watch. Several of them recommended it, but at the time I was busy with other things and didn't watch it. Finally got around to seasons 1 & 2 a few months back. And now season 3 dropped yesterday.
I love the characters. Ann is probably my favorite. Though all the main characters are very interesting. I didn't like Chishiya at first but warmed up to him by the end of the series.
The setting and story itself was intriguing. I'm toying with the idea of getting the manga to read, but that'd be a lot of effort. Plus, I'm not sure I have the shelf space.
Season One was pretty cool. Though I thought it could have been extended a bit and have the Beach only come in towards the end. Season two could have focused more on the Beach itself, culminating in the Witch Hunt (one of my favorite of all the games). As is, I loved the structure of first gathering all the number cards, then unlocking the face cards. The death matches against the citizens were cool. I wish we'd seen more of them. That King of Spades was a beast.
Anyway, now I'm four episodes in to Season 3. I'm enjoying it, especially the creativity of some of the games (despite how brutal they are), with mixing aspects of the different suites (Clubs & Hearts, Clubs & Diamonds, etc.). Still, it feels rushed. There hasn't been enough time to really build up a lot of the new characters. And with only two episodes to go, I worry they won't give a really good ending (like they did with Season 2).
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So....
I finished off Season 3 last night. Those last two episodes were a slog to get through. The final game was, I thought, kind of boring. After the game it got a bit more interesting. Especially when they brought in Ken Watanabe. I had to double check to make sure it was him.
And then...
The final scenes of Arisu interviewing the other survivors from his first trip to Borderland was really cool. It was awesome to see each of them.
Then they had to ruin it all by pulling a Squid Game Season 3 and promising to move the action to America with an English speaking cast. Seriously?!? Come on Netflix. Don't be the CW (or more traditional TV) and just keep dragging shows on past there expiration dates. To use a phrase from the young annoying people....Do Better.
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Anyway... a bit more. My favorite games from each season.
Season 1 - The Witch Hunt episodes. That game showed just how insidious a heart game could be. The insanity of it all, how everything could just explode so quickly. And it was a key point to Aguni's growth.
Season 2 - This one is a tie. The Osmosis Game against the King of Clubs was really well done. And I liked the King and his team. They weren't a-holes and the show did a lot with them in just two episodes. Then there was the fight against the King of Spades, especially that last one. The brutality of it all was a bit over the top, but well executed.
Season 3 - This one I'll put in a spoiler, but I'm sure people can guess it if they've seen the show.