there are 2 categories that's missing from the above rating system, cinematography which was a 100/10 and plot development which was a meh 5.
so like, the shots were so extravagant, so beautiful, so well though tout, so well balanced, but the story? the backstory for the evil organization was trash. the "twists" eventhough they were shocking were stupid, basically the villains were so smart yet gave away their own lives and worse make a stupid revenge scheme that compromised herself more than her victims..

like sure, sangah was a psychopath, but an elaborate acid water scheme, that obviously put herself at more risk? and the tree bottom becoming an acid pool and boom one push and it's over?
here's how I'd have done it differently. poisoned gas, and she wears a protective mask but it gets cut off by accident and boom we see her suffering chocking on her own plans. (don't judge me, I'm writing this with a writer mindset xD)
her whole persona was "conducting plays", a puppet master if you like, she planned and played everyone, we as viewers needed to see her plans fail and her seeing the wires cut off, that was the real suffering, she had no real power

and suddenly everyone was rich, when her friend got 12 years in prison.. so it was that simple? there was no death mystery cuz she never died. they didn't need to piss sangah off when they could've laundered the money that easily?




some people would look at this as a fancy metaphor for "the top 1% and people exposing their true colors infront of money" or whatever else one likes and they are not wrong
but to me it wasn't that deep. it was just 1 psychopath that married another, and her father conveniently had an organization of psychos that liked to kill to reach their goal, for what? petty angst, why? cuz that's how shallow the writer is
squid games is not a metaphor of rich and poor, it's entertainment. you can ofc see any metaphor you like, it's not wrong. we can all look at the ink on the page and see a flower, a monster, or just a splash of ink.
one and two aren't crazy, and 3 isn't a cynic that lacks creativity. I can look at a literature piece like little women the book, and say it wasn't a rich vs poor, it was just a love story. or personally I think it was more about a woman's position in society, regardless of background, women are forced with 2 options, marry rich or marry love, and the 3rd variable is the rebel's "if I don't want to be either I'll be neither"

I did not compare little womens cuz besides the basic, 3 sisters, poor, artist, material world, nothing is similar. others can see more similarities but no one is wrong


sooo, long story short, as an entertainment piece, ep8 was the best. the psycho's Truman Show was a great touch, the manipulation, the step by step puppet show and everything just being for sangah's enjoyment watching injoo's reaction was a better story choice than the veitnam, sad mommy issues, money, Vietnam and 99% of the show thinking Do Il would betray her. or being over involved in his feelings for injoo when like literally 7m is a great reason for someone to help cuz 70b is way too much to want to escape with

the songs were great, Uhm Ji Won as a calm psychopath is a great addition to makjangs and their recent love for screaming women. Kim Go Eun also rocks heavily emotinal scenes. for me, her meltdown in prison, and sangah's scheme in ep8 deserve to be in the "acting" hall of fame



going to compare this to eve, both are makjang, both wanted to go crazy, and tbh I'm sick of romance dramas breaking up the best couples and say "sad endings are realistic", it's not sad to beautiful people didn't end up together, real sad endings come from death, and the ones that need a sad ending are makjangs, a happily ever after makjang isn't worth all the pain and angst
killing the villain is not a satisfying ending. they get caught? they kill themselves. they go crazier? they fall and accidentally die

real suffering comes from detaching the villain from their power. let their world crumble. and thus, in Eve the ML saw the amount of destruction they caused and what did he do? suicide but with murder. and that's they point, muurrrrder (again don't judge I'm a writer xD) but how to make murder worse? one dies and one lives but loses everything, her memory, her sanity, her personality, her life, and she lives in a state she doesn't know what's real or not, she's just a shell
but I guess Eve got there 1st so this couldn't copy it. and psych ward is the 3rd option for villains anyway