Are you watching "Squid Game" or "Midnight Mass"?
Thursday, October 7, 2021 at 7:40PM by Nathaniel R
I received an email from a reader yesterday earlier this week suggesting that we discuss "Squid Game" which has become very popular, quite rapidly, all over the world. We've had lots of internal discussion here at The Film Experience about how much television to cover since TV and Film have been merging into a two-headed amorphous beast for at least a decade now. The movies the general public likes best now are inarguably, the "continuing series" movies which makes them much more like television than their blockbuster ancestors. Today I screened Dune and it is literally just half a movie! Meanwhile the TV series that win the most acclaim, if not always the biggest audiences, are inarguably the ones that feel the most "cinematic", a simmering change that reached a boil with Mad Men (if you ask us) since it looked and sounded as delicious and expensive as the very best the cinema itself had to offer. For the past ten years movies are getting longer (the new James Bond is almost three hours. WTF) and television seasons keep getting shorter! I suspect younger audiences don't fully get how much different the landscapes are now than they were even 15 years ago... but I digress. This is all a long way of saying we never know which series to cover and we obviously need a bigger team!
Speaking of longwindedness. If every showrunner on earth is now allowed to just make people wait for something to happen until episode two or even three (that would have got you immediately cancelled pre-2010s when shows would shove every possible hook they could into a pilot episode) I can begin this discussion of Squid Game with a detour to Midnight Mass...
Your mileage may vary but people have a LOT of patience for slow-boil storytelling these days. I don't share that patience and I'm often convinced that many miniseries would be better as two hour movies. Just cut the filler subplots and definitely cut the repetitive scenes that told me something I already learned in the first few episodes. My current prime example of this is Midnight Mass which is unconscionably slow. I was so angry at the end of the first episode that I planned to never watch another... one full hour just for atmosphere with no actual plot?!? You have to be kidding me! But my best friend kept telling me "give it another chance. You'll really like it. You guessed correctly that it's a vampire series and I promise it gets interesting." He was right (sort of) and after watching three more hours of it I am interested.
But here's the thing. All of that interest could have happened in a single hour. The first four episodes only have about 45 minutes (tops) of plot and atmosphere is a pretty easy thing to convey in mere seconds with the right production team and actors. The plotting and ideas in the show are interesting and three of the actors hold attention very well on their own (Hamish Linklater, Zach Gilford, and Rahul Kohli) but the riches are obscured and diminished by creator/writer Mike Flanagan's utter inability to edit himself. If this story had any sense of pacing and urgency I would recommend it to people but I can't because I'm so fucking annoyed... even at the parts I enjoy! The streaming era appears to have convinced a lot of artists that they have all the time in the world to tell their stories. But stories need urgency...especially those in the thriller / horror / action genres.
Where is the urgency?
Oh, it's right over here in the popular South Korean series, Squid Game!
The feelings of excitement and urgency and possibility arrive just 19 minutes into the "pilot" episode if you will though we should note that pilots dont really exist in the world of streaming which just produces full seasons without that very wasteful/costly and weirdly still existant practice of traditional TV.
The first half of the episode is the set up, establishing tone (at least partially) and ably conveying the show's weird mix of misery porn / desperation comedy as we follow the broke and foolish Gi-hun (Greg Chun) through what we can only assume is a typical day. He dodges loan sharks. He disappoints everyone. He gambles away what little money he has. He's constantly nervous and depressed. Then one day at the train station he is approached by "The Salesman" (Train to Busan's charismatic leading man Gong Yoo), and offered what he assumes will be easy money to play a simple game. Of course he loses over and over again. Some people turn red from embarrassment. Gi-hun is shameless so his face get there by being slapped over and over again as he loses dozens of times.
Halfway through the episode is the pivot point as Gi-hun calls The Salesman back and agrees to play a series of "games" for an undisclosed huge stack of money. He is promptly drugged and wakes up in dystopian barracks in a secret compound with hundreds of other people who are just as desperate as he is.
Squid Game's first episode, "Red Light, Green Light" isnt a slowburn so much as a rapid boiling over. The second half of the episode is a dangerous and weird rush as all hell breaks loose during the first game (the children's game of the episode's title). Gi-hun and his fellow players realize with horror that losing or being "eliminated" from these games is a euphemism for being assassinated and the playing field is suddenly as bloody as a slaughter house. It's all so tense and freaky that the series can abrupty change pacing style in the much sadder and slower episode 2 and still feel nearly as riveting. It's surely worth noting that episode two is called "Hell" even though it takes place in the real world as opposed to the violent made-up game world of that secret compound. With Parasite in 2019 South Korea laid claim to being the preeminent showbiz voice on the horrors of the 21st century's increasing wealth disparity and they aren't letting up. I'm just two episodes in so it's not exactly clear what's going on -- I assume the games are a dark niche hobby for the sadistic ultra wealthy and they're amusing themselves with the slaughter of the masses Hunger Games style... but that's a guess -- it's very clear that the show's primary theme is most definitely the socioeconomic hell of unfettered late-stage capitalism. The production design is particularly inspired in this regard -- Two days later I can't stop thinking about that freakishly cute floating transparent piggy bank of money hovering over the desperate players. The themes are coming through loud and clear even though Native Korean speakers are complaining that Netflix's subtitles are quite poor and missing the socio-economic nuances of the characters and by extension the metaphors of the show.
I have more feelings about both shows but should probably see more episodes or finish altogether before sharing them. If you're watching what did you think of the first two episodes? Please no spoilers beyond those episodes in the comments!
P.S. As the AV Club notes Squid Game is theoretically eligible for the Emmys next year even though foreign series are generally not eligible. The difference here is that Netflix had a major hand in its funding and production rather than buying the rights to stream it so theoretically that means enough American involvement. The issue is that Netflix might choose to submit it instead to the International Emmys where it has a better chance at winning. They'll have to do the math on that just as documentaries and telefilms have to make those calculations between going for Emmys or Oscars in this increasingly confusing marketplace where the separate artforms of television and film are now under the same big tent of "content".
Asian cinema, Midnight Mass, South Korea, Squid Game, streaming
Reader Comments (12)
Thank you for providing the opportunity to discuss Squid Game. I look forward to my favorite posters sharing perspectives.
I normally don’t care for horror. Here the chaos doesn’t feel mindless. The slaughter in the first round resonates with callous school shootings that populate our headlines. Adults shot while playing a children’s game. I caught myself lacking compassion. Bodies were graphically ripped open and I was still concerned who could cross the finish line in time.
The likeable Gi-hun compulsively gambles. He isn’t even subtle in his transparent lies to his mother, his ex-wife and his daughter. He emotionally abuses the women in his circle but responds differently to men, his best friend and his ex-wife’s new husband. Gi-hun’s lack of respect for women feels like social commentary as well that may well play out in the remainder of the series.
I think Squid Game is a fascinating populist entertainment that is based in implicit bias and teases those attitudes to our own chagrin.
.. I LOVED Midnight Mass. I could care less about the slowness!!!
I only fully watched the first episode of both, and I enjoyed Squid Game way more than Midnight Mass.
Squid Game is so fun and harrowing, while Midnight Mass just meanders, and this is coming from someone who loves Flanagan's both Haunting series.
I loved Midnight Mass. It is slow at times but on chapter three and on a lot of things begin to happen. I agree that it could use some trimming (everyone tell their stories and some are rather dull). It reminded me a lot of Salem’s Lot the miniseries. As a catholic, it is also fascinating to see a lot of religious themes. There is a conversation between two characters (an atheist and a catholic) about their beliefs on death. That conversation is echoed in the last chapter in an interesting way.
speaking of streaming shows that should've been covered here: schmigadoon!
[if only for the one episode wonder that was jane krakowski]
Finished Midnight Mass on Wednesday -meh-, abandoned Squid on Thursday.
Have you seen The Underground Railroad? Very interested in your opinion since you're one of the very few who didn't fall for Beale Street. Jenkins amplifies all his defects here, in my opinion.
"Your mileage may vary but people have a LOT of patience for slow-boil storytelling these days. I don't share that patience and I'm often convinced that many miniseries would be better as two hour movies."
Lol. I actually think the exact reverse - I can think of a number of movies that I think would benefit from a six+ hour miniseries format
re: Squid Game
I liked it a lot - the central premise is pretty match impossible to screw up - but there are other aspects to it that don't quite work as well. Peaks in the middle.
I've always appreciated the range of The Film Experience, providing fantastic posts on film, and some times TV and theater. Since I watch much more TV than film, I've tried to find comparable sites. They do NOT exist, which is why I always come back to TFE, for a even a weekly dose of TV content.
Anyhoo, something about Squid Game is capturing whatever zeitgeist is happening across the world. My Irish brother-in-law says all his relatives back in Ireland are obsessed; he's watching it too even though "the acting is pure shite, but I can't stop." I suggested he watch the subtitled version rather than the dubbed one, but apparently that's not great either. I made it through the first episode, but found it too depressing. Will probably go back to it after Ted Lasso ends, when I'm ready to be sad and depressed again.
@Par - Yes! That, and Central Park are love letters to musical theater fans everywhere.
I haven't even sampled Midnight Mass. Vampires? No.
I am right in the middle of Squid Game and I find it pretty addictive, but why THIS show above all other Korean shows (of which I've seen many)? It reminds me of Parasite. I liked it okay, but it was no The Handmaiden.
I do however have to disagree with anyone who thinks the acting in Squid Game is "shite." I think it's the best part of it beyond the concept. I guess maybe it's the casting but then that is half the battle of acting. I don't think it's a spoiler to say that any non-Korean language acting is wobbly.
I really hope this is something that is wrapped up in one season though. To me, that is really the best part of Korean TV shows. They are (mostly) designed to be one and done and the storyline is wrapped up, even if the show is "accidentally" reviewed for later seasons.
PS the whole thing is SO ridiculous that I don't feel guilty for laughing at some of the more extreme gruesomeness. This is not set in any realistic world.
Squid Game is a masterpiece and I am loving Midnight Mass...
so, both.
I have not seen either of these shows, but I would love to see more tv coverage here. There is so much good tv right now. (I am currently enjoying Only Murders in the Building... it really nails its tone.)
I share many of the same issues with TV v Film, which *feels* like a tired debate since, I guess, we should be championing artists being given such big budgets and time to make their work. But, yes, so many miniseries could be movies. I think of something like MARE OF EASTTOWN, which was very good, but also I will probably never watch it ever again whereas if it were 135-minute movie I'd probably have bought it on disc and watched it at least once a year like I do stuff like THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (or even just once every few years like a BONE COLLECTOR or KISS THE GIRLS). I think UNBELIEVABLE is the only miniseries I've found myself revisiting.