Rating (3.5 out of 5)
Summary: After you make it through the painfully slow first episode, this 9 episode TV series picks up, and you are hooked. The players are recruited/coerced into playing kids’ games to the death. Once the games begin, it is hard to stop watching. You want to see the next game.
Even though you get hooked, the show has slow moments. You get antsy for the action to resume. The final episode is also prolonged as it wraps up everything for the viewer.
Be prepared for lots of violence. Don’t get attached to any character. This is a Korean, and everyone dies in Korean cinema.
There is an interesting offshoot about people who are cheating the game. Another has a surprise thrown at the players when picking teams; that was unexpected. Some of the moments in the show are really great and powerful, and I think that is what kept me in, even when it was slow.
I binged this in a day. Every episode, I would say to myself, this is the last one. But I was drawn in to see what happened. Even my wife got sucked in, which is unusual.
Plot: Financially strapped people are recruited to play in games. Win, and you live. Lose, you die. The final winner walks away with millions.