An intense, well executed S1 gem.

First episode and I'm hooked...

It's excellent.

Gets a little ridiculous toward the end, but entertaining

Not sure why but I'm not hooked like I was hoping...
Will watch another episode...

I think my new 2021 goal is going to be to stop reading and watching things where every character I grow to love dies.

Just finished Episode #3.

Whoa....

Episode 3 is where I stopped and for a couple of days couldn't stop thinking WTF did I just get into and proceeded to plow through the remaining insanity

im on episode 7 and im not sure if ill make it through this episode. twissssssted

New season now on Netflix. I watched the first season before Squid Game and think the premise is better. Starting episode one tonight.

I enjoyed both of the shows; but enjoyed Alice more. That sheep/wolf episode was nuts.

CrawfordAg said:

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New season now on Netflix. I watched the first season before Squid Game and think the premise is better. Starting episode one tonight.

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I was just wondering if this was coming back

I'm in. Just gotta wait for everyone to settle in for a long winters nap.

Watched about half the new season so far and it's been pretty enjoyable. I didn't really care for the ending of the first season but this season has been fun so far

Finished it last night. Pretty good, although I liked season 1 more. They did provide resolution, so I'm guessing there won't be a season 3.

gggmann said:

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Finished it last night. Pretty good, although I liked season 1 more. They did provide resolution, so I'm guessing there won't be a season 3.

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Same and felt the resolution was decent as well (it's based on a book so I assume it matched that).

I've seen some talk that there could still be a season 3, but seems like it would get a bit gimmicky if they do any kind of "Sike!" type story-arch from here.

The Debt said:

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I'm in. Just gotta wait for everyone to settle in for a long lasers zap.

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FIFY

The last episode was up and down. I do feel like they wrapped things up, but that final card…

Episode 2…
A full hour of them running around shipping containers.
Way too long an episode for the content, and even after an hour it isn't resolved. Disappointing episode for me.

oragator said:

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Episode 2…
A full hour of them running around shipping containers.
Way too long an episode for the content, and even after an hour it isn't resolved. Disappointing episode for me.

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Just FYI, they do that a lot this season - end a game mid episode and then start the next game in the 2nd half of the episode.

Yeah, mid to mid is OK. But this game took up the last five or ten minutes of episode 1, a full hour in episode 2, and now it is running into episode 3. Wayyyyyyyyyyy too much time on it. It's almost the running length of a movie all in. In a desolate boring backdrop amidst all those containers.
I will say that game itself is really interesting though. Something tells me it will become a real thing for some people in the future.

gggmann said:

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Finished it last night. Pretty good, although I liked season 1 more. They did provide resolution, so I'm guessing there won't be a season 3.

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They left a card on the table which could be foreshadowing, some people stayed behind, or apparently there is a book sequel that takes him back once he has a family and changes him.

As nicely packaged as it was, I have a feeling money/viewership wins out and they make one more.

Finally knocked it out and really enjoyed the show. 1st season was better than the second, if only because I like the games the most and a lot of face card games were relegated to a montage this season. I would have preferred more episodes or even a 3rd season to get to the conclusion.

Quote:

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They left a card on the table which could be foreshadowing, some people stayed behind, or apparently there is a book sequel that takes him back once he has a family and changes him.

As nicely packaged as it was, I have a feeling money/viewership wins out and they make one more.

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I grew to like the show and it's characters; the episode where Chishiya and Kuzuryu face off is one of the best scenes. I liked that they finally dove in to each characters real life and makes sense why they played the way they played.

I read an idea about the final card; the Joker in the Manga series represented a character that took souls of those playing in the game, but I read that the series pretty much covered everything in the Manga. The theory is that the Joker might be behind the whole thing of them going back to their "real world" and will now have to play one final game or games against the Joker in that pseudo world.

Another write up and theory:

What exactly is the show trying to say with this ending? There are many possible interpretations, but here's ours: While Arisu was stuck in his Mira-induced hallucination, Usagi tells him to stop searching for "the reason for living."

"The answer is different for everyone," she says. "A reason for living... it doesn't matter if you have one or not." Ever since Karube and Chota died in the Seven of Hearts game, Arisu has been asking why he lived instead of them and believing that he should not have. For most of the show, Arisu has seemingly believed that his life is worthless unless he found a clear answer to this question of why he survived. The ending suggests that that shouldn't be the case. Arisu's life has value whether or not he finds the answer he's looking for there's so much to gain from the journey of living even if the reason for it isn't obvious

Meanwhile, what is up with the show's final scene? There is a deck of cards on a table outside the hospital building, and the final shot zooms in on the joker card. While this can be interpreted as the entire ending about the meteorite disaster being an extension of the games (please no), we're going to think of it another way for our sanity. An explanation could be that the deck of cards is there so that when Arisu or anyone who survived Borderland sees the joker card, it will prompt them to remember what they experienced in that one minute when their hearts stopped.

It would be very interesting to see how they go if they did make another season. I'm torn between wanting to see more and the end being some sort of poetic justice to what they went through.

The last episode was a mind bender.

In the end there was a lot of Lost in it, but the mind bending was in how they all lived and died, and how much happened that way in borderland.

Season 3 could happen and I would watch, but I kinda hope it doesn't. Even with some uncertainty, it felt like a solid way to end.

my guess on the joker is that it's whomever or whatever sent them there in the first place. The rest of the deck was their creation and they could easily set something g else up if they wanted to. I also really like the thought of there being some middle ground between life and death where you have to fight to come back, that's a cool concept.

oragator said:

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The last episode was a mind bender.

In the end there was a lot of Lost in it, but the mind bending was in how they all lived and died, and how much happened that way in borderland.

Season 3 could happen and I would watch, but I kinda hope it doesn't. Even with some uncertainty, it felt like a solid way to end.

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My thoughts exactly. Just finished and the whole episode all I could think about was the finale of lost.

Overall a fun series. Thought the games in season 1 were way more interesting than the showdown type games like King of spades was. Wouldn't mind seeing another season but I mostly enjoyed the games so not sure I'd watch a whole season if it was just one long joker game

How did the Queen of Hearts transport them to an asylum?

Whatever the mechanism, it seems obvious to me that the transportation into borderland world and their reintroduction into "the real world" is only chasing the white rabbit deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole (where the joker resides, or has his final trick.)

Season 3 just came out, anybody started watching and have some early impressions?

It's pretty much all games, after a good setup in the first episode. I have one left, and I'd definitely recommend if you enjoyed the first two season.

Looking forward to diving in this weekend

I was pretty disappointed, especially in the last episode resolution.

Several of the season 1 & 2 characters aren't in it other than quick cameo appearances.

We cancelled Netflix, as well as Hulu / Disney+, years ago now have:

- Peacock (premium)
- Prime (Amazon)
- PBS Kids (Prime channel)
- occasional free trial (liked Max the best, via Prime)

I would have breezed right through that post but the spoiler redaction intrigued me enough to look at it.

Good to know RS.

Well, although series achieves strong gender balance, with women prominently featured as leads, strategists, and fighters, challenging stereotypes in action-thriller genres, there is very minimal, if any at all, ethnic diversity. The show doesn't feature significant Asian diaspora, Black, white, or other non-East Asian representation, which has drawn some fan discussion on platforms like Reddit for its "all-Japanese" vibe despite a high-stakes survival narrative. And, sadly, no explicit diversity initiatives are mentioned in studio / production notes.