This is a show that is simultaneously brutal and beautiful in its depiction and execution. It's a fantastic metaphor for capitalism and the illusion of autonomy, the compulsion to survive that drives the poorest when their supposed freedoms and choices are constrained by a need to survive. Anyone could have left the game but out in the real world, the pressures would not let them. So they stayed and played.

I thought Gi-Hun was a weak and unsympathetic character, I didn't like the actor's constipated expressions at everything and I thought the support cast was better in terms of sympathetic characters and acting. The plot itself was formulaic but still great. Lot of the deaths were foreshadowed but that often made the prelude thick with emotional suspense and a desperation to be proven wrong. The games were brutal and I thought in particular that episodes 4 and 7 were masterful.

Again, I felt let down by the main character and I also found everything on the side with the undercover policeman to be an unnecessary addition which could instead have been devoted to fleshing out the back stories of some of the other characters. I found the North Korean defector (sorry i can't remember her name) the most interesting whilst Ali and the old man were the most endearing. This show really though could only be endured if you hated the characters. As soon as you began liking someone, they were bound to die.