Squid ink

I'm three episodes into Squid Games, and having my doubts about continuing.

I don't know - I've just always found a serious credibility gap with dystopian-ish stories in which large numbers of people are involved in despicable behaviour.  That may sound like an odd thing to say in light of the evidence of the 20th century - or even the absolute nuttiness of wingnut America at the moment.   But at least people in those real life examples thought (or think) they have reason on their side.  It seems hard to see how you fit any kind of moral reasoning into the behaviour of both players and masked staff in this show.  

And masks - put a mask on an evil (or good) character and I start to find its credibility wanes.   I don't think it matters who - Batman, the murderer in the last season of Babylon Berlin, the bad guy in V for Vendetta (which I have never watched, mind you):  mask wearing stops me taking the story very seriously.  Why?   Maybe it's because it never happens in real life? 

Some possible exceptions people might want to bring up:  Darth Vader?  Well, it always sounded like a ventilator, and helmets in space are OK, so I'm not sure it counts.   Zorro?  He wasn't really that serious a character in the first place.  Same with Spiderman - the movies are never really meant to be that serious, especially in the Tom Holland incarnation.  I can forgive a lot if a movie is light in tone, or largely comedic [Deadpool]; but that hardly describes SG.

To be honest, I am a little uncertain about the acting in this show, too.  Sometimes it seems a bit over the top.  The acting in Kingdom, by far the best Korean Netflix series I have seen, was better and didn't seem pushed too far, despite the zombie content.

I  might go another episode (or more), but I am more inclined to just read about how it goes from here.