Squid Game and Midnight Mass: Terror takes many forms, but the human one remains the most terrifying.

 

Squid Game and Midnight Mass have only one thing in common: they are both wonderful.

Even though the first one also has a somewhat fantasy-oriented factor, it is still a fantasy grounded in reality in the sense that there is nothing connected to any mythology or anything supernatural.

With the second it is almost the complete opposite. It certainly holds itself well beyond terror and bloodshed, but the mythology enacted here plays a vital role.

Each of these series deserved its individual critique, but sometimes it turns out to be so good that I get bewildered and even forget the words.

Come on, at least try to embody the feeling of What an incredible thing! I need to talk about it! that both series gave me. And why talk about both in one article? Because I don't want to go any further than necessary. Maybe if I give one more detail, especially about Midnight Mass, it can give you a kind of clue that will lead you to understand everything very quickly and one of the best things about this series is the impact that comes with the revelations and discoveries.

Squid Game

Amazing how the South Korean people have artistic talent. Whether in music, movies or TV. It's impossible nowadays for people, no matter how "alienated" from oriental culture, not to know how K-Pop dominated the music scene.

A few years ago Train To Busan became a phenomenon, but as it was a movie with a zombie apocalypse theme, it didn't reach the status of world fever. Closer, much closer to that came the Oscar winner, Parasite, which has become a must-see for all lovers of the seventh art.

Now it's time for the Squid Game series or Round 6 (name that was only used in Brazil) to snatch fans from all over the world and become the most watched series in the history of Netflix.

The nine episodes fly by, the rhythm is so agile. The actors are impeccable. I've seen some people talking about ham and exaggerated performances. Not the case here. What happens is that, yes, some reactions there are more exaggerated, sometimes there are even unconscious sentimental "appeals". It's a cultural thing. It was not forced, it was consistent with the people presented.

At the beginning, we met the protagonist Seong Gi-Hun who despite being charismatic and a good person, is a compulsive gambler and a constant liar. He owes it to God and the world.

He loves his daughter with all his heart, but his ex-wife doesn't want him near her because he is unreliable and a bad influence.

In this, he meets a boy on the subway, (in a short but great participation by Gong Yoo, protagonist of Train To Busan) who offers him a challenge: to play a children's game and, in each round that he wins, he takes ten thousand won, when he loses, he gets slapped in the face. He loses a few rounds, and gets beaten a lot, but in the end gets some good money - which is stolen from him by a young thief in a worse situation than he is - and receives a proposal: if he calls the number on the card given to him, with his talent for that kind of game, he could participate in a competition in which he would earn a lot of money. Seeing that he has no other option, he goes.

Upon arriving at the scene, he sees Kang Sae-Byeok, the girl who stole him (whom this author was rooting for), a refugee from North Korea, played magnificently by an actress who has become one of my favorites, Jung Ho-Yeon.

There he also meets his childhood friend, who upon graduating from a prestigious university, became the genius and pride of the poor neighborhood where he and Cho Sang-Woo lived, played exemplarily by Park Hae-Soo and more than four hundred other participants.

Among them: Abdul Ali, the Pakistani immigrant tricked by his boss and working for free, unable to support his wife and young child in a moving performance by Tripathi Anupam.

Jang Deok-Su, a heartless gangster made very well by Heo Sung-Tae.

Han Mi-Nyeo, a woman who does everything to survive, in a poignant performance by Kim Joo-Ryung and Oh Il-Nam, a man who has a terminal illness, so he sees no reason not to risk that competition, played by Oh Young-Soo.

It doesn't take long for events to have dire consequences, and the scenes in which such events take place are, to say the least, shocking and very well done. The scenario is made to cause agony and discomfort, the suffocating sensation that players experience, you are also taken to feel. As events unfold, a policeman working on his own, without notifying any colleague, least of all his superiors, manages to infiltrate the employees of that madness and investigates with the aim of discovering his brother's whereabouts. Appalled by the cruelty he witnesses, he wants, in addition to finding his brother, also to know the person responsible for all that and bring him to justice.

I knew there was a heavy stigma on North Korean refugees going to South Korea, but I had no idea how other immigrants, like what character Ali suffer in the country. Although the series doesn't delve that much into these themes, because, after all, it's a series, not a geo-politics class, the message conveyed is clear. And how this and other ideas are shown to the viewer are not only well executed, but even sublime in certain points.

In addition to a very well written script, its execution is a perfection. The production design is excellent, and technically, almost perfect. The series really has almost no notable flaws.

The class struggle is obvious, but rest assured, there is no political pamphlet. It is much more about human selfishness and greed than "against the system". By the way, if you saw the series and didn't catch the irony of the "game owner" in his speeches against capitalism, well, maybe you should review (both his ideological concepts and the television work).

I'll stop reviewing Round 6/Squid Game here because, well, probably, my mission is to make you watch this magnificent work that has already made history.

In time: there is so much talk in the series about how human beings see their fellows suffering and, when they don't like it, they don't do anything about it, and what are we doing?! Seeing a series with characters in intense suffering and eating popcorn. Was it the purpose of creator, screenwriter and director Hwang Dong-hyuk to embed the idea that, deep down, we're no better than anyone else there? The reflection remains.

                                                                                                                   Grade: 8/8

Midnight Mass

Even with names like Isabela Boscov (the best professional critic in Brazil) saying that this series was the best work done by Mike Flanagan - which would not be easy, considering that he was responsible for films like Oculus (from 2013, with Karen Gillian), Hush, Gerald's Game (great, also from Netflix) and Dr. Sleep (this one didn't please me so much, but not for the film itself, but for an interpretation of a character by Stephen King and that here continues the same erroneous adaptation, in my opinion, that had in The Shining) and series like The Curse of Hill Residence, The Curse of Bly Mansion - I still wasn't quite sure that so much hype was justified. It was. It was too much.

The first episodes, especially the first three (the series contains seven, each one hour long) have a more contemplative rhythm, more guided by dialogue. However, don't think that this makes them boring. At least for me, it only piqued my curiosity to know where those people, that city with such an air of despondency and existential crisis, would arrive. The philosophical discussions, whether in the lines of conversations between Erin (Kate Siegel, in another very convincing performance and Riley, (Zach Gilford, who I've seen in several series and movies, but never caught my attention as here) or Riley and Father Paul, played by Hamish Linklater, phenomenal in everything, gestures, looks and especially voice work. Amazing how he modulates his tone for when he's talking in a friendly but almost formal way, then for when he talks to people who have his personal affection and more and it's more intimate and how it changes drastically for her fiery speeches. - detail that Isabela Boscov drew my attention to in her video about the series.

I've seen a lot of people saying they don't know the actor and it was surprising to me, because the man has an extensive resume and, although I haven't seen him in a long time - since "The New Adventures of Old Christine", CW series of 2006 who has now joined HBO Max - knew he was in "Legion", for example. I even tried to watch the series, but it didn't work for me.

If I'm not mistaken (and if I'm wrong, please speak respectfully in the comments), this work uses a creature and mythology from the horror/fantasy genre in an innovative way. I've never seen anything like it. I don't even remember any book that reminds me of what was done here. Although Flanagan himself said that he was inspired by works by Stephen King and some others, it was not enough inspiration even for those who read these books and others on this topic, that you can make a connection, at least not right away. In the second episode I suspected because of things from the first that were confirmed in it. I asked on Twitter if that was it (the question was deleted after they answered me by DM). The person told me yes, but also told me to wait because the best was to come. No sooner said than done.

Even if you are an expert on the supernatural theme portrayed, keep watching until the end and I guarantee you won't regret it. The development and above all, the consequences of everything that lay ahead until that moment, are overwhelming. When the pace starts to pick up, the discussions get more feverish and (that's the ultimate sign) the town's religious fanatic, Bev Keane (Samantha Sloyan, perfect) swoops in on the most sickening and hypocritical fundamentalism (im)possible. it's time to take a deep breath, grab the pillow and wait for blow to the stomach after blow to the soul.

Seriously. While I'm writing, I'm holding myself back from watching it again, which doesn't happen very often. Terror is graphic yes, it is heavy yes, terrifying to be sure, but the drama, the confusion, the lack of hope and expectation that drives so many there to despair to the point of doing what they do, is the most touching. The community is lost, turned into a ghost town after an environmental disaster in which the victims were actually punished.

I also loved that, finally, a Muslim character isn't either a terrorist or revolted by Islam, it's just a regular guy who, dammit, is a Muslim (just as he could be of any religion or have none). And, it also caught my attention how Sheriff Hassan (Rahul Kohli, competent as always) has superhuman patience with prejudice (at first veiled, then gaping and even violent) and passive aggression. His scene at the police station telling doctor Sarah about the events that led him to accept the job in that abandoned city for the sake of his son and to have some peace (the biting irony here was astonishing), no flashbacks, just relying on the talent of actor to narrate the character's story was as or more brilliant than what LoKi did quickly with Wunmi Mosaku in the scene where he remembers his life before being kidnapped by AVT/TVA. Here, the actor had time to extend himself and show more nuances of acting. He truthfully passed all the tortuous path that he followed and that ended up where he was now.

                                                     

The photograph also draws attention, as despite being largely made of cool colors, in a bluish tone, to convey the feeling of sterility and generalized deadness that the population feels, when there are scenes in which the use of colors expresses hope and until liberation they are well and abundantly used.

Otherwise, there's nothing I can say that won't end up giving you at least a hint of how things go on the show. See as soon as possible, even if you like a more frenetic pace and seem very slow at first. Trust me and pay attention to the dialogues. Then come back here in the comments and tell me if it was worth trusting or not.