Alice in Borderland on Netflix (open spoilers likely after first post)

Cafe Society
1

I just finished bingeing the two seasons of Alice in Borderland on Netflix. It’s a Japanese import (based on a manga, I believe) whose most immediate comparison is Squid Game, in that it involves people playing deadly versions of children’s games. But instead of the capitalism-class angle of Squid Game, it has more of a what-is-human-life-worth element, along with interesting game design and philosophy questions, as well as the underlying mystery of what’s going on.

I think it’s overall about as good as Squid Game, which is to say quite good and entertaining, but not in my pantheon of very best shows ever.

Things it does well:
-unpredictable plot
-fun, varied “games”
-VERY high production values, including fights and chases that would stand out even in a big budget Hollywood movie
-varied, well-drawn-out and well-acted characters
-Interesting world-building
-Surprisingly satisfying conclusion (imho, at least)

Weaknesses:
-world building in season 2 somewhat fell apart
-lots of long philosophical/ethical/moral speechifying which, frankly, I didn’t get much out of
-some frustratingly obvious “wait, why didn’t the characters all immediately do X” instances

Spoiler-y discussion:
-As mentioned, I found the season 2 conclusion VERY satisfying… partially because anything else would have been cheap, which they basically lampshaded. Why did they all share a hallucination in the seconds before they either lived or died? Dunno. If we find out in a season 3, great. If not, also great.
-I thought the game-adjacent-worldbuilding in season 1 much superior and clearer than season 2. In season 1, we totally got how it worked. Lights come on announcing a game. You can go play if you want. If you survive you get a card (although what if multiple people survive? do they each get a card?). Then you get a parole period, and you are killed if you don’t join another game before your parole ends. In season 2, there are all these blimps hovering over places where games might take place. But there are no paroles. Some of the games are ongoing. And the queen of hearts games has to be last? What if someone just tries to go play it immediately? etc. But none of the characters ever acknowledge or discuss this. And how did that fit with all the people who formed a little village?
-I also think season 2 fell down on how people reacted to the King of Spades (although the final fight with the KoS was genuinely badass, if implausible at times) (and the final resolution kind of makes the implausibility all more understandable. How does someone live through those gunshot wounds? because the gunshot wounds are all in their mind and it’s all really a question of will, or something). At that point, all the survivors should be hardened, badass, and heavily armed. People screaming and running away and getting mowed down would make sense for early in season 1. But not in season 2.

2

Apart from the speeches and philosophizing, I really enjoyed both seasons. Its real strength is the designs of the games and those got even better in the second season, especially the ones involving Chishiya.

The ending was as good as any I think could have been landed from the corner they painted themselves into. Alas, it doesn’t appear to leave any opportunity for a third season.

3

I can’t think of any evidence for it, but I assumed newbies were continuously arriving.

4

I enjoyed it. I like the more natural acting over the exaggerated Korean style. They may have screwed themselves out of subsequent seasons by explaining too much, but I do like getting answers to the mysteries presented.

5

So it wasn’t just me? There was more than a year between when I saw S1 and S2 and I thought I must have just forgotten about the blimps and ongoing games and such.

6

…Alice in Borderland is based on a manga, and a lot of that had to be substantially condensed for season two, and along with the typical Netflix translation issues, it wouldn’t surprise me if there was a bit of nuance lost in what ended up onscreen.

Just for an example: there is a Chinese Drama that I watch called “My Superhero” and there is one particular scene that I find so hilarious that I often go back to revisit it. And depending on whether I use the “official translation” or the “unofficial one” or the AI generated one, I get three very different versions of that scene, some bits with additional context, some missing important context, and one particular joke that I didn’t quite get until I saw it the third time and realized they were juxtaposing a moment from an earlier episode but a couple of translations went verbatim and missed the obvious wordplay.

So personally, (as a fan of Chinese, South Korean and Japanese shows) I have gotten used to head-cannoning things that don’t quite make sense.