This game show will satisfy your thirst

One slight spoiler at the end, I will explicitly state it.

It's one of the better game shows out there. The games were fun, even though some were played multiple times, it didn't get boring.

The cast was decent, I needed some time to get used to them, though it took me a bit longer than usual.

It loses 2 points because of the following:
1. It feels like the show has a lot of "empty space", what I mean by that is, a lot of the time you spent watching the show, they're not actually playing any games. You're watching people eating, strategizing, drinking, etc. Of course, it's important to be notified of alliances, strategies, betrayals, etc. But this was a bit much. The Devil's Plan did this much better in my opinion.

WARNING, SLIGHT SPOILER.

2. I dislike when people have the option to return after they've been eliminated. Regardless of whether I like them or not.

Except for these two details, the show was great in many areas, definitely something to watch if you love game/survival shows!

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A prototype story meant to cause frustration through repetition before the final pay-off

Well, that was a rollercoaster ride!

Rookie Cops is a prime example of a show that has a structure that frustrates me throughout the entire story, and serves as a prototype for other shows that exhibit similar story telling.
Don’t get me wrong, the show was good, and I’ll talk about the good stuff in more detail later, but it was frustrating to watch nonetheless.

A story can be comprised of smaller stories, which serve as a purpose for character development or the incremental progress towards the main goal. This is exactly the route Rookie Cops decided to take. The students, still naïve, morally guided and always seeking justice, find themselves in various troubling situations, where not everything goes according to plan, if anything at all. During these various encounters with unlawful citizens they find out how awful some people can be and how difficult it can be to catch some of the criminals. Not only that, they also realise that their plans are full of gaps that can be exploited, and that good plans can also have negative consequences.

The extreme justice seeking behaviour, naivety, total disregard for possible dangers and the repetition of such behaviours is the way to get me frustrated. To be fair, I also am extremely concerned with justice, and I often disagree with how people are being punished or treated in relation to how the public perceives the perpetrator and their crimes. Justice, is not the rehabilitation of the criminal, justice has nothing to do with human rights, justice is when the people feel that the perpetrator in question is punished or treated in a way that is equally or more harsh than the crime they committed to the victim. Justice has nothing to do with preventing crime, it has to do with pleasing the population and gaining trust in the system, not with giving certain people second chances.
I find it important to make that clear, because it seems that people really do not understand why prisons exist or why people threw tomatoes at criminals, or paid to watch someone get decapitated in the past. There’s a reason why people lack faith in the judicial system, especially nowadays. While this show does not mention any of the punishments given to any of the criminals, the way they get captured is too light. Think about of Ottomans, who amputated hands from thieves in some severe cases. Compare this to today’s system, where any small injury of the criminal can cause an investigation or punishment to the cop, this is a bad system, and now wonder that so few people actually want to do such dangerous work while barely being able to defend themselves or carry out the work they have to do.
This is why I dislike justice seeking behaviour, because most of it, has nothing to do with justice, it’s punishing criminals, trying to cure them, while treating them with velvet hands. The naivety, disregard of danger and repetition of such behaviour should be clear enough of why it frustrates me.

Because of this, I cannot give the show a 10/10 even if the rest of it was perfect, which it wasn’t, but it was good.

I know that if there’s anything people dislike about the show, it’s the characters. I found the characters to be fine, the male lead is calm, somewhat difficult to read emotionally, but not boring. The female lead was amazing, she played her role really well in all situations. The side characters were interesting in their own way, but Ari and Woo Joo Young really lacked depth that Yoo Dae Il, Kim Tak or Ki Han Na had.

I don’t want to make this too long, so the final thing I want to say is that, the plot twist at the end of episode fifteen was glorious! They face on Jo Hansol when he saw they captured Go Eun Gang instead of their prostitute was so satisfying to watch! The soundtrack that played during that scene and during the credits was great too, written by the male lead of the show Kang Daniel. At that moment, Jo Hansol really didn’t know what to do anymore, he just didn’t have anywhere to go. Anything he’d do would just lead to his demise.

The final episode was somewhat disappointing, as I had hoped the capture of Jo Hansol had taken a different direction than it did, and not knowing what punishment he and the corrupt former officers faced after trial is wasted potential, as it’s a moment where you can really influence people’s feelings.

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A show where you can predict every step, yet its still fun to watch

How often did you come across a show where the plot and so called 'plot-twists' were so obvious and easy to predict, yet the show was so enjoyable to watch, it didn't really matter anyway? Well, Pyramid Game is another one of those shows and I absolutely loved it!

The main reason I liked the show, is because I think societies with strict hierarchies are very interesting to look at, because the dynamics are so much different than when the hierarchy is immediately obvious. Now, I wouldn't wish to live in such a society (unless I'm somewhere near the top), because its very punishing. For this reason, people from the bottom layers of the hierarchy, are likely to want to: A. Move Up (obviously) or B. Destroy the hierarchy. Unless the society is sufficiently small enough, B is not feasible, but a classroom with 25 or so people, is small enough. Sung Soo Ji, the transfer student, tries to turn B into a reality, which shakes up the entire hierarchy, this is what's interesting.

I admit, after watching the first episode, I was quite disappointed, I thought the hierarchy would be more objective, like taking into account grades, looks, etc. But no, it was all a scheme, a scheme to bully people, or rather, one specific person. I was somewhat turned off, but I continued, and by episode 3/4 I didn't think about it anymore, the show succeeded in making this approach interesting to me as well. I realized that having objective ways of measuring categories to classify people is not necessary to enjoy the hierarchical dynamics shown in such stories.

In any case, regardless of the setting, the OST and especially the main theme were amazing. I listened to the main theme every day since I started watching the show until I finished it. The somewhat dramatic style of music that makes you feel like something is going down, that's what makes people hyped. Also special mention to the actress of Baek Ha Rin, Jang Da A. She's the older sister of Jang Won Young, member of idol group Ive. It's her first appearance as actress and she played her part very well. I could feel/see the hysterical moment of Ha Rin even when they weren't obvious.

Of course, there were also some things I didn't like about the show:

1. Myung Ja Eun.... She was probably the most frustrating character I've ever seen in any show.... The entirety of the show she acted as if she was confused. She has no personality, which could make sense considering she may have developed a personality disorder, or is in the process of developing one due to the circumstances she's been in the past year or so. In any case, regardless of the justification, it's infuriating to watch her, I hate her character.

2. The portrayal of psychopathy. At the end of the show, it was revealed (implied) that Baek Ha Rin was a psychopath. I completely disagree with the decision to use this as some justification to create the plot for this show. The combination of psychopathy + childhood bullying Baek Ha Rin faced is the justification the author thought it needed to have Baek Ha Rin create such a sadistic and extreme game. This decision is either forced, which would just be lazy, or it arises from a lack of understanding of psychopathy. Let me explain why I disagree with the portrayal.

So psychopaths are born, from a young age, you can already see some signs that hint to lack of remorse, anger outbursts, violence, lack of empathy, etc. This already applies to extremely young ages (4-12). As an example, I quote: "When Ted Bundy was 3 years old, he reportedly took all the knives from the kitchen and placed them around the body of his sleeping aunt, with the blades pointing towards her. His aunt woke up to find young Ted Bundy standing beside her bed, smiling, as if waiting for her reaction." This is of course an extreme example, but I want to point out that even at young ages, you may be able to see psychopathy.

I did not see any psychopathic tendencies from Baek Ha Rin when she was a little kid. She was thoughtful, wanting to give Ja Eun something (I forgot what). She wasn't aggressive, didn't bully the kids back who bullied her. She didn't seem to have any aggressive outbursts either.

Ha Rin was an Orphan, experienced childhood bullying, ended up at a family who didn't love her at all, the grandma of the family also had some anti-social tendencies and her only friend did not stand up for her when she needed her most. No wonder Ha Rin developed anti-social behavior, this does not seem like a psychopath, but more like a sociopath.

Furthermore, psychopaths aren't sadistic, yes some are, but most aren't, they are two separate conditions. To me, Ha Rin clearly developed sadistic behavior due to her childhood related trauma. Therefore, I think Baek Ha Rin became a sociopath with sadistic tendencies.

The reason I want to make a point out of this, is because people will see Ha Rin as being born bad, instead of becoming bad. This is how I interpreted it.

3. Lack of character development. Now I don't really think of this as a big negative, especially because I understand that such a show cannot be made much longer without losing its appeal, but some characters, like Doo Ah and Kim Da Yeon had a lot of potential for better character development.

4. It felt like Sung Soo Ji won every single battle and Baek Ha Rin wasn't even a match for her. The battle for the destruction of the pyramid game was one-sided. Every time Ha Rin tried to bring something to the table, Soo Ji had a counter for it, she never actually won any of the 'matches'. This made Ha Rin look less capable, and is probably some missed potential to make the fight more memorable than it was.

5. I didn't really like the ending, where the new sisters of the school wanted to reignite the pyramid game.

Regardless of the negatives, I still give the show a 10/10, because of the enjoyment I had while watching this show.

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