Escapist Routes #18

Every week I am completely stumped as I try to come up with a clever newsletter title, or I go to hit “publish” and then remember that the placeholder title (of the date I intend to post) is still in place.

WELL, NO MORE. Apologies to people who care about consistent branding, but I’m taking a leaf from Renay’s Intergalactic Mixtape (do subscribe if you love books and Murderbots) and going for a strictly numerical system from here on out.

This week, I’m talking Murderbot, Poker Face, and giving a spoiler-light review of Squid Game 3.

Murderbot, season 1, episode 9

At this point in the series, I feel like I have nothing new to say, save that I am overall enjoying each episode, glad that I liked the series, and I am ready to reread the books.

All my complaints about the supporting characters still stand, but here’s one thing I really like: the show is NOT letting the audience get away with overlooking Mensah, or desexualising her and turning her into the “team mom”, the way fandom does with so many female characters — especially Black older women who literally have children. Every single member of PresAux thinks she’s brilliant and sexy, as does Murderbot (minus the sexy bit, we stan an asexual agender monarch).

I’ve loved Noma Dumezweni since I first saw her as Captain Erisa Magambo in Doctor Who; I no longer touch anything related to Harry Potter and yet a small part of me wishes I had gotten to see her play Hermione in The Cursed Child on the West End. She was an inspired choice for Dr Mensah, and I deeply appreciate that Murderbot keeps going, “Look, here is a 55-year-old Black woman who arrived in the UK as a refugee. Isn’t she great? Isn’t she hot? And smart? And brave? And I have nothing but support for this position.

Poker Face, season 2, episode 11

I had three thoughts coming out of this episode:

1. I am furious that none of my friends had an oyster bar at their weddings, and I need someone to get married and rectify that at once.

2. Once it recovered from the mid-season wobbles, season 2 of Poker Face has been enjoyable, and it feels like everything is coming together.

3. There is a 100% chance that Steve Buscemi is the person who hired the Iguana as part of this stupidly elaborate plot to get Charlie to lead an assassin to Beatrix Hasp, and I’m here for it.

Does this plot hold up to even a moment of scrutiny? Absolutely not! Am I entertained? Yes. For one thing, I watched the Day of the Jackal series that ran earlier this year and quite enjoyed it until it made an absolutely stupid choice in the final episode which guaranteed I won’t be back for season 2 — but this means I know just enough Iconic Mid-Century Assassin Fiction Lore to appreciate what they were doing with the Iguana.

Actually, I have a fourth thought before I settle in to wait for the season finale: I love that Natasha Lyonne is reuniting the cast of Orange is the New Black, but where oh where is Kate Mulgrew? I am but a simple Trekkie and I have very straightforward needs. A coherent plot is not necessarily one of them.

Squid Game 3

I thought I was wrong about continuing Squid Game.

When two more seasons were announced, I was like, “That is completely unnecessary, it was a perfect story as-is. I don’t see how we can get a better ending.”

Then Squid Game 2 dropped early this year, and to my surprise, I really enjoyed it. I connected with the new characters, I appreciated the new lore, I was delighted to be reunited with old friends and enemies.

But it was only half a story.

I’ve seen a lot of criticisms of Squid Game 3, and I disagree with many of them. It’s nihilistic and bleak? Yeah, who would have thought the dude who created Netflix’s biggest success and saw no residuals would have a jaundiced view of capitalism. The VIPs are still annoying? I’ve seen enough Asian dramas to know that (a) white actors with the language skills — and employment status — to work in a Korean/Chinese/Japanese/etc production are few and far between, and these VIPs were very far from the worst I’ve seen.

(I once watched a Chinese film where an actress was made up in what I have to call whiteface to play a white woman, with English lines she had clearly learned phonetically and did not understand. I’m not comparing this to the racism of blackface, just highlighting the extremely limited pool of actors available to Asian productions.)

I’ve also seen complaints that this story — where collective action spurred by individual ego and a hero complex fails — is “not what America needs right now”, and I completely understand if people don’t want to watch that, but I also don’t think Hwang Dong-hyuk is writing for Americans. In fact, one of the things I deeply respect about Squid Game 2 and 3 is how they don’t acknowledge the series’ international success until the very end, and don’t waver from strictly Korean styles and aesthetics, from the VIPs to Gi-hun’s hammy criminal acquaintances.

My problem with Squid Game 3 is that it broke my suspension of disbelief. And I can believe a LOT. I watch Poker Face, for heaven’s sake. I watch Star Trek. If you tell me, “These are the rules of this fictional universe,” I will give you a LOT of leeway before I go, “Oh for heaven’s sake, come on.”

That moment came in episode 2, when Jun-hee went into labour and delivered a healthy baby in ten minutes, aided only by two friends and a convenient knife. After that, I started asking questions. Like, where did the game runners get a sinister black bassinet? Did they DoorDash infant formula to the island by helicopter? If the pink guard feeds the baby while it’s lying on its back, it will choke. Is Gi-hun really the only person on the entire island who cares if the baby lives or dies?

(This last question is unfair — I think it’s safe to say No-eul would have cared a lot, if she wasn’t busy saving the player she came to care about. I appreciate that No-eul’s storyline gives us a look at the lives of the guards, but again, it’s more opportunity to start thinking about … logistics. Like, who is designing these elaborate death games? But also, it’s very possible that South Korean television is the North Korean military’s greatest propagandist, every single North Korean soldier in a Kdrama is an incredibly hot super soldier.)

The baby is essential to the plot: with Jun-hee gone, there’s no one left to protect it, and no one else for Gi-hun to care about. In-ho wants Gi-hun to be as nihilistic as him, but Gi-hun will sacrifice everything for that child. Doing so doesn’t destroy the games forever, but it changes the heart of one man. I really like that, and I think it’s actually less nihilistic than a lot of critics think — but maybe people seriously believed Gi-hun was going to go full Katniss Everdeen and singlehandedly destroy the games. (Even Katniss Everdeen did not singlehandedly destroy the Hunger Games.)

My problem is that once you introduce a baby into the equation, you have a different level of realism at work. A newborn baby who sleeps all night and never needs changing is a lot harder to believe in than a secret island where desperate people play games to the death for the entertainment of the super rich.

I have one final complaint about this season, and it is extremely idiosyncratic and possibly even unique to me. When Jun-hee breaks her ankle, we get way too many shots of the injury, and I simply cannot. Do not make me look at this. I would not go so far as to call it literally triggering, but it is deeply distressing to me and I should not be exposed to images of foot or ankle injuries.

Surprise Australian of the week

Okay, yes, it’s the cameo at the end of Squid Game 3. Flawless.