Arriving Late to the Alice in Borderland Party

For the first time ever, since January 2021, I've been a Netflix subscriber. Although I've discussed Netflix shows on here before, this new Netflixing is special because I have a treadmill, I use it a lot, and it's made me way too tired to discuss Netflix shows on this blog with any regularity.

Alice in Borderland just needs to be discussed, though. I watched four episodes of Season 1 on back-to-back days, marking a punishing three hours per day of treadmill.

If you're unfamiliar with the show, this trailer should give you an idea of what it's all about:

Arisu and friends find themselves in a mostly abandoned, dystopian vision of modern Tokyo. In order to extend their visas, they have to play - and win - potentially fatal games based on the draw of a card. Number is difficulty, as well as the number of days the visa is extended for all winners. Suit is the type of game: spades is a physical challenge, clubs is a team game, diamonds is a battle of wits, and hearts are games that pit the players against each other. It's The Running Man meets Saw.

Awesome show. Why discuss it now specifically, though?

I've read a lot of reviews, yet not once have I seen these discussion points: (quasi-spoilers, I suppose?)

1. Part of what makes Alice in Borderland so great is the one game per episode format. When the 10 of hearts game extends over the last three episodes, the show drags.
2. We need more diamonds! Only one diamond game came up, and it only lasted a couple minutes because most of Episode 5 is an explanation of the beach. Diamonds should theoretically be the most fun suit to watch.
3. The two hearts games are the only two games Arisu plays that are a 7 or higher, whereas all the other suits are only ever seen at a 5 or lower. (We never see a 6.) It would have been fascinating to see, say, a really difficult physical challenge. I presume we'll see this as one of the face cards in Season 2.
4. Dead or Alive may actually be the most difficult game. It's the only one that can be failed by all the participants so quickly and violently. I had to go back over it in a way I didn't with the other games. Arisu's spatial sense, awareness and quick thinking that'll keep him alive really shine in this one, which is fitting for the first episode.
5. Tag combines some of everything, despite being the only spades game so far: teamwork, physicality, the ability to betray people, and the need to solve a puzzle. It also introduces at least two recurring characters.
6. The botanical garden game is so full of red herrings I love it. Various online theories of how to save everyone aside, I really liked the "sheep chasing a wolf" angle, as well as the comically mismatched weapons that don't seem to have a purpose other than to make the players into worse people. Well, it is a hearts game...
7. The bus game is such a knee-slapper, which I don't like because it doesn't show Arisu at his best. I get that he was rattled by the aftermath of the botanical garden game, and that no one's perfect, but surely looking at the outside of the bus could have been foreseen.
8. Spoiler alert: I had always wanted to write a murder mystery that was actually a suicide, but never had the rest of the plot. Thanks, Alice in Borderland, for taking this story off my hands.
9. Alice in Borderland is just asking for fan fiction. Make your own games! Not to mention it'd be really easy to introduce a new character, as people pop up every so often.
10. Netflix has gone really international recently. In addition to Alice in Borderland, I've also seen other overseas productions recently, such as Nobody Sleeps in the Woods Tonight (Poland) and Mortal Engines (New Zealand). Also of note: RokuTV is going international too, including my recent watchings of Attack the Block (United Kingdom) and Metropolis (Germany).

On a less serious note, how was Stacey Q's "Two of Hearts" not on the soundtrack?