Square, triangle and circle had never been so scary outside of the domain of mathematics!! Squid game season three came much quickly and unlike other series like Stranger things, they didn't delay it for years together. One reason could be that even when the previous season was launched, there were sufficient clues that it was intended as a two-season series, but since the content was quite heavy, they had to split it into three. And unlike the first season, which had a well-rounded ending, the second one felt as if it was stopped midway from airing, just to extend it by one more season. And like its illustrious(!!) predecessors this one is super-fast paced as well and like our own masala movies, it has enough sentiment scenes to trigger the eye gland. There are 2 mothers included into this murderous mix at the beginning of season 2 and it was quite evident that at least one of them will not make it to the end. Incidentally, neither of them makes it and both of them sacrifice themselves for the same baby, one by killing her own son and then herself as well, while the actual mother committing suicide. The father of the baby also being in this mix, makes it a family affair with the father character actually trying to kill the baby to get more money, emphasizing the concept of greed over everything. The hero, the ultimate winner from season one, manages to be the last man standing in this edition as well, only to fall to his death to save the baby. Like the previous ones, this season has enough gruesome means of killing and with many things happening in parallel, feels all the more rushed. The ending seems to leave a space for potential relaunch of the series, with US base or it can also be a hat tip to the greediness of humans and the extent to which they will go is not just restricted to Korea but is a worldwide phenomenon. There are several masala moments that make one wonder if anyone from our "wood" industry was part of the story discussion!! Like the North Korean lady, who kills her own NK brethren to save a guy who worked with her in an amusement park, again to save his daughter. Bullets seemingly have no effect on her and neither are knives and glass bottles that even if broken on her head, hardly seems to have any impact on her physical strength. Overall, the series seemed to have either met its objectives or made people even more brazen. For the very scenes that shook us to the core at the beginning, became common place and we were left wondering why they didn't come up with any other creative way of killing in subsequent seasons!! The power of greed is projected so overwhelmingly that majority would feel like why the players kept on playing when they knew they had more than what they aspired for at the beginning, only to realize that, like the group who wanted to keep on playing, even the audience would've sided with them eventually. Wonder what would be the effect of binge watching all three seasons on the audience. Paathu mudichatum patta kathiyoda kelambaama iruntha seri!!!
What makes a drama series tick, in OTT, that too in Tamil? The question should've been pretty straight forward and not as difficult as it is for making a successful movie, for drama series are dime a dozen across scores of TV channels and none of them are found wanting for audience. The more the cry the merrier the TRP. In that context, the only challenge that OTT platforms might've had while streaming tamil series must've been to choose the path - either the well trodden and worn out cryathons aligning with Satellite channels or try for something genre specific like how they do across English and other foreign languages. This is where Heartbeat series in Hotstar finds the fine balance between being a soap oppaari (no pun intended) in tv and carving a niche OTT audience. While the setup might've been familiar one for Hindi audience with so many series happening on hospital based storyline, i guess this is a first for tamil. The first season was more on establishing the...
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"Final season" - does this mean this is thankfully over ?