More shows should be insanely, insanely violent with people crying about how much they love each other all the time. Maybe all shows should be that way? At least that’s how I feel about watching this season finale. It clocks in at an overlong 75 minutes or so minus the credits, its central conceit is an hallucinatory dream-within-a-dream the solution of which you can see coming from a mile away, it concludes with basically hand-waving away the entire series to date Wizard of Oz style before one last “…or is it?!?” twist, and guess what? I still loved it. Didn’t you?

I reviewed the season finale of Alice in Borderland for Decider.

Let’s get a few things out of the way right up front.

Do people who aren’t gymnasts or trained professional wrestlers fly a dozen feet through the air turning corkscrews all the while after being kicked or thrown by even a very strong person? No, they do not. 

Can someone survive being strafed by an automatic weapon at point blank range, long enough to crawl around and pine for the person they love? No, they cannot. 

Is it feasible for — let me count here — nine major protagonists and antagonists to survive being shot, stabbed, beaten, run over, bashed against concrete, set on fire, blown up, launched through a plate-glass second-story window, or all of the above, and live long enough to tell the tale, or at the very least have poignant last words before they die? No, it is not.

Does any of this make this episode of Alice in Borderland any less badass? No, it does not.

I reviewed the penultimate episode of Alice in Borderland Season 2 for Decider.

It would be a mistake to kick off this review of by saying “shit is getting real.” On Alice in Borderland, shit has been real since the very first episode, or certainly since the main-character bloodbath in Season 1 Episode 3. It’s just that the episodes seem to be getting longer — this one clocks in around 70 minutes minus the lengthy closing credits — and more jam-packed with stuff, as the scattered cast continues pursuing their own, uh, pursuits. Some of these end in naked makeout sessions in a hot springs while elephants bathe nearby. Others end with people getting melted by sulfuric acid. Such is life in the Borderland.

I reviewed the sixth episode of Alice in Borderland Season 2.

Rather than start with a plot summary, I just want to point out director Shinsuke Sato’s eye for spectacular imagery and his team’s ability to pull it off. Arisu walking around the outskirts of the city and discovering that entire streets and skyscrapers have been somehow overrun with vegetation. Usagi and Arisu playing a lethal game of tag in a huge open-walled power plant or something, the camera gliding around outside it as we watch players wearing red and blue light-up vests run and climb and dodge like crazed worker ants in an anthill someone’s spraying with a hose. Ann (remember her?) traveling as far as she can away from Tokyo only to discover a mountain range that would give Mordor a run for its money. (It’s a better shot than anything I saw in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, that’s for sure.) This is the kind of shit that keeps you coming back.

I reviewed episode five of Alice in Borderland Season 2 for Decider.

The second episode in a row to feature a sort of halftime break between different stories, this installment of Alice in Borderland is, I think, the least relentless ep in the second season so far. Which is fine! Everyone needs a breather now and then, and that extends to the audience as well as the players. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still plenty of murder going down, but following the intensity of the three-episode-long King of Clubs arc and the Saw-like start of the Jack of Hearts game, this is relatively — relatively — chill stuff.

I reviewed the fourth episode of Alice in Borderland Season 2 for Decider.

The third episode of Alice in Borderland’s second season is a terrific hour of television that should probably have been two terrific half-hours of television.

I reviewed Alice in Borderland Season 2’s third episode for Decider.

Well, this may be the simplest Alice in Borderland episode of all time. Not the rules of the game that Arisu and company are playing mind you — those are the most convoluted in the history of the series, though you can get the hang of it quickly. (The players do!) The plot, rather, is streamlined and straightforward. There’s a game, they play it, they don’t leave the arena, they don’t even finish the game and move on. The result is an Alice in Borderland that reads as 100% pure and uncut Alice in Borderland. This is what it’s all about.

I reviewed the second episode of Alice in Borderland‘s second season for Decider.

So here’s the pitfall for those of us who want to sound smart while enjoying Alice in Borderland. You know how Squid Game, the similarly themed Korean show about average joes forced to kill or be killed by mystery-shrouded game masters, is sort of about the dehumanizing power of capitalism? Alice in Borderland is pretty much just about the pleasure of watching gorgeous actors run around killing and rescuing each other.

This is not a complaint! That’s cinema, baby!

I’m covering the Japanese thriller Alice in Borderland‘s second season for Decider, starting with my review of the season premiere. Woo!