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The best one yet
Hats off to the Great Escape team. Another great season all around. The scale of the show is amazing, but it works because they got the best cast together. The episodes were so well balanced and varied that everyone got their moment. I especially liked that they developed the world of the show a lot, but it still remains a show that you can get straight into without seeing the prior seasons (they explain the context or provide enough of new plot, that you don't miss the past story).The production and creativity for this season is a whole new level. Every time I get around to watching a new season of the Great Escape, I am in awe of how the production team is capable of coming up with new incredible sets and stories that the cast, and the viewers alike, get totally sucked into the episodes. This season especially, I would like to praise how the production team steps it up to developing abilities of the cast. They got to know them quite well in the past two seasons and are starting to use the advantage of their weaknesses (like English, for example) to make challenging concepts and riddles.
The cast also leveled up. When I think back on how they got stuck for hours in that small room in the first episode of the first season, I laugh out loud. Now they are like small bulldogs in turning the sets upside down when looking for clues, they developed a system of assigning certain people to certain types of riddles/tasks and work collectively so well. They are in fact, one giant brain at this point.
Once again, I would like to point out that my favourite thing about this cast is that they don't play heroes, or are mean to each other in scary situations. They really do work well together, congratulate each other on everything solved and when faced with a difficult situation, they find a solution (or who to send in first) after lengthy discussions and overall satisfaction of everyone included.
This season though, I would like to point out Yoo Byung Jae's involvement - damn, he's so smart and quick on his feet. I would not be surprised if in the next season they would keep him separately from the rest of the cast in one of the episodes, and everyone would just enjoy the mess that this would cause. But seriously, he is the soul of the team, the most trusted member and rightly so. He also makes perfect pair with Shin Dong - those two together can crack almost anything.
Strangely, this season, the brains are often joined by Kim Jong Min who had an excellent run. He randomly cracked difficult puzzles or discovered something incredible. He was simply at the right place at the right time this season. He was praised by others often and he was the centre of this season's funniest running jokes, including the ridiculous nicknames that he got. If you root him, like I do, you will not be disappointed this season.
As always, the heart of the team is Kang Ho Dong and rightfully so. He has this excellent quality of supporting his younger brothers, he roots for them and is always ready to take one for the team or to do the difficult stuff. Kim Dong Hyun is supposed to be the muscle of the team but he often panics in intense moments. My favourite moment of this season was when in the ghost episode he spotted the stray cat that randomly entered the set and he lost his marbles. PO is the sweet member, he always helps his hyungs and has good ideas.
This season also features spectacular plots and ideas. The introduction of the new plot line is very refreshing and the revisiting of the old ones is still highly entertaining. Even in the last two episodes, when they featured a repeated element and the cast was like "this again", they managed to make one of the highlights of the show - they were spectacular and highly emotional, the cast was in awe. This element (I am really trying no to spoil it here) also opens wide possibilities for the upcoming seasons.
The editing in season 3 is very swift, you don't feel the length of the episodes. This season has a nice tempo and is really playful. They often lead you to believe that the members will crack a puzzle and progress and it's a fail. This makes the show very entertaining and makes you feel for the cast, as well as builds a direct relationship with you, as you try to figure out the solution along with them.
A great season all around, I am so excited for the next. This series is exceptional, give it a go.
PS - I would very much like to thank the people who did the subtitles for this season, although I know that they won't read this. Such tricky translations, you guys rock!
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though by now we have our own "familiar" faces and it's always shocking to see them connect the dots (those characters need their own mdl page xD)
they didn't have the possibility of failure this season, though it could've been becasue the members really did escape on time? or maybe fans hated the failed missions xD
sadly the subs were slow (though I'm really thankful for the subbers for staying till the end, without them we'd have zero chance to watch this beautiful show) but I kinda forgot some details, so I'd say the last mr sunshine ep was my favorite ;D and I wonder how they'll continue the next season~
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Impressive scale
The production team really outdid themselves this season! The scale is sooo grand (I lost it when they said that Na PD makes all the money for tvN only for it to be spent by Jung PD for The Great Escape LMAO). Despite that, I didn't find it as entertaining as the other seasons and I can count the number of times I laughed out loud. I love the stories and plot for each episode but I dislike that it takes a lot of time and takes away from the "puzzle solving" part of the show. The horror episodes (ep 5 and 6) really kept me on the end of my seat. Still, it was a good watch although I probably won't be re-watching it in the future.Was this review helpful to you?
I would highly recommend to watch Season 1 & 2 BEFOREHAND cuz everything’s kinda linked. It gave goosebumps at such times. Producers and screen writers did very great job in providing story linkage.
As for the casts, u’ll see better teamwork here in season 3. As usual, maknae PO’s roles werent of very much but he got better in this better. U will see some achievements of his. The usual brainiacs, shindong and byungjae, really did great job once again in this season too. Kim jongmin and kim dong hyun improved really a lot. I gave 9 to casts cuz sometimes it really cut off my enjoyment wth some over reactions of kang ho dong. I know that it’s his character, he was good at adding some variety spice into the show but sometimes, really sometimes, it annoys me a bit.
About music, which i rate for sound effects in this show, were totally awesome! You better watch yourself cuz i dun wanna give spoilers.?
I gave rewatch value 7 cuz afterall, it’s basically escape room, so after knowing all the tricks and secrets, you might wonder wht’s the worth of watching it. I did so too, but tbh, i forgot abt a lot of things in season 1 and 2, so as there were some linkages, i tend to rewatch the episodes they had linked again. It totally unnecessary. It’s really not a big deal but i wanna catch every words they said so i did rewatch some episodes of previous seasons. It’s okay if u dun watch too as yoo byung jae will explain everything to u. He’s totally the narrator of this show (my fav member)
So lastly, u can see budget flex in this show production. The sets, plot-twists, themes were all beautifully built up. The casts chemistry is also not so bad. It is really a great show to watch. It will give u gallons of excitement!
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