The show itself is quite good. I would argue it's a little over edited and there is an overfocus on certain people, but as a whole it's entertaining enough to fill your evenings.
My largest issue is the title of the review. Using season 2 as an example, they split into 3 parts with the final episode being released on its own a week after the 2nd batch of episodes. I just feel this hurts the show so much that the finale ends up being incredibly underwhelming and actually quite dull. Which is not what you want when you see someone win 4.56 million. In season 2, in the 2nd batch of episodes, it builds up a really good intensity and the snakes and ladders ep is fantastic. However, when you watch it and then end up waiting a week for the final, you lose all intensity that's built up and all emotion towards any contestant has pretty much gone. Unfortunately, the ending was quite boring as it was (not so much Netflix's fault as you can't help how a game turns out) but this batch releasing on episodes killed it even more. It just doesn't work for this kind of format of programme.
Beyond this, I mentioned the over focus of certain contestants. Netflix had a tendency over the 2 seasons to put their entire focus on about 8 contestants total. Which does get quite annoying when you want to watch how a game plans out and instead you're watching the same 2 contestants you've seen for the last 2 hours complete the game and ignoring the other 454 people in there.
Finally, I feel as though season 2 felt a little more "fake" than the first. Certain scenarios that happened just seemed incredibly unlikely to happen and yet there you go, it happened. I don't want to accuse Netflix of faking anything, but I do feel as though a few incidents could well have been manipulated one way or another.
I think what I am trying to say is that the show is an entertaining concept. However, the episodic releasing and editing of contestants ended up making it more annoying and tedious instead of fun and entertaining.
