Squid Game

  *spoilers

I love Netflix. I can spend days and weeks wasting time watching show after show. If I added up all the hours I've spent watching television, it would be reaching the thousands. I can watch a show in any language, any genre, and still find myself captivated. So it will come as no surprise that this is what I have chosen to write about. If you have somehow managed to spend the last few weeks without hearing about Netflix's new show, Squid Game, I applaud you. I, however, see something about it every time I open Instagram (another one of my very healthy addictions). It is a social commentary on the wealth divide in South Korea specifically ( but can be applied to any country), it has a similar message to another popular Korean movie, Parasite. The 9 part drama follows a group of people who are in massive amounts of debt, which they will likely never pay off. They are invited to compete in a series of children's games with the end prize of 45.6 billion Korean won (approximately 38 million USD), sounds pretty great, right? The catch is that every time they lose or fail to complete a game they ... die.

The players are given a chance to leave after the first game of “red light - green light”, after which around 200 people are killed. What's shocking is that more than 90% of the remaining contestants decide to play on, even when they are informed that all the other games involve dying if you lose. In their eyes, the cash prize is worth risking their lives. Watching the players fight for survival and becoming more and more desensitized to the idea of killing others is stunning, and is frighteningly not impossible. As the game progresses, people are willing to do any to survive, which is natural. Society likes to portray itself as organized and orderly, and humans as being rational, the drama demonstrates that when push comes to shove, all of that “humanity” gets thrown out of the window. We as an audience, start to find each additional death less and less shocking.

Another striking element was the variety of games which helped determine who wins or loses. The contestants play a plethora of games from “red light, green light”, tug of war, and marbles, all of which are children's games. This helps create even more impact and juxtaposes beautifully with the reason why the contestants play. The director continuously introduces elements with contrast with the theme of the show such as the whimsical and playful pastel colors used in some of the backdrops and the lively background music. One would expect that all this would help dampen the dark message, but serves to do the opposite, making the enormous amounts of bloodshed even worse.

I enjoyed this show for the shock value. I found myself surprised by all the plot twists and the actual games themselves. The concept was new and not something I had seen executed in such a grotesque and forward manner. The characters are portrayed realistically. It did not feel artificial and felt consistent with how real people would react in the situation. Overall, it is a great show (not as great as the media says, but still worth a watch)