OK… so I Was Wrong About the Squid Game Competition apparently. This has never happened before. I’ve not experienced these emotions of “wrongness,” so you’ll just have to forgive me a moment while I compose myself and see if I can’t figure out what to do next.
Let’s be clear about what I was, and wasn’t, wrong about here. Ever since I first heard of the fact that there would be a new show from Netflix and that it would be an actual competition – a reality series – based on the original Squid Game series, I’ve said a couple of things:
- I said that it would be awful.
- I also said that it’d be the most morally inconsistent show ever made.
I was right about the latter, I was wrong about the former. The show is actually pretty great. But it’s still the most morally inconsistent show ever made. That hasn’t changed at all. But I’m getting ahead of myself. What the heck is this thing?
Firstly, you need to know the Squid Game – which was an international sensation when it first came out in 2019. Hwang originally conceived of the idea based on his own financial struggles back in 2009, but it took him 10 years to sell it to a production company. The show revolved around a hidden (subterranean?) series involving 456 players who were all in desperately deep financial need. And they were so at risk financially that they chose to willingly play a series of deadly games. So, Survivor – but for real. The show went way out of its way to prove that all 456 players could have left, but chose not to… and then almost all of them perished as a result. If you haven’t watched the original Squid Game – you definitely have to.
Okay – so the genesis is a show about the disparity economics in South Korea. About how there was no network for catching people like this, and that a vast majority of people in Korea were legitimately suicidal as a result of their finances. And now? Now we have a massive broadcast corporation enlisting a pile of equally poor British people in order to have them to compete for the world’s largest single gameshow prize purse of 4.56 million dollars.
Now, as to the surprising part about when I was wrong. Last night on the treadmill, I watched episode 1 and 2, and was shocked by just how much I enjoyed it. There were a couple of interesting twists that the show brings to the fictional competition that its predecessor didn’t have. There are intra-episode tests and quizzes… even in the very first episode, a couple of contestants were given the chance to either give an advantage to one contestant, or to eliminate someone… and what did they do? They sent someone home. That’s what they did! hahah. Pretty great.
One Programming note – the first 5 episodes of the show were released this past week, and episodes 6 through 9 will be released tomorrow. And the final episode – episode 10, the finale, will be released on the 6th of December.
Now, is it Jeff Probst’s Survivor? Nah. But to imagine myself on these massive sets? These glorious challenges, playing to survive against almost 500 contestants? It’s pretty unreal. Kudos to Netflix. But the only thing that remains is the fact that it definitely flies in the face of the morals it was originally espousing. So, basically the show has become a Black Mirror episode of its original self. No? But hey, as long as we are entertained right?
Edited by: CY