It’s the latest Netflix sensation captivating viewers around the globe, so just why is this South Korean-made series topping Netflix’s charts?
If you’ve been on TikTok, surfed on Netflix, or been reading about childhood games more often than usual in the past week – chances are you’re aware of the new television drama phenomenon that’s a must-binge pick on Netflix: Squid Game.
In fact, latest data from Netflix suggests it might just become the most successful show to ever perform on the platform. A pretty massive feat if achieved for a show made in South Korea, and not under the bright lights and massive budgets in Hollywood.
The nine-episode series has a simple concept, but its one executed so perfectly, with a talented cast, that makes it something special amongst streamers and critics alike.
Squid Game brings together 456 people, all with crippling debt, extraordinary loans, or similar extreme financial struggle (put a pin in that for me). All 456 people, known as players, are whisked away on a remote island to play a six-round game, with a massive, life-changing cash prize on offer to those who become victorious.
Orchestrating the game and setting out the rules are a group of masked men, each with one of three shapes placed on their masks, led by a man known as the ‘Front Man’.
The audience predominantly follows the story of Player 456 – Seong Gi-hun (played by Lee Jung-jae), but we’re quickly as invested in other players, such as Gi-hun’s childhood friend, also caught up in the game, Cho Sang-woo (Park Hae-soo); a North Korean defector, Kang Sae-byeok (Jung Ho-yeon); an elderly man with a brain tumor, Oh Il-nam (Oh Yeong-su); and a police officer looking for his missing brother, Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon).
These characters and the others we watch in Squid Game each have their own style of charisma that captures your attention quite quickly. Mix this in with a few games where only so many can make it out each time – and you’re suddenly not enjoying characters on screen, you’re rooting for them! You want them to take it all the way and walk away with a handsome grand prize.
Across all nine episodes, there are only six games. So we’re not just watching some scripted warehouse version of Survivor. We are taken on a journey with these characters and learning new things about them, their inner motivations to win, and their outer front to their fellow players. Much like those who compete on Survivor, strategy is essential both when you’re competing and when you’re hanging out and waiting. Watching the players realise this, it’s game on.
There is something quite special about the group of characters collated (and the actors who expertly portray them as well). But where the show really shines is when those games are on. With every test, every challenge, your eyes are glued to the screen.
Enamored by just how these people will navigate their way out to make it to the next round, there’s no ducking to the kitchen for a snack or taking a quick pee. You simply can not turn off when each game is on.
Not all games are physical, in fact, they’re not all that much mental either. They are based on childhood games and if anything, they’re supposed to be fun. Although if you lose, it most certainly isn’t fun.
One of the reason cited for Squid Game’s global success is the fact it’s not a remake or revamp of some tried out old format we’ve seen done many times before.
I touched on this with regards to the news of a Teen Wolf movie set for release, as an industry, television is particularly lacking in original ideas and are relying way too much on nostalgia and not enough on an appetite for what’s fresh and exciting.
So enter Squid Game, a concept very easy to pick up, but delivered so differently and excitingly because it’s from a foreign studio we’re not used to flicking to in our Netflix surf.
But there’s another reason it resonates with viewers so well (you can take that pin out now). At one point or another, the very vast majority of us have faced financial struggle of some sort, and considered the very real yet never-to-be-uttered question, “just exactly how far would I go for money?”
Squid Game tackles that question head on. Do your morals get checked at the door? Or will shared financial strain create a sense of humanity between the group?
Unlike Reality TV where the focus lies in the competition and the cash prize is more of an, oh that’s right, you get a massive stack of coin from winning as well, the money is at the forefront of Squid Game. Literally. It hangs in a ball above the players when they sleep.
It’s all about the money and what anyone would do to get it. And as the world is proving, that’s well and truly worthy of being watched.
So if you’re endlessly surfing your many streaming sites looking for that next new binge to sink your teeth into, take a worthwhile crack at Squid Game because you will not turn off! It’s got the tick of approval from me, and the tick of approval from Rob in this week’s podcast. And nobody ever said you needed a third opinion!
Oh and massive tip: watch it in Korean, but with English subtitles. You won’t regret it.
