What you need to know about Squid Game

I don’t know what’s more concerning: the premise of the Netflix show “Squid Game” or the fact that it is now Netflix’s most popular show ever.

I’ve heard college kids talking about it, then some of my favorite podcasters announced it was the top show on Netflix. So I watched the first episode to see what all of the fuss was about. My first impression: it’s like the people who ran Auschwitz joined forces with the people who ran The Hunger Games to turn innocent children’s games into a harrowing quest for survival.

The Premise

The show is Korean, and I watched with subtitles. The first episode opens with an explanation of Squid Game, in which kids on a playground battle to gain position on a squid drawn in chalk on the ground. It looks innocent enough, but there are menacing undertones.

Then we meet broke and broken Gi-hun, a man with a bad gambling habit and crippling debt. After suffering a beating from the people to whom he owes money, Gi-hun meets a handsome, well dressed man in the subway who promises Gi-hun can win easy money in a game. Gi-hun accepts the invitation, not understanding until it is too late that the opportunity could cost him dearly.

What I didn’t like

I didn’t enjoy the spurting blood. Or the senseless murder. Or the spinning head and swiveling eyes on the giant robotic doll that monitors a deadly game of Red Light, Green Light. (Anyone who moves after the woman on the PA says “Red light” gets shot with swift and lethal precision.) The poor people recruited for this dangerous game, including Gi-hun, lose their individuality and humanity as they march, dressed identically in green exercise suits, onto a giant sandscape for the start of the game. As the violence unfolds, a man sits in a huge cushioned chair and watches it all on a giant TV screen while sipping his drink.

I found it quite disturbing.

After my horror wore off, I realized, like The Handmaid’s Tale or Lord of the Flies, “Squid Game” is supposed to be disturbing. And then I wondered why so many people are drawn to being disturbed.

What intrigues me

I can’t say I like “Squid Game,” but it did get me thinking. Perhaps the appeal lies in the drama of a scenario much worse than life in a pandemic. Or the creators wanted to present a cautionary tale about the folly of poor decisions and wasted money. Or, most likely, its international popularity can be traced to people around the globe feeling helpless and hopeless in a world that values money, power, and capitalism at the expense of human well being.

If it is a story of the privileged manipulating the oppressed, I am tempted to watch and see how it turns out. I hope in the end the oppressed will rise. But I’m not willing to commit valuable hours of my time to watch a creepy drama that reiterates what I already know: humanity needs to do better. I’d rather spend my time focusing on solutions. Or with Ted Lasso.

“Squid Game” piques the public interest in the sensational and the shocking. But while commenting on the darker side of human nature, “Squid Game” is also feeding and breeding that side. How different is the audience in front of the Netflix screen from the character in “Squid Game” watching the murderous game of Red Light, Green Light on his TV? Are we as numb and accepting of death as the person who engineered the deadly game?

If “Squid Game” is capturing and dramatizing the discontent of millions, I hope it will spur them to do more than sit in front of a screen. (Apparently, the developers of the show plan to launch a video game based on Squid Game. Fabulous. More screen time.) I hope they will be inspired by the commentary of “Squid Game” to bring more good into the world, not more fear and violence.

Word Nerd Note: I have only watched the first episode of Squid Game. A reader has told me that as the series goes on, there is more emotional development of the characters.

What do you think of Squid Game and why do you think it’s so popular?

Thanks for getting nerdy with me!

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