The Twisted Irony of Squid Games

Brie Samaniego

The 2021 sensation of a TV show, “Squid Game,” has once again gained public attention with a new game show-style adaptation. 

In case you forgot, the original show follows the main character, Seong Gi-hun, who is faced with crippling poverty and debt. When given the opportunity to compete to the death with other players for a cash prize of $38 million, Seong Gi-hun accepts and eventually wins the prize. In reality, the squid games have no real winner, as Seong Gi-hun is haunted by the terrifying events that took place within the arena. As revealed in the show, the games were created by a group of ultra-rich, English-speaking, white men looking for entertainment. 

This show is not only a blatant criticism of capitalism and the lengths people will go to overcome the extreme poverty created by it, but also of the wealthy exploiting the impoverished for entertainment simply because they can. Hwang Dong-hyuk, the director of Squid Games, said himself that he wished to create a story about our “modern capitalist society” when creating the show. 

“The Challenge” is the Netflix reality show based on “Squid Game,” where real contestants compete for a prize of $4.56 million. This show has also been met with heavy criticism. 

Not only does this new reality show seemingly miss the entire point of the original story, but some contestants have even threatened legal action against Netflix for the conditions faced during production. Contestants were allegedly subjected to extreme cold and nerve damage according to a personal injury lawyer representing two unnamed players. 

When looked at critically, this undercuts the entire message of the original show. People have been subjected to allegedly unsafe conditions to compete for the chance to win a life-changing amount of money all for the comfortable viewers’ enjoyment. 

Although, the executive producer of “The Challenge,” Tim Harcourt, claims that the anti-capitalist sentiment in the original show was not the primary message of the show, but rather the competition was. He describes the game show as different from the original because the contestants are prompted to compete for the opportunity rather than out of necessity. 

Regardless of the initial intentions of its creators, it begs the question if one must set aside their critical thinking skills and media literacy in order to enjoy this new reality show.