Squid Game: The Show That Took Over the Internet
Squid Game: The Show That Took Over the Internet
Edited by Ella Byrne-Cabot
Edited by Ella Byrne-Cabot
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Warning: The following contains spoilers for season 1 of Squid Game.
Television has been, for as long as anyone alive can remember, a huge part of pop culture. New shows on Netflix or other streaming platforms can go viral in days or weeks. From Stranger Things to Tiger King to Bridgerton, shows shoot to the top of Netflix’s charts in a blink of an eye and quickly become the only thing anyone talks about. The newest addition to this list, Squid Game, dethroned Bridgerton as Netflix’s most watched show just one month after its release, receiving 111 million views and becoming the streaming service’s biggest series launch ever.
Squid Game, a South Korean psychological thriller, follows the experience of Seung Gi-Hun as he competes in a series of deadly children's games for a chance to win 46.5 billion won (roughly 40 million US dollars).
Unfortunately, I personally do not speak Korean, the show’s original language. As the show’s popularity spread far beyond South Korea, I’m sure there are millions of others in the same boat. While watching the series, I was glued to my screen trying to keep up with the subtitles, which, sufficient as they may be when the show is the only thing drawing your attention, don’t help much when you’re trying to multitask. Luckily, Netflix has dubbed the show in English and countless other languages!
And it’s… well, it’s bad. Really bad. The English voices do not fit the characters at all, and they completely botch the Korean translation.
However, the English sub doesn’t seem much better. The subtitles have been criticized for ruining the show’s very well written dialogue in translation. Sometimes, the subtitles even change the meaning of the lines. One bilingual watcher, Youngmi Mayer, looked at various lines and how they could have been better translated. For example, the show's subtitles include the line “I’m not a genius, but I still got it worked out,” where Mayer believes it could have been better translated as “I am very smart; I just never got a chance to study.” The latter translation creates an entirely different meaning behind the line, shifting fault not from the character but the system that raised them. Unfortunately, besides learning Korean, there’s not much we can do as viewers to get a better understanding of what the writers were truly trying to convey.
The game itself is straightforward - play a children’s game, and if you lose or break the rules, you die. However, the show might be saying a lot more than it seems about the real world and the situations that many people in real life share with the show’s characters. The many metaphors and allegories the creators strategically include show a stark critique of capitalism. Even writer and director Hwang Dong-hyuk has said as such. He said in an interview with Variety, “I wanted to write a story that was an allegory or fable about modern capitalist society, something that depicts an extreme competition, somewhat like the extreme competition of life.”
In the games, players are told they are allowed to stop the games via a majority vote, which does happen in the second episode of the series. Yet, when faced with their lives of debt and destitution, they all choose to return to the games. This illustrates perfectly the illusion of choice created by their situation. The players can either face death in children's’ games with the hope that, if they survive, they can pay off their debts and live comfortably, or they can face death in the real world with no hope whatsoever. As said by player 322, “In here at least I stand a chance.”
Furthermore, players are told that, in the games, everyone is equal. Yet, in certain games, people of certain demographics are favored, and others considerably disadvantaged. In Episode 4, players are told to pick teams for the third game, later revealed to be tug-of-war. Immediately, players look to team with strong, young men, and female, elderly, and disabled players are conveniently ignored. Sang-woo, on the team of our protagonist, tells the group, “Our team already has one girl and an older guy. I’m thinking we better get more men first.” We may be deceived by the illusion of equality, but when it comes down to it, some people are always disadvantaged.
There’s also a racial disparity to the game. It’s no coincidence that almost all of the VIP’s - the wealthy investors who bet on the game for fun - are white men. To them, the Korean players are animalistic, similar to horses in horse racing. Furthermore, the game’s employees are objectified and sexualized - a fact illustrated by one VIP’s perverse advance on Wi-Ha Joon, the police officer who has infiltrated the games.
Participating in the games may present the solution to the players problems, but it also forces them to disregard all of their moral obligations to each other. Il-nam, revealed in the final episode to be the creator of the game, believes that there is no hope left for humanity, that all the players were willing and ready to kill each other for money. He proposes to Gi-Hun one final game: If no one goes to help the freezing drunk on the street outside his window by midnight, Il-Nam wins, which he hopes will illustrate the depravity of humanity he sees. As the clock counts down, it seems as though no one is coming, yet, in the final minute of the game, one pedestrian returns with the police to help the man.
What the writers may be trying to say here, is that there is in fact hope for the world. In the end, we all want to be good and to help others. It is our situation, the system that controls us, that drives us to greed. Although we may not be in the same deadly situation that the characters of Squid Game are, we are, perhaps, all in our own games, fighting to succeed in a world that values money over humanity. The overall premise of the show may be unrealistic in the real world, but the writers hope that in the characters, we may find each other- and ourselves.
Now that I’ve sufficiently bored you all by turning a pop phenomenon into an English essay on allegory, let’s move on to what we really want to know: will there be a season two of Squid Game? Short answer - yes. Honestly, how could such a popular show not be renewed for a second season? However, Creator Hwang Dong-hyuk says it’s not a priority at the moment, as he hopes to work on other films as well. Hwang Dong-hyuk hopes that season 2 will answer more questions about the games and delve more into the relationship between Hwang Jun-ho and his brother, Hwang In-ho, the police officer and the Front-Man respectively. He also has said that a possible storyline could look into the story of the recruiter who first recruits Gi-hun for the game, and is seen again at the end of the final episode.
Season 1 took a considerably long time to create, so we can expect it to be a while before season 2’s release. The idea for the show surfaced originally in 2008, when Hwang Dong-hyuk started writing the script. However, it wasn’t until recently that he felt the world was ready for the show. A lot of work went into production, as well, as the show took almost 2 years to produce. With so much work needed to create a season 2 that lives up to season 1’s success, it’s unlikely that season 2 would be released earlier than 2023. At this time, however, there is no set release date for season 2.
Works Cited
Borines, Nobelle. “Squid Game Creator Confirms Season 2 Is in Talks, Reveals When Production Will Begin.” Squid Game Season 2 Already in Discussion, 30 Oct. 2021, https://epicstream.com/article/squid-game-creator-confirms-season-2-is-in-talks-reveals-when-production-will-begin.
Clair, Josh St. “The Creators of 'Squid Game' Reveal How They Brought Each Game to Life.” Men's Health, Men's Health, 1 Oct. 2021, https://www.menshealth.com/entertainment/a37823252/squid-game-behind-the-scenes/.
Frater, Patrick. “'Squid Game' Director Hwang Dong-Hyuk on Netflix's Hit Korean Series and Prospects for a Sequel (EXCLUSIVE).” Variety, Variety, 28 Oct. 2021, https://variety.com/2021/global/asia/squid-game-director-hwang-dong-hyuk-korean-series-global-success-1235073355/.
Katje, Chris. “'Squid Game' Season 2 Talks Confirmed By Director, But Here's Why He's Not In A Rush.” Benzinga, Benzinga, 29 Oct. 2021, https://www.benzinga.com/news/21/10/23758160/squid-game-season-2-talks-confirmed-by-director-but-heres-why-hes-not-in-a-rush.
Mathews, Liam. “This Is How Long It Really Took To Get Squid Game Made.” Looper.com, Looper, 5 Oct. 2021, https://www.looper.com/624185/this-is-how-long-it-really-took-to-get-squid-game-made/.
Nguyen, Jenny. “‘Squid Game:" A Comprehensive Critique of Capitalism: Her Campus.” Her Campus | HerCampus.com Is the #1 Global Community for College Women, Written Entirely by the Nation's Top College Journalists from 380 Campus Chapters around the World., 23 Oct. 2021, https://www.hercampus.com/school/cu-boulder/squid-game-a-comprehensive-critique-of-capitalism/.
Sager, Jessica. “Red Light or Green Light? Everything to Know About Squid Game Season 2, Including Possible Release Date, Cast, Plot and More.” Parade, 27 Oct. 2021, https://parade.com/1281712/jessicasager/squid-game-season-2/.
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