Squid Game: The Challenge

About

Squid Game: The Challenge is a British reality show based on the 2021 Korean drama Squid Game. The show depicts over 400 players competing for a $4.56 million cash prize, with participants undergoing the same challenges as shown in the original drama, minus the fatal consequences. The show faced criticism after its release, with many internet users saying that recreating Squid Game in real life is ironic, considering the original show's anti-capitalist message. The creators of Squid Game have pushed back on that characterization, saying that anti-capitalism was only a "small" part of the original show.

Origin

The Korean survival drama Squid Game, written and directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk was released on Netflix on September 17th, 2021. The official teaser^[1] for Squid Game: The Challenge was released on September 22nd, 2023 (seen below, left), and the first trailer^[2] was released on October 23rd, 2023 (seen below, right). The videos gathered nearly 2 million and 5 million views respectively.

Notably, the show is set to have a winning prize of $4.56 million dollars, the largest single cash prize in game show history.

The show was released incrementally on Netflix, with five episodes released on November 22nd, Episodes 6 to 9 released on November 29th, and the season finale released on December 6th.

Spread

Clips from the game were shared to X by fans, as seen in a post by @JarydHeadley^[6] on November 23rd, 2023 (seen below) that gathered over 1,000 likes in five days.

This was DRAMA. I want to see their prequel, sequel and spin off series#SquidGame #SquidGameTheChallenge pic.twitter.com/jctiHMLP0G

— Jaryd (@JarydHeadley) November 23, 2023

A November 25th, 2023, post by @zachsilberberg^[7] captioned, "squid game show sucks except for this one man and his bees" gathered over 7,000 likes in three days (seen below).

Criticism

On November 25th, Netflix's official X^[3] account posted a clip of a player trying and failing to complete the Dalgona cookie challenge while looking visibly anxious and distressed. The post was captioned, "299 had one of the most dramatic reality show exits of all time. #SquidGameTheChallenge"

299 had one of the most dramatic reality show exits of all time. #SquidGameTheChallenge pic.twitter.com/UTy3OBmwae

— Netflix (@netflix) November 26, 2023

Various X users quoted the video to criticize Netflix and the creators of Squid Game, accusing them of mocking the anti-capitalist allegory of the original television show, as well as the pain felt by someone who just lost the opportunity to win a life-changing sum of money. X users saltysauerkraut^[4] and shantilly_t^[5] made critical posts on November 27th, gathering over 100,000 and 200,000 likes respectively (seen below).

On November 23rd, Reddit's /r/FouxMoi shared a quote by the reality show's executive producer Tim Harcourt, where he says;

"For us the anti-capitalist allegory is only one very small part of Squid Game. I often say to people, Star Wars is about swashbuckling rebels overtaking an empire, but people don't necessarily just focus on that as being about freedom or being about anti-imperialism. So for us, that was one element."

Search Interest

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External References