Squid Game is a recent South-Korean production which has amassed an immense fandom. The show was released on the 17th of September, 2021 on Netflix.
Since then, it has been one of the most popular and widely viewed series on the streaming site.
The drama has been predicted by many to become the most watched show of all time on the site. The co-CEO of Netflix, Ted Sandaros, himself admitted that it has the chance of overtaking all previous Netflix productions.
The show falls under the genre of ‘Survival Drama’ which is quite a deviation from the norm of the Korean shows as most of the popular Korean shows fall under the romance genre. The series hence debunks a lot of popular myths among the audience regarding TV productions coming from South Korea.
As the name suggests, the show revolves around a survival game which is attended by 456 people who are invited through various means. The people participating in the game are mostly in dire need of money as they risk their lives to win a hefty sum of USD 38.7 million.
There is no single main character as the show has an ensemble cast with Seong Gi-hun, Cho Sang-woo, Kang Sae-byeok, Abdul Ali, being among the notable characters and all of whom participate in the game to get rid of their own financial difficulties.
The characters represent the present day realities of South Korea with a tad bit of diversity as Kang Sae-byeok represents a North Korean defector in South Korea who enters the game to rescue his family members from the other side of the border.
Abdul Ali, a Pakistani worker, enters the game to maintain his family after being in a job which didn't pay him for months.
There are six games in total and if one loses, he gets killed which includes a lot of gory details in the entirety of the show and has been described as hard to swallow by many.
The show represents a depressing dystopian reality which has been compared to that of The Hunger Games and Battle Royale.
Squid Game is undoubtedly one of the finest productions to come out of South Korea in recent years as it perfectly portrays the socio-economic realities of the country with an extremely thrilling plot line which will make anyone binge-watch the entire series in one sitting.
The show also has debunked all the stereotypes concerning productions from South Korea and is definitely worth someone's time.
Rassiq Aziz Kabir is a student of Economics at the University of Dhaka.
rassiq.aziz@gmail.com