The show that took the world by surprise: "Squid Game"

“Squid Game,” the South Korean Netflix original series that was released on Sept 17. 2021, has gained an insane amount of popularity and commotion within the United States. 

The show is a dystopian thriller that follows Gi-hun, the protagonist, who is barely scraping by in South Korean society. When approached in a train station, Gi-hun is given an opportunity to win 10,000 won (South Korean currency) in a simple game. This eventually evolves to include 456 contestants, all of whom have gone through the same thing, competing in a series of games for 45.6 billion won on a remote island off the coast. All of the competitions are renditions of games that many South Koreans played as kids, but with a serious consequence for losing. 

The cost of these games? Potentially their lives.

The show is extremely nerve-racking, intense, and gory as the contestants enter a series of games with deadly consequences. And, with each player that dies, the grand cash prize is increased for those remaining. 

The show has skyrocketed into popularity. “It's currently the most watched show on Netflix in 90 countries this week including Ireland,” says Dr Rebecca Chiyoko King-O'Riain on Irish website RTE. 

This show is different from what most have seen before and it’s bigger than a gameshow. It displays a large commentary on humans and what they are willing to do in order to gain money. It also comments on how much human lives really matter to one another and what kind of lives people think are worth living. 

Hwang Dong-hyuk, the South Korean director of "Squid Game'' created this passion project about 10 years in the making in order to create, film, and produce the show. It has created a large culture, commentary, and popularity on a global scale and has truly got people thinking. 

“I just wanted to portray an irony, because most of the survival game-themed pieces, their games are very complex, you have to be very clever, and it’s serious,” Dong-hyuk says. “You understand why they’re putting their lives at stake, because the games are so difficult. I wanted to go the other way — go simple — and make people wonder why the characters would put their lives at stake for these games.”

Besides the show being so popular in the United States, it has create an entire group of people who have created theories about the commentary of the show and how it reflects on us as people.