If anyone had actually managed to kill Seong Gi-hun (aka Player 456), he’d probably be rolling in his grave at the notion that Squid Game, a deeply violent and satirical take on reality shows, is set to become a… reality show.
Squid Game hit Netflix in September 2021 and promptly became the platform’s most successful show of all time. In the first 28 days alone, the South Korean series clocked up a staggering 1.65 billion hours of viewing.
Reality TV is set to get the Squid Game treatment, with Netflix turning the mega-hit into a competition-based series. Credit:Netflix
Aside from reminding us how fetching matching tracksuits look, part of Squid Game’s appeal was that it delivered wonderfully unsubtle messages about the downfall of society: Capitalism is a trap! Billionaires are evil! Our obsession with money will kill us all!
The players in Squid Game existed in a system that kept them oppressed and in debt, which meant they were prepared to kill their fellow competitors if it meant a fat payday. Meanwhile, the wealthy elites paid to watch desperation packaged up as entertainment. Outrageous, right?
Well, it seems Netflix failed to clock the subtext and instead decided to leverage the popularity of Squid Game and turn the series into a shiny-floor reality show, Squid Game: The Challenge.
The reality competition is based on the original concept of the show and will see 456 players competing in a series of games for the chance to win $US4.56 million ($6.6 million). According to Netflix, this is “the largest cast and lump sum cash prize in reality TV history.”
Squid Game: The Challenge will see players “compete through a series of games inspired by the original show – plus surprising new additions.”
Unsurprisingly, the streamer made clear that contestants won’t be killed on screen in the name of bloodthirsty entertainment, unlike in the actual Squid Game. “The stakes are high, but in this game the worst fate is going home empty-handed,” reads the casting call.
Netflix, you cowards. If you’re going to go full Squid Game in Real Life, you need to put your money where your murder is.
What fun is Red Light, Green Light if you take out the motion-detected slaughter? What happens to players if they can’t carve correctly in Sugar Honeycombs? Do they just have to go and wait quietly while everyone finishes? Snooze.
Squid Game: The Challenge will see players “compete through a series of games inspired by the original show” – but don’t worry, no murder. Credit:Netflix
Jokes aside, on paper, it seems an obvious move for Netflix to turn their biggest ever series (which already featured several reality TV-style challenges) into a reality TV show.
They’ve already been beaten to the punch, in a way, with famous YouTuber Mr Beast hosting a “real-life Squid Game” competition on his channel last year. The 25-minute episode attracted 258 million views, no doubt allowing Mr Beast to bank an absolute torrent of cash from advertisers.
But in jumping on the bandwagon with Squid Game: The Challenge, Netflix is also asking audiences to ignore the thought-provoking parts of a much-loved series and just focus on OMG-look-at-that-giant-doll!
While it is disappointing that Netflix seems to have missed the point of one of its most poignant (and popular) series, given the current landscape it’s surprising this hasn’t happened sooner.
According to Bloomberg, Squid Game boosted Netflix’s stock market value by $19 billion when it launched last September. The recent troubles of Netflix have been well documented, so milking their biggest cash cow in as many ways as possible makes sense, because it makes cents. And on June 12, 2022, Squid Game itself was officially renewed for a second season.
For those interested, recruitment is open now at SquidGameCasting.com, with Netflix declaring “the Front Man is in search for English-language speakers from any part of the world. ”
Ultimately, Squid Game: The Challenge proves what Seong Gi-hun feared all along: at the end of the day, it’s all about money.
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