My favourite playground game was Bulldog. The rules of Bulldog are that you must run from one ‘safe zone’ to another whilst avoiding defenders who patrol the play area in the middle. If a defender catches you then you become a defender. The last person to be caught wins. Much like most children’s games the rules are extremely simple and can provide hours of fun. But Bulldog has the potential to get violent, and the older I got whilst continuing to play it the rougher the game tended to get, sometimes leaving people bruised, bloody, or sometimes even with broken limbs.
Netflix’s new series takes this idea of children’s games, pitting adults against each other for a cash prize of millions, and the results are bloody brilliant.
Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) is a gambling addict who is struggling to pay off his debts. When he is approached by a man who is willing to pay him if he wins a simple children’s game, but cause him physical harm if he loses, Gi-hun is determined to win regardless of how many times he is beaten. Upon winning the game the man presents Gi-hun with the opportunity to raise the stakes, play bigger games with more people and play for a larger prize.
After accepting the invitation and awaking in a room with over four hundred other contestants, Gi-hun quickly realises that he has gotten himself into something more sinister than he could ever imagine. Over six days the contestants must compete against each other in children’s games to win a prize pot worth over $38 million, but to lose the game means to lose your life.
As alliances form and contestants become hostile to one another, Gi-hun and his allies Cho Sang-woo (Park Hae-soo), Kang Sae-byeok (Jung Ho-yeon), Oh Il-nam(O Yeong-Su), and Abdul Ali (Anupam Tripathi), must use their brains and brawn to overcome the fiendish challenges that lay ahead.
Netflix’s new series takes this idea of children’s games, pitting adults against each other for a cash prize of millions, and the results are bloody brilliant.
Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) is a gambling addict who is struggling to pay off his debts. When he is approached by a man who is willing to pay him if he wins a simple children’s game, but cause him physical harm if he loses, Gi-hun is determined to win regardless of how many times he is beaten. Upon winning the game the man presents Gi-hun with the opportunity to raise the stakes, play bigger games with more people and play for a larger prize.
After accepting the invitation and awaking in a room with over four hundred other contestants, Gi-hun quickly realises that he has gotten himself into something more sinister than he could ever imagine. Over six days the contestants must compete against each other in children’s games to win a prize pot worth over $38 million, but to lose the game means to lose your life.
As alliances form and contestants become hostile to one another, Gi-hun and his allies Cho Sang-woo (Park Hae-soo), Kang Sae-byeok (Jung Ho-yeon), Oh Il-nam(O Yeong-Su), and Abdul Ali (Anupam Tripathi), must use their brains and brawn to overcome the fiendish challenges that lay ahead.
Squid Game is one of the most unique spins on the survival formula I have seen since Battle Royale in 2000. The story is jam packed with mystery as you slowly uncover more about the sinister organisation behind the games, as well as discover more to the complex site the contestants are being held in. Add to this the simply thrilling games that will have you on the edge of your seat as the tension is ramped up as far as it can possibly go. The series is extremely inventive with its premise and takes it as far as it can without it becoming absurd.
I loved how the themes of classism and poverty are so pervasive through every single facet of Squid Game's story. How even the overseers of the games have a hierarchy, and that the top dog isn't necessarily the one calling the shots. Add to this some fascinating sub-plots regarding black market dealings, gang culture, and immigration and even when the main plot isn't having a big push forward there's always something interesting happening.
Squid Game's focus on what lengths you will go to for money when you have none is brutally captivating. Do our beloved characters sacrifice their humanity for the big cash prize, or do they refuse to give in to the pressure and help out those who are less fortunate than they are?
The characters are thankfully interesting and likeable, as are the villains that are vindictive and menacing. I found it difficult to connect with Gi-hun in the first episode, however by the series midpoint I was truly invested in his plight and wanted to see him and his allies succeed. Death is the name of the game and seeing characters you love get bumped off is heart-breaking at times, and sometimes makes you cheer in delight.
But it’s probably Squid Game’s aesthetic that is the most alluring aspect of the production. Bright pastel colours, buckets of blood, and some extremely slick cinematography goes a long way in making Squid Game a real visual delight, especially when watched in 4K HDR. I watched the show in its native Korean with English subtitles; however, the English dub is actually reasonably good which makes a nice change too.
I loved how the themes of classism and poverty are so pervasive through every single facet of Squid Game's story. How even the overseers of the games have a hierarchy, and that the top dog isn't necessarily the one calling the shots. Add to this some fascinating sub-plots regarding black market dealings, gang culture, and immigration and even when the main plot isn't having a big push forward there's always something interesting happening.
Squid Game's focus on what lengths you will go to for money when you have none is brutally captivating. Do our beloved characters sacrifice their humanity for the big cash prize, or do they refuse to give in to the pressure and help out those who are less fortunate than they are?
The characters are thankfully interesting and likeable, as are the villains that are vindictive and menacing. I found it difficult to connect with Gi-hun in the first episode, however by the series midpoint I was truly invested in his plight and wanted to see him and his allies succeed. Death is the name of the game and seeing characters you love get bumped off is heart-breaking at times, and sometimes makes you cheer in delight.
But it’s probably Squid Game’s aesthetic that is the most alluring aspect of the production. Bright pastel colours, buckets of blood, and some extremely slick cinematography goes a long way in making Squid Game a real visual delight, especially when watched in 4K HDR. I watched the show in its native Korean with English subtitles; however, the English dub is actually reasonably good which makes a nice change too.
The only problems I had with Squid Game were the ending, which feels like its setting up a second series which it really doesn’t need. Plus, the episode lengths were very inconsistent with the shortest being just thirty-two minutes and the longest being over an hour. The average episode length is around fifty minutes, but why the final episode couldn’t have been made longer to accommodate the extremely short penultimate episode, and the remaining seven episodes be made more consistent in length I find difficult to understand.
Creator Hwang Dong-hyuck has built a masterpiece of serial entertainment where all the cogs mesh together so seamlessly that it’s mesmerising to behold. Squid Game is without a doubt one of the greatest shows of the year, and is arguably one of Netflix’s most ambitious, most unique, and best original series that they’ve ever created. If you’re not watching Squid Game right now, what are you even doing?
Creator Hwang Dong-hyuck has built a masterpiece of serial entertainment where all the cogs mesh together so seamlessly that it’s mesmerising to behold. Squid Game is without a doubt one of the greatest shows of the year, and is arguably one of Netflix’s most ambitious, most unique, and best original series that they’ve ever created. If you’re not watching Squid Game right now, what are you even doing?