For the first time I watched the show just after its first season came out. It has a big impact on me, and no wonders since it was one of the biggest hits of Netflix. Many of its ingredients are not novel, even its primary formula of Battle Royale is quite popular in East Asia — the name of the genre itself is coming from Japanese novel and its manga and movie adaptation. It didn’t enter western mainstream though until “The Hunger Games” and its subsequent young adult novel clones. It is worth to think then why “Squid Games” resonated widely and gained so much popularity.
Important here is the context in which this show has been created. It was in the middle of COVID pandemic which exposed naked social inequality and disdain that rich has for poor and middle class even more than it was already visible. Just in recent years bunch of class conflict movies came out. I’m talking here about such movies like “Knives Out”, Ready Or Not” and “Parasite”. Especially the last one is the most relevant, since it is the most widely acclaimed (Oscar winner) and Korean which introduced to western audience glimpse to South Korean social inequalities. Of course Korean popculture gained traction in last years in general, shortening distance to Japanese, which is the only contender to hegemonic Anglo-American popculture.
Beyond the social context in which “Squid Games” emerged, there’s some specific artistic qualities to itself that granted it popularity. If not unique premise (because existence of wider Battle Royale genre) then unique aesthetics and twist on the formula. For the aesthetics there are things like player and organizers uniforms, masks or iconic bright colorful stairs leading to the games. For the twist, it is contrast of childhood games as deadly traps that provides memorable framework.
To elaborate on the plot I will be juxtaposing season 1 with seasons 2-3 (the last ones cover second game). Inevitable spoilers ahead. Before we reach the games itself we watch our main character, Seong Gi-hun (Player 456) and his struggles. We meet some other characters which usually have some later connections to the games. This is important to establish why people are so desperate to take part in the games, even when they eventually realize the danger they face there. Season 1 gives us more memorable characters, in my opinion. Even if they to some degree are archetype characters, the writing manage to make us care about them and/or despise them. My favorite character from season 1 was Ali Abdul, Pakistani migrant and the only non-Korean player character. Good natured and simple minded, introduced in epic way when he saved main character during the first contest. While “good” characters of the first seasons were more interesting, their equivalents in the second game paled in comparison during season 2, but eventually grew on me in season 3 and maybe at some points I even cared more about them. Antagonists of season 2 never get to feel as rounded and convincing as the one in the first game. As I said previously, even if characters had been built around archetypes, antagonists of the first game were more interesting to watch. The ones from the second game felt often as more caricatures than characters, even archetypical. Maybe with the exception of older businessman type guy.
Speaking of caricatures, it is worth discussing so-called VIPs. Wealthy white patrons that wear animal masks and arrives to watch directly the games at the second-to-last game. What many English speaking viewers pointed out how caricature-ish their English and weak their acting. It is hard to tell if it was deliberate or if creators simply didn’t care about. Whatever that was, somehow it fitted for those absurdly wealthy inhumane characters who were willing to patron and watch such spectacles.
What is interesting comparison of the show to the movie Parasite was depiction of the system (capitalism in both, metaphorically the game creators in the show) which pittied the poor against each other, leaving the real beneficiaries and upholders of the system above direct involvement in the conflict. It is the fight poor on poor, rather than typical and straightforward fight between poor and rich in dystopian fiction.
Although class conflict is obvious theme of the show, there is more to it than is obvious for non-Korean viewer. I myself wasn’t aware of it until one article I read highlighted one thing. We learn eventually that our protagonist, Seong Gi-hun, was fighting in union struggle, but eventually corporation crushed the strike, which was inspired on real life event. What Korean viewers wouldn’t miss is that it explains and sheds new light on the protagonist. He is not simply looser gambling addict who lives with his mother, because he is just inherently looser. The striking unionists (in real life) later on not only lost the job, but also were blocked from getting any substantial further jobs in industry. They were trying to scrap by through odd part-time jobs.
One more comment I have is that I struggled with keeping up with Korean names. Usually I try to keep up with foreign names, be it Indian, Arabic or even Japanese, but something in Korean names makes it difficult for me. The show exacerbated it, because often characters were referred by their titles or numbers rather than names, so I didn’t have enough occasions to memorize the names when they occurred.