Squid game – drama series

Netflix, true to its logo is dark black and blood red in its content curation as well. Most of the hit drama series of Netflix have all been dystopian, exploring darkest nature of human mind bent so much that it raises not just fear but also slight wonderment on how different it works. If not for the wonderment quotient, which one may feel ashamed to admit, these series would’nt be such blockbuster hits. The biggest revolution or change that such streaming platforms have made is that the entire world or wherever they are allowed to stream, now has a common viewing platform, where irrespective of the culture and background, stories can be told and understood. Subtitling is going to be such a roaring business in coming days. Learning multiple languages and understanding the essence of the dialogues written, will definitely pave way for language specialists. Trusting the texts as much as the contextual meaning derived, Money Heist (Spanish) made such a big splash in India that for its recent season premier, there were ads carried out by companies that they expect mass absenteeism on the launch day, akin to WC matches. Squid game, the latest blockbuster is Korean.

One word of suggestion for those who want to view the series – mute and watch, trusting the subtitles. The English audio is pretty poor. But the flip side being, some portions doesn’t carry subtitle where the characters speak English. Other than these slight issues, the series is an eye catcher from very first episode. Season 1 runs to finish in 7 episodes and promises for a sequel with its cinematic ending. Kudos to the art department team of the series and the producers for creating such lavish sets and have spared no efforts in ensuring grandeur. The story is based on South Korea and is not a great advertisement for the economic situation of that country. Squid game is a series of 6 games that are literal imitations of the games played as kids, but the scale being enormous with the punishment for losing being death. 456 participants are selected, rather given option to participate and it is voluntary consent, to play the first game, that witnesses nearly half the score getting killed failing to comply the instructions. The participants have all been economically downtrodden, bankrupt to the last penny and are being chased by the creditors. 456th person happens to be the lead character along with a childhood friend of his and one lady who had defected from North Korea. After each game scores of people get killed and the greed for the prize money results in murders as well. All the participants are taken to a strange island resembling a well-guarded prison and are housed in a giant hall comprising of 456 bunkbeds. After each loss of headcounts, the count of beds reduce as well. Finally for the last round only three people survive one of whom gets killed by the other person. The prize winning check of 45billion Won is finally won by the lead. What he does with the money and how the deceits, lies, death, love, hope changes his life marks the final episode.

I couldn’t find meaning or make out any metaphorical meaning or “kuriyeedu” that the director might’ve intended to convey. It is a sick mind that had created this concept of killing people who anyway would’ve either got killed or committed suicide, by making a game out of it. It is blatant abuse of children game and sets a very critical and bad precedent. Imagine if a series is made where kids are given live grenades to play 7 stones or those who get caught in playing “I, spy” being shot to death. Such a wicked thought sounds even illogical to conjure it as a sentence. But it has been made into a series that is globally appreciated!! I used to wonder how the hell Romans enjoyed gladiator sport, throwing people to lion or watching them kill each other to death. Guess humanity never changed in relishing the dark side of psych and the popularity of such series, further proves that theory. I am really scared for the next “brilliant idea” of a thought that is going to come in future!!