“What’s subtle and insidious is that children’s games are kind of cruel in and of themselves,” Bender says. The premise also picks at an age-old discomfort. Pamela Rutledge, a media psychologist.īender adds that when he sees kids in therapy, it’s apparent that they’re “not in control of their lives.” So when you have adults forced to play children’s games, it’s like the tables are turned and “suddenly they’re the children not in control.” This makes Squid Game heart-pounding and devilishly effective: Just as viewers were horrified to learn that The Hunger Games offers up children as tributes, so too does Squid Game work to constantly disarm us - a reflection of what the characters themselves are feeling. Contrasting the innocence of childhood games against the knowledge that something sadistic is about to happen creates a cognitive dissonance that “amplifies the horror and sense of powerlessness” we feel while watching, says Dr. This social commentary speaks to us on a deep level, but the games’ horrific format also adds to Squid Game’s allure. They would rather endure this level of violence, or chance of violence, than deal with the system outside of the game.” “Debt makes everybody feel vulnerable and anxious and desperate.” “ shows just how far these people are willing to go. Praveen Kambam, a child, adolescent, and forensic psychiatrist. “The violence really puts an exclamation mark on the human struggle elements,” says Dr. From this perspective, the brutality is almost beside the point - although there likely are some people who do watch for the gore. Although they’re given the option to leave the game at the beginning of the show, they all ultimately return, realizing that scraping by in the real world with no viable way to escape poverty is possibly worse than risking death for a life-altering prize. “Debt makes everybody feel vulnerable and anxious and desperate.”ĭesperation, indeed, is what drives Squid Game’s participants to compete. Grace Jung, a UCLA scholar with a PhD in Cinema and Media Studies, explains that the promised payoff for investments of time and money - from school loans to unpaid internships to mortgages - never comes for lower-income people under a capitalist system. Eric Bender, a child, adolescent, adult, and forensic psychiatrist tells Bustle. Particularly against the backdrop of the last 18 months, “People can identify with feeling like they’re not the ruling class, but the underdog or the downtrodden,” Dr. It’s a clear commentary on how crushing economic inequality and financial instability can be for lower-income people - issues that only have been exacerbated by the global pandemic. If they lose, they die in terrifying and inhumane ways - all while a group of billionaires watch for their own voyeuristic pleasure. If they survive, they win 45.6 billion won (about $38 million). Even middle school readings center around the theme: Lord of the Flies leaves a group of teen boys to rescript the rules of society on an abandoned island in the 1924 short story The Most Dangerous Game, a bored Russian aristocrat hunts a man for fun.Ī drama inspired by South Korean history and politics, Squid Game follows Seong Gi-hun and 455 other debt-ridden participants who are whisked away to an island to play six rounds of basic children’s games. Horror films like Ready or Not, Saw, and Battle Royale follow protagonists who must survive a gauntlet of terror. Dystopian movies like The Hunger Games and Maze Runner pit kids against each other in battle arenas. But it also begs an uncomfortable question: Why are we so obsessed with a show about human suffering?Īt its surface, Squid Game speaks to a long-standing fascination with the idea of gamifying survival.
WHY ARE KAIROSOFT GAMES SO FUN SERIES
It’s easy to see why: The series is superbly acted and visually striking, containing easily recognizable outfits and diabolical plot twists that make it ripe for endless theorizing and memes. 17, the South Korean thriller has become a global phenomenon: Its viewership has increased by 481% in less than a month, and the hashtag #SquidGame has been viewed more than 22.8 billion times on TikTok. It’s also one of Netflix’s most popular shows.
Squid Game is gruesomely violent and emotionally punishing.