Netflix's intensely popular 'Squid Game' is worth the hype - and much deeper than its chilling violence
The Peninsula
Note: This article discusses some plot details from Netflix's "Squid Game," but avoids major spoilers.
When a new series called "Squid Game" popped up on Netflix last month, some social media users assumed it was a new competition reality show. Thankfully, the ultraviolent thriller - in which people participate in children's games with a deadly twist - is purely fictional. But like reality TV, it's a window into how human beings treat each other and what we'll do to succeed or, in this case, what we'll do to survive. And people can't stop talking about it.
In the Korean-language series, written and directed by filmmaker Hwang Dong-hyuk, hundreds of debt-ridden people sign up to compete for billions of South Korean won (roughly $38 million) under mysterious circumstances. One of the players is Seong Gi-hun (Jung-jae Lee), a divorced man who lives with his elderly mother, rarely sees his 10-year-old daughter and, thanks to a gambling problem, owes hundreds of thousands to loan sharks.
