The Squid Games Phenomenon – Netflix Strikes Again

Squid Games, the Netflix series that became a cult almost immediately, has been the most viewed in the world for weeks. Even in Italy it immediately became a phenomenon even though it has not yet been translated into Italian and can only be seen with subtitles.

It's a real phenomenon that no one had foreseen except Netflix.
Who has invested a lot of money on this type of series.

SQUID GAMES

Squid Games is a Korean TV series with a simple yet complex plot; a group of men find themselves participating in “games for children” not only to win billions of Korean money, but to survive: the players who arrive last in the “game” are physically eliminated.
In fact Squid Games is translated as “Squid Game” a very well-known children’s game in Korea; but in the TV series various “games” are made including one two three star.

In the end there must be only one winner and the ending is not at all a foregone conclusion.

The series manages to capture the attention of viewers by managing to evolve with each episode, moving from one emotion to another, never banal and never predictable.

The first part of the series takes place in South Korea, following some of the main characters that we will find again in the game: they all have in common the fact that they are full of debts, with dead-end lives and no longer have any purpose: and they are "enlisted" in the game for this very reason, people who have nothing left to lose.

So once they agree to participate in the “game” they wake up in an unknown structure, all dressed the same in a green tracksuit with the player’s number printed on it and without any personal objects.
In fact, once they agree to participate, they are “taken” voluntarily, put to sleep and brought to the facility. There are 456 of them.

Initially the players have no idea of ​​the prize or the type of game they will have to participate in and in fact it almost seems like a school trip with an almost relaxed atmosphere.

After being explained the rules of the game by the staff (men in red overalls and a black mask with geometric symbols such as triangle, square, circle on them), they are taken to the arena where the first game will take place, which is “One two three star!!”.

SQUID GAMES, THE “BEHIND THE SCENES”

The doors close and the game begins, a giant doll near a tree starts counting and suddenly turns around saying “Staraa”: the players remain still but some start to move. And here begins the second part of Squid Games in the sense that it drastically changes the “mood” of the series by plunging into an atmosphere of fear and panic: the players who move are killed by weapons mounted near motion sensors; a real massacre breaks out as the other players also start to run away towards the closed doors and are killed in the same way.

Only a small portion of the players remained standing, paralyzed by fear and by the fact that they did not understand what was happening: no one had understood that whoever lost was killed.

The game continues and almost all of the remaining players manage to pass the test but upon returning to the facility they decide to leave and the staff allows them to vote to establish whether the majority actually wants to end the game.
But first he is shown the prize amounting to billions of Korean money, figures that make many people change their minds about giving up playing.

You vote and the last one to vote, player No. 1, an elderly gentleman decides for everyone: the game is over and you go home.

And here begins the third part of Squid Games, a new evolution in the plot: the players who returned after escaping death find themselves in everyday life with everyday problems and after some reflection almost all of them decide to return to playing as it is the only chance they have to earn enough money to pay off their debts.

There is undoubtedly a reference here to society, not only Korean, which is now double-tied to money, accepting the risk of dying in order to earn money.

Another new evolution of the plot: the players return to the structure (which is understood to be on an island) while at the same time the details of who manages the games begin to be revealed: the staff, like the players, is subjected to strict rules and those who do not respect them are killed; the "Frontman", the organizer of the games also dressed in a mask, appears more and more often; then there is a detective from the Korean Police who manages to infiltrate the staff and other non-marginal details of the series.

Returning to the players, this time they decide to divide into two teams: the first led by a player who in real life was a ruthless and profiteering crime boss, the second team instead brings together Gi-Hun and Sang-woo, two former school friends who find themselves together each for different reasons, the elderly competitor No. 1 and a Pakistani boy who helped Gi-Hun in the first game.

The plot flows through the other games that increasingly put the players in difficulty who, in order to survive, begin to make increasingly difficult choices going against all their principles, which fall one by one.

In the meantime, other important details are discovered such as the identity of the FrontMan until the final challenge which two arrive at: Gi-Hun, Sang-Woo.

The final game is the Squid Game: the two begin the battle which ends with a twist.

Only one participant remains and becomes the winner, who is sent home with even more questions than answers, but with the promised prize.

A year passes and it turns out that the winner was unable to enjoy his winnings: there are too many memories and regrets that occurred during the game to be able to forget them so easily.

Almost at the end of the last episode he is called by a mysterious man who turns out to be the creator of the game; he is dying and before dying he confesses to the winner that he did all this to relive the feeling of freedom and happiness he had as a child when he played.

Thus ends the first season of Squid Games, which, thanks to its particular way of telling the evolutions of the participants and their lives, manages to keep the viewers literally glued to the screen.

It's a new TV series, with a new genre (even if there are films and other series that are focused on "games") but probably the plus is the ability to tell a world within the world without hiding too many elements without revealing everything too soon.