New Delhi: Netflix released Squid Game: The Challenge on November 22nd, a reality programme spin-off of the 2021 Emmy Award–winning Korean drama. Although this is a riveting reality TV, some say it might undermine the anti-capitalist themes of the original series.
Unfettered commercialism and soaring popularity inevitably led to Squid Game: The Challenge. Although it serves its purpose, it is a costly filler for those who are patiently waiting for season two of Netflix’s Korean drama. Thanks to certain astute game design decisions and obvious efforts to humanise its characters, it even succeeds in entertaining. The reality competition show Squid Game: The Challenge, based on Hwang Dong Hyuk’s popular Korean drama, is, nevertheless, a superficial and sometimes retrograde parody of the original.
Attention, players: the game begins now. SQUID GAME: THE CHALLENGE is streaming on Netflix! pic.twitter.com/JJTnVygF3W
— Netflix (@netflix) November 22, 2023
It’s time. Squid Game: The Challenge is now streaming! https://t.co/8HDVK7BSQq
— Netflix (@netflix) November 22, 2023
Review
Through its peculiar use of reality TV lingo, the game show brings to life the ideas presented in Dong Hyuk’s K-Drama of capitalism reducing humans to dust. In response to claims that Squid Game: The Challenge is exploitative, a review in Vulture says that the very fact that reality TV is a product of late-stage capitalism serves to further demonstrate the point.
Reviewers admit the programme is exploitative, yet they still can’t get enough of reality TV.
In the first few episodes, the appeal of recording 456 individuals competing for a million dollars becomes immediately clear. Making money off the style of Netflix’s most successful original series to date is a no-brainer. Not to mention that the program’s bad implications may be easily dismissed when critics point out that the game show mimics the brutality. Consequently, there is no need to give the show any thought.
At times, it seems like Squid Game: The Challenge is skimping on the subtlety of these violent occurrences in favour of the usual reality TV melodrama and spectacle.
Squid Game: The Challenge is just a big contest with no real plot or purpose; the only thing that matters is that some random individual won $4.56 million.
Though they are recreations of Squid Game’s more famous games, it is the new features that set them apart. Intergame changes may throw participants off their fragile truce; it will be intriguing to see how coalitions fare when members feel their immediate moves might put others or themselves in danger.
The Squid Game: The Challenge would be the reality programme equivalent of missing the point. The combination of Squid Game’s unique visual style with its unscripted programming verges on indecent taste; instances of violence reminiscent of the popular Korean drama make it seem especially gruesome.
Showing the participants as genuine individuals rather than just contenders told to exaggerate their emotions while they’re on camera helps the programme maintain some credibility with the drama unfolding on television. Watching Squid Game: The Challenge is a good idea, even if it seems pretentious.
Man, don’t listen to these bad reviews about Squid Game: The Challenge…. personally, I’m enjoying the shit out of it so far. Watch it and decide for yourself.
— Jake Iacovetta (@JakeIacovetta) November 23, 2023
Early review of Squid Game the Challenge— SNL skit parodying the original show. The challenge might be to get through the first episode:/ The dramatic fake deaths are brutal. But on the bright side, it reminds me how cool the original is:) We will see.
— Eric Haber (@sheetspwns) November 22, 2023
Don’t read the comments. It only negatively affect your mental hea…😏
So, I read this comment on my Squid Game: The Challenge review. It was about my One Piece review. While I’m glad someone finally realized we’re all diff people, I’m also like “let it go!” 😅🤷🏿 pic.twitter.com/Hbl4AnY1Dn
— Kenneth Seward Jr (@Kennyufg) November 21, 2023
Review: “In a vacuum, Netflix’s #SquidGame: The Challenge’ could have been an OK reality competition show…” https://t.co/Y5yMHUM5Od
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) November 21, 2023
Too much news today to include a review in the newsletter, so it’ll have to wait for later this week, but if you trust my taste even one iota, believe this: SQUID GAME: THE CHALLENGE is fucking incredible. A brilliant psychological experiment. I HATE reality TV but I LOVED this!
— Jeff Sneider (@TheInSneider) November 21, 2023
Squid Game: The Challenge is getting rave reviews – and being called the “most gripping reality TV since The Traitors” https://t.co/DalkbZENHL
— GamesRadar+ (@GamesRadar) November 20, 2023
