If you're a fan of Squid Game, then you've probably heard about Netflix's brand new game show, Squid Game: The Challenge.
The series is inspired by the hit Korean drama and sees 456 real contestants compete in children's games to try and win one of the biggest cash prizes in reality TV history: $4.56 million. The first game of Red Light, Green Light, opens with a player named Starla who asks "who's not in debt?" and references how she dreams to be able to pay off her house and car.
So far, so relatable. But as I watched the heartbreak on her face as she lost in the very first round, I couldn't help but think: has Squid Game: The Challenge kind of missed the point of the original series?
2021's Emmy award-winning Squid Game follows players who are facing financial difficulty and enter the deadly games in the hopes of providing for themselves and their loved ones.
The main character, Seong Gi-Hun, is a gambler who is about to lose contact with his daughter, while series creator Hwang Dong-Hyuk shared that Squid Game was actually inspired by his own experiences of struggling financially.
The series resonated with audiences everywhere, and it still one of Netflix's most successful TV shows. Not just because of how good it is, but because of its powerful, thought-provoking critique of capitalism, class, inequality and exploitation. It summarises the lengths people feel they need to go to in order to be able to provide in a capitalist society, and the power and darkness of financial gain.
While Squid Game: The Challenge is undeniably binge-worthy and puts the likes of Deal or No Deal and The Chase to shame when it comes to gameshow franchises, it's questionable whether it actually entirely misses the point of the original.
Throughout the game show, you see people act poorly towards each other in a bid to increase the prize money (the more people eliminated, the greater the cash reward). This leads to players applauding when others are eliminated, backstabbing each other, and using any means necessary to ensure other players are removed from the competition.
Two players even choose to eliminate another contestant, for no reason other than the fact they can. Considering the show has made no secret of the players' often heart-wrenching reasons for entering The Challenge, paired with the way the platform will be profiting from the show itself, it all feels a bit Black Mirror.
This fact hasn't been lost on viewers on Twitter. "Squid Game being made into a reality show really highlights just how much the point of the drama was missed!" one person wrote, while another alleged, "What I hate about Netflix’s Squid Game: The Challenge isn’t just that producers wilfully ignored the original series' message on abusive capitalism.
"The original series also showed the wealthy entertained by torturing the poor; the new series puts viewers in that position."
Another summarised, "[They] really made a compelling show that critiqued capitalism, sadistic rich people, wealth inequality and the absurdity and inhumanity of reality TV show competitions with Squid Game… only to make an actual reality TV show competition exactly what it was trying to critique."
So, what has Squid Game: The Challenge's executive producer, Tim Harcourt, responded to people who think the show misses the point of the original? Well, he told The Hollywood Reporter that he takes issue "over the notion that Squid Game has just one point".
He continued, "One of the important strands was the capitalist critique. But it's also a critique of how we are ingrained from childhood to be ultra competitive via these childhood games. It's also about how people behave under pressure and that's what makes reality shows interesting.
"Our show isn't about people in need," he continued. "It's about people being presented with an opportunity. So we flip that on its head."
It goes without saying that Squid Game: The Challenge is an entertaining watch. It has all the elements of the game-show-meets-reality-TV format that we know and love, such as relatable characters and dramatic storylines.
We also see how contestants build sincere friendships as the series progresses (which makes episode five all the more heartbreaking) and how some joined the experience more as a challenge for themselves, rather than solely for the money.
But, while there may be more than one point to the original series, I'm more excited for the second season of Squid Game, and could've probably lived without the Inception-esque creation of The Challenge.
Squid Games: The Challenge is streaming on Netflix now.
