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Why Squid Game is the Most Socially Relevant Narrative of Modern Times
It asks powerful questions without forcing any “right” answers
In under a month of its release on September 17, the Korean thriller Squid Game had already become Netflix’s biggest series ever by reaching 111 million viewers as of October 13.
The show cost $21.4 million to produce — a significant amount for a series that’s only 9-episode long and is largely shot on the same set throughout. Yet, it has already generated nearly $900 million for Netflix in terms of impact value for the platform.
That’s a nearly 40x return in under a month.
What is the reason for the crazy success of this Korean thriller? It isn’t just the blood and gore and the thrill of death that makes the show unmissable, there has to be a deeper thread that connects all its viewers with the core of the show.
After much deliberation and self-restraint around watching yet another “popular” series, I gave in and ended up binge-watching the show over a couple of days (and nights).
What started off as a bloody carnage, soon turned into something that had me asking myself a million questions, and ended leaving me stunned into silence and inward contemplation for a long time.
